february 2010

february: the month of no m&m's. for a short month, it sure seemed long at times, but i successfully made it all 28 days without indulging. i won't be whipping up m&m pancakes tomorrow morning as marlene suggested (though they do sound delicious), but i guarantee you the streak will end. i do have a few packs from a co-worker from throughout february as well as the large bag from beth to put away. while i successfully went m&m free, i overly-enjoyed other forms of chocolate instead. after i treat myself to some m&m's, i'm going to enforce a new chocolate rule on myself - one that i still have to figure out. nothing extreme, just something to keep the chocolate intake under control.

week in review (2/15 - 2/21):
total miles: 36.45 (avg temp 31.3* f)
time spent running: ~ 4 hours 55 minutes
avg hr: 167.67
avg pace: 8:32/mile
off days: 3, three! blah

not a great week, but i did pr in the 10-mile (by default).

week in review (2/22 - 2/28):
total miles: 52.86 (avg temp 33.8* f)
time spent running: ~ 7 hours 29 minutes
avg hr: 162.33
avg pace: 8:34/mile
off days: 1

finally! a week worth claiming as marathon training (sorta... no real long run and no speed work). i got up for three successful morning workouts - 2 runs, 1 strength training. it was the first time i did any sort of strength training in close to two years, so i spent the rest of the week with serious doms, walking around like i had stick up my butt. i'm trying to get over the mental barrier of getting up at 4am for a short run. it's not that early... right? now that the olympics are over maybe i'll get in bed before 11, which should help with waking up for a 4:30 run. i've been taking naps during lunch to help compensate for my big 5-hours of sleep. my long run was 'only' 14.7 miles for the week, but i ran with these guys for a sub-8:00/pace for most of it until i had to uh, utilize the facilities and they left me.

hmm trending? january weekly mileage: 41, 36, 38, 50. february weekly mileage: 43, 44, 36, 52. apparently i can only make myself crest 50 when i realize it's the last week of the month.

february 2010
total mileage: 177.36
time spent running: 24:54:22
avg pace: 8:36/mile
days off: 8
avg resting hr: not measured
avg max hr: 179.89

not running related...
i recently did some online shopping at delias. in case anyone shops there in the next week - feel free use code "DAC2" to get $10 off $75 or more. real convenient how they email you coupon codes after you place an order...

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out to pasture

i've wondered before if the disney half marathon of '09 was the peak of my running "career". i ran the green valley 10-mile race this past saturday at furman university, home of the "first" training plan some of you follow. i was hoping for a solid threshold run and at 'worst' a gmp (goal marathon pace) run. either way, it was my first time racing the distance so a pr was in the bag. i definitely thought i could at least hold previously-proven hmp (half marathon pace) since 10 is less than 13.1, but in reality i ended up too slow for threshold, too fast for gmp, and slower than hmp. what the crap. as with thursday's mile repeats, i'm fairly satisfied knowing i was pushing myself and running hard. it was a hilly course, and even more so when i remind myself i've been stuck on the treadmill/not-as-hilly outdoor runs for the past few months. (maybe it was also the mcdonald's pre-race breakfast?) it did leave me a little disheartened, but at least i'm not beating myself up about my race expectations vs. results like i used to.

saturday (2/20) am race: 10 miles, 1:13:20 (avg pace 7:20), 45*
11th place female, 1st place ag

on a brighter note i was able to go home to sunny, 63* south carolina for the weekend. i was spoiled by the weather and a showering of gifts. it was like my birthday, except not.

not long ago i won a giveaway from my dear friend b.o.b at discombobulated running - i think it's safe to say i am well stocked up on m&m's for march 1st. so close i can almost taste them! anyway i was the lucky recipient of her secret bump-free hair removal product as well as a turbo snake. b.o.b has some hair issues, but i love her all the same. josh wasted no time helping himself to the peanut m&m's, and the dum-dum's have been magical at keeping me awake during those dull afternoon hours at work. thanks girl, and good luck at the "gorilla" marathon! :)

new running shoes! (ok, these were a gift to myself)

some "fruit" from josh - a total surprise!

and some "vegetables" from josh - not so much a surprise :)

after saturday's race i came down with a cold, and didn't get to actually enjoy much of the beautiful weather. i was too busy being half-asleep on the couch, watching movies and stuffing a tissue box up my nose. i took sunday off (resulting in craptacular mileage for the week) and felt 100% again by monday. does anyone else get a cold after racing/running hard?

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temporary outage

i'm experiencing technical difficulties with the internet at the apartment actually working (consistently, and with more bits per second than dial-up). as you may imagine, it puts a bit of a damper on blogging and catching up with all of you.

so for now, i'll leave you with this gem from a 10-mile race over the weekend.

thunder thighs!

*please note the sunlight, shorts, and lack of snow on the ground. i was clearly not in kentucky! :o)

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my inner ohno

today i ran 10 miles before the sun went down! ok, well "sun" is used loosely as it doesn't shine lately, but you know what i mean. i got a head start on my run 'cause i left work early to take my car back to the tire shop and make sure everything was ok after monday's triple salchow into the ditch. i definitely miss working "regular" hours so i can run at a time other than 6:30-7:30ish pm! i think that's another part of my blah-feelings -- not being able to get my runs done earlier in the day. anyway, the tire guys said everything looked ok. seeing my tire skids in daylight was eye-opening - had i spun off one yard sooner i would've crashed into a rock wall/fence; had i spun off ten feet sooner i would have hit a big metal drain pipe.

i was scheduled to do mile repeats yesterday today. knowing i had extra daylight, i ran over to the high school track. i forgot that all this snow/ice falls on the track too, and the home stretch was about ankle deep with snow and a nice coating of slippery ice underneath (speed skating anyone?); the back stretch was of course windy. i could probably come up with plenty of excuses, but the fact of the matter is these repeats were way off from the last time i did them about a month ago. what's up with that? it was definitely a challenge to continue pushing it after glancing down and seeing my pace so far off from what i've done before. i forced myself to press on, saying that at least i was working hard.

wednesday (2/17) pm run: 10 miles, 1:18:27 (avg pace 7:51), 30* (heat wave)

january 3xmile: 6:31, 6:33, 6:31 (avg 6:32)
february 3xmile: 6:43, 6:49, 6:53 (avg 6:48)

lastly people - go check out run black girl run and give her some lovin'. she just so happens to be giving away a $20 i-tunes gift card....

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chasing dale earnhardt

surprise! it snowed again last night/this morning. (hoo.ray.) it was very windy, so i think any pre-treatment attempts by the road crews were pretty much blown away and the roads were not in great shape this morning. i am fairly certain of this because i careened off the side of the road on the way to work this morning. i swiveled and swerved and ended up spinning a 180 off the right-side of the road, driver's side first. thank goodness there weren't any on-coming cars at the time, as i would have created quite the pile up. so far there doesn't seem to be anything leaking from underneath the car and hopefully it stays that way. i'd prefer not to fix a cracked oil pan or anything right now. i swear i wasn't speeding - it's hard to anyway in the area where i went off-roading.

oh and those new tires? as i got close to work i noticed i was having to steer to the right to keep the car going straight... *you have to be kidding me* i thought. sure enough, when i got to work, the front driver's side tire was going flat again! $&#$)@% the guys at work put some air in and it seems to be holding, so i think it just lost some air in all the jostling/off-roading.

kentucky - 5, me - 0

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feeling flat

another pretty successful week in the books. i have to admit, i'm not totally excited about boston. i know i know, that's probably a cardinal sin. i'm sure this dreary winter isn't helping. it freakin' snows every weekend. i swear it's warmer in canada than it is here in kentucky.

speaking of kentucky, i think it hates me. first there was the deer, then i locked my keys in the car* and now...

i noticed i had a flat tire when i got to work thursday. i thought it maybe looked funny when i left the apartment but it was dark and i had parked in snow so i assumed it was just snow around the tire. when i got to work i noticed that it was definitely rather low on air.

thankfully i work on a construction site with lots of beefy men and an abundance of tools. in no time at all we (meaning: not me) had the tire filled with air and found the culprit - a piece of wire (picked up on the jobsite i'm sure). after a brief lecture on safety (apparently it's not recommended to plug a front tire) one of the guys plugged it for me temporarily and i bought new tires saturday. cha-ching. why can't there be a president's day sale on tires?

minor sidetrack there, back to running. i got in my three important runs for the week (2 quality, 1 long) so when i didn't feel like running sunday (in the snow, again) i didn't feel bad about taking the day off. monday's threshold was 6mi @ 7:10 avg pace and thursday's 6x800 @ 3:17 avg. saturday i got in 17.1mi @ 8:30 avg in snow flurries of course. since this is the fifth week in a row of two rest days it looks like i need to go ahead and plan for two instead of one. or again, maybe it's just the crappy winterness.

 yip. e.

week in review (2/8 - 2/14):
total miles: 44.55 (avg temp 22.6* f)
time spent running: ~ 6 hours 10 minutes
avg hr: 162.00
avg pace: 8:27/mile
off days: 2

the tinnitus (or whatever it is) hasn't gotten better - it's been two weeks now. at first it was in both ears, and now it's only in my left. sometimes it feels like it's full of sand, although i suppose i don't really know what an earful of sand feels like. it still doesn't hurt though, i'm just going deaf/auto-tuning everything. any suggestions from my medical-field friends out there?

i'm 14 days m&m free; half-way there. (i got dove dark chocolate hearts for v-day instead)

*yes, locking my keys in the car is entirely kentucky's fault. if it would get above 20* ever i wouldn't have to warm up my car.

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webster's dictionary

oh boy here i go sending the wrong impressions again. guess my sarcasm didn't translate very well, so let me define a few things from my previous post:

"sponsorship" - (n). an offer from a co-worker to pay for my travels to boston. he seemed serious but it's weird to me and i don't really get why he'd pay. i asked what i would have to do for this sponsorship and he said "just run, i won't make you wear a shirt with the company logo on it or anything". we'll see if he ever brings it up again; i'm not going to ask.

"coach" - (n). another co-worker, drunk at the time (after all this was at a post-work party), who overheard the boston conversation and decided to lecture me on the five brownies i may or may not have eaten earlier that day (remember they were bite-sized, it wasn't that bad). he told me i need to run more and that he's going to start making me train in the warehouse - i guess i'll do some world's strongest man type stuff and toss oil barrels, flip tires, etc. (again, sarcasm)

sorry it's not quite as exciting as you hoped!

this week is off to a much better start compared to the last and yes, i am still m&m free (9 days). knowing i probably won't be able to run thursday, i switched things up in hopes of staying strong and enforcing both quality days this week. i got in 9.25 miles with 6 threshold on monday and have some lovely 800's on tap for wednesday.

i've been having what i assume is tinnitus for a little over a week now (ringing/roaring in the ear). at first it was in both ears but now it seems to only be in my left ear. it's kind of like having your own personal t-pain adapter, everything is auto-tuned.

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many of us are shivering and buried in snow right now, so why not warm up with thoughts of labor day weekend in the fun and sun? register for the va beach rnr half marathon by 2/23/10 and save $10 on registration with the code "TAKETEN". you'll also receive a commemorative 10th anniversary tee for free.

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oh spring, where art thou

this week was a pretty crappy effort on my part as i came up quite a bit short on my planned mileage. i salvaged the week with 43 miles, but it took some cramming because i logged a total of 4.5 miles through wednesday... i was off to a very slow start, but i whipped out 13 miles thursday evening in 1:42 (6mi threshold, 1mi gmp).

friday was yet another 0 mile day due to a b-day party for a co-worker. originally i said i'd leave at 6:30 to go run, but i'm awkward/felt bad leaving early and ended up hanging out longer/ditching the run :( sigh. i did get a "sponsorship" offer to pay for my travels to boston and a "coach" who told me i needed to run extra miles for the brownies i ate at work (they were cut up into bite size pieces so all the calories fell out i say.)

i got in a 15-mile long run on saturday morning. it was cold, windy, and snowing yet again. no accumulation thankfully, but it's annoying to have snow hitting your face the whole time. i headed out later in the afternoon for another ~5 miles, and wrapped up the weekend with a short 6+ mid-day sunday. i debated going long-ish again, but decided to accept a shorter mileage week and rest up so i can crack the whip on myself in the new week.

week in review (2/1 - 2/7):
total miles: 43.50 (avg temp 32.4* f)
time spent running: ~ 6 hours 18 minutes
avg hr: 161.25
avg pace: 8:51/mile
off days: 2, technically

for the record i am holding strong against m&m's so far. 7 days down, 21 to go...

last week i was tagged by alissa and jill in the "beautiful blogger" award circulating the internet. they must need to get their eyes checked. i'm going to skip the acceptance speech and jump straight to the 7 random/"interesting" things about myself. i'm also supposed to tag 7 more people but everyone is beautiful so play along if you wish.

1. i recently learned that dry counties still exist. i'm not big on drinking anyway, but it would be a two-hour round trip drive to get booze here in kentucky. they're big on their bourbon, but apparently you have to live outside of kentucky to buy it.
2. i had a pillow (named "brownie", 'cause it was brown) that went everywhere with me when i was little. i accidentally left it at the beach one summer and my parents refused to call the house-rental company to get it back (must be why i was so rebellious as a teenager...). eventually (/later that year) i became attached to a new pillow which has shrunk substantially, but i still sleep with it every night. so what if i'm 25.
3. i have no idea what i want to do with my life (/for work). any suggestions? with food allergies, i think i'd like to somehow work in the realm of food-safety/control/labeling or something, but i have no idea how to get into that.
4. i used to be a lot more outgoing. i had some (health) crap go on in '04, got worse in '06-07, and i just don't feel like the same person anymore.
5. i keep saying i want to learn another language but i haven't actively pursued it yet. anyone had success with rosetta stone?
6. i originally memorized the wrong social security number. this was only during high school/early college so i don't think it really matters. i wasn't exactly making big bucks at the photo shop or robbing banks.
7. my godsister is on jersey shore. my mom facebooked her mom and apparently they are still "getting used to the show". there may or may not be fist-pump dancing at my wedding. i gotta practice some more first.

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administrative business

i've been noticing my readership stats growing recently - hi! and thanks! i've also been a little behind on catching up with everyone lately, but i am slowly getting there.

if you are following me and i'm not following you - please let me know! i don't want to have overlooked any of the newer folks out there (i try to keep it all straight but i know i'm not perfect).

also, new or old, shoot me an email (lindsay@chasingthekenyans.com) so that i have yours for future conversations (if i don't already). your email address will not be sold to any nigerian bankers or anything, i just tend to reply to comments via email.

thanks people!

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january 2010

looking back, time has flown! i can't believe we are a full month into 2010 already. if you asked me on any given day in january i'm sure i would've whined about how much longer i have to be in kentucky. heck, i am pretty sure i will still whine if you ask me in february :) (i miss home, what can i say).


week in review (1/25 - 1/31):
total miles: 50.85 (avg temp 27* f)
time spent running: ~ 7 hours 25 minutes
avg hr: 163.50
avg pace: 8:44/mile
off days: 2

again with the two days off... but i managed to (finally) get in 50 miles so i'm down with that. i even did abs three times! the workouts didn't quite go as planned, my 5-mile tempo run was cut down to 2 and thursday-saturday was just a jumble, but it was an ok week i guess. after slogging thru the snow on saturday, i got in a 17 mile long run on sunday in south carolina (in shorts!).

i ended up buying a flight home since the weekend snowstorm purposely dumped snow specifically on my route home (all the white and purple). most of the drive was probably fine... but the mountains of north carolina got 11+ inches and they don't keep as big of an inventory in snow-removal-equipment down south. i didn't want to get stuck (again) so i took the plunge and flew out saturday after my snowy run. apparently i look like the taliban because i was patted down on both legs of the trip.

january 2010
total mileage: 180.05
time spent running: 26:09:26
avg pace: 8:42/mile
days off: 7
avg resting hr: not measured
avg max hr: 180.28

i only got in two long runs for the month - 15.75 and 17.10. the other two weekends were a little crazy with my typical traveling and i was a little lazy, but i still got in 10-12 miles on those weekend "long" runs (so not totally a bum). i also ate entirely too m&m's and if i'm gonna make any progress in losing my 10-15 lbs for the year i need to have a little more discipline. step 1: no m&m's in february. thank god this is a short month!

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