I got out early this morning-5 am sharp-and ran down to the ocean, up half a mile, back half a mile and then back home again. I completed 8 miles in about 85 minutes. Would like to cut that down to 80 minutes, 10 minute miles, so I can have about 9 something in the race but who knows. I’m just glad I got back out!

It was a perfectly cool morning, no smoke in the air. I was really hungry and ate my gel pack a little early in, around 45 minutes. I stopped a few times when my toes began to tingle, only at red lights though, and stretched, and then I worked on stretching them and running with a different gait throughout the run. They didn’t go completely numb, which was good, but they did hurt.

Last night I filled out my race plan. I have 14 weeks before the marathon! I will do 11 on Saturday, 13 next Saturday, and work up to 20. I will also begin swimming this week at the gym. My plan is to increase my longer middle of the week run to 6-8 miles before the race. I’m at about 4 now. I’ll keep two, 3 mile runs during the week; on those days I will go to the gym and swim after, and possibly do some biking as well. I don’t want to do anything too strenuous or different at this point, with the marathon just a few months away. The last thing I need is an injury!

I’ve been compiling a list of music that I want to have during the race. Some songs include:
YMCA, anything by Everclear, some Green Day, and some upbeat tunes from the 80s, like I will walk 500 miles . .  they played that at the start of the Long Beach half, and it really got me going.

Now, need to work. It was a good run. Glad to be back out doing a longer one!

So I showed up at the gym on Saturday morning, excited to try out the treadmill. Imagine my dismay when the door was locked. I was two hours early. Should have read the hours.

I came home and took a quick twenty five minute run around my neighborhood and ended up with a stuffy nose. not a good idea.

They say another few days and the air will be better. Right now it looks great, smells ok, but is filled with fine particles that are supposed to do quite a bit of damage to the lungs. So, for now I have to try a different approach.

I’m  going to bed early tonight, getting up even earlier than normal tomorrow and getting to the gym by 5. That’s my plan. Then I can run for at least an hour and a half, or about 9 miles. Though I need to do 11, this isn’t going to happen.

Another bad thing: The pain in my forefront is getting worse, even when I go for short runs. I suppose I do have something going on with that area, perhaps a nerve issue, because when I run for too long my toes end up numb. Now it just hurts on short runs as well, which it didn’t use to do. So, going to make a call to my podiatrist tomorrow and try to get in to see him. Hopefully he will not tell me that I can’ t run!

I am off to do some research on triathalons. I think once the marathon is over in February I will try to do one of these. I can begin the swim training now. I’d like to run the San Diego rock and roll marathon in June, though, if this first marathon goes well. We’ll see. Hopefully the toes will hold up,the air will clear and by next Saturday I’ll be back on track with my long runs. I have to say that I miss them!

Guess  I should have read the gym hours. The ones that said the weekdays they open at 4:30; the weekends, 7 AM.

This morning I showed up loaded with my goods only to be turned away by two locked doors.

I did a short run outside. By the end my nose was clogged up. Not good to run outside when the air is not healthy, but if I don’t have a good run soon I’m gonna explode. I can feel it in my body, the ’stuff’ that wants to pour out of my pores – I really need to get out and purge LOL.

Doesn’t sound scary now does it?!

I wanted to run on that treadmill for as long as I could run this morning. I hate treadmill running but it has been two weeks tomorrow since my half marathon and in that time I’ve only had one longer run, which was last Friday, 8 miles. I’m goung to have to start all over again if I don’t get out and do a long one soon.  Besides, my body got used to running distances and now these half hour runs just aren’t cutting it.

I need a good 10 miler.

So here’s my plan: take tomorrow off and head to the gym bright and early on Monday morning. Run 8 miles on the treadmill if I can make it. Then, next Saturday (that’s a week from today! a whole week!) do an 11 miler. The following week, 13.

I can’t be too depressed about this. Other people have lost their homes. Those runners won’t be running for a while.

It’s just tough when you want to get out there and you can’t.

In other news, I’ve decided to try mat pilates at the gym on Wednesday. Going to put my two daughters in the day care and see how that goes. I’m hoping that my one daughter will soothe my second daughter.  I’m sure I’ll get called out to leave early, with my youngest screaming uncontrollably. But, you never know. And if this works out, maybe I can even take that ultimate body boot camp class!

Happy running, mothers. I hope to get out there with you one day really soon.

So I’m not a treadmill runner. I get so bored running in the same spot forever, or so it seems. Tomorrow is my long run, too, which means I should spend several hours on the treadmill. I’ve packed up some magazines and books but still don’t think I’ll make it past eight miles.

The good news, though, is that I will have access to a pool once I get done! I’m looking forward to diving into the cool water. I’ve been thinking that if this gym thing works out, and the marathon goes well, perhaps I’ll train for a triathalon since I’ll have pool access when I join the gym.  Don’t think I can do a complete tri, but maybe a partial.

I took a tour of the gym today. It’s nice, a gym located just a few miles from my house.  I would have access to the pool, fitness classes like yoga and pilates (which I typically do at home, minus the yoga class I’m taking now at a local senior center lol!) as well as racquetball courts and kiddy day care. Not that my infant would stay in the daycare. I’m sure she would scream forever. At least until they pulled me from the treadmill and pushed me out the front door! But I have to get her used to someone else at some point, right? I mean, she’s almost a year now, and when I leave the room she screams unless my husband is there.

So we’ll see how the gym thing goes. It’s only thirty bucks a month. I’d be able to use the treadmills when I needed, though I do intend to get back out on the pavement next weekend when the skies clear up some,  and I could go to some classes. I’d like to try an ultimate body boot camp type class. I’ve been copywriting for one program, Ultimate Body Boot Camp in Phoenix, and it sounds so fun and intense that I’m dying to try it.

So, I’ll report back and let you know how the treadmill running goes! I figure if it is only one day I can hang. I’ll watch tv, listen to music, read my magazines and remember that in just a few more miles I”ll get to jump into that Olympic sized pool!

Have a great run this weekend, moms!

So I’ve never been a gym rat. I joined a gym quite a few years ago and enjoyed it-this was before I started running-but the gym went belly up and after that I just never rejoined.

The wildfires have created a running dilemma. I’ve run the past two mornings through the ash and haze, but I don’t want to continue doing so. Afterwards my nose burns and I know my lungs must be feeling the same.

With a 11-13 mile run coming up this weekend, I have to figure something out.

The answer came in the form of a coupon special for a local gym.

Now, this gym has it all: swimming pool, yoga, pilates, treadmills and so forth. I already pay thirty bucks a month for yoga classes and I do all of my pilates and ab work on my living room floor, though I would certainly love to do it in a gym with a qualified instructor.

And they offer childcare for an additional small fee!

I’m off tomorrow to check it out. I can do a seven day pass for free and see how it goes

The problem is that I hate treadmill running. I always feel like it takes twice as long to run my regular distance. I get bored. I like being outside, in the fresh air, roaming dark streets in the middle of the morning, before the sun comes up.

Now I might be up before the sun, but pounding my feet against the treadmill.

Perhaps they have a television there. I never get to watch television any longer, now that I have two young children.

Maybe this treadmill training won’t be so bad!

And once the moon is no longer orange, I can return to pounding the pavement on the streets.

I’ll let you know how my tour goes, and my Saturday morning long run on the treadmill.

We are in a sad state here in Southern California. If you haven’t heard, and how could you not, fires have destroyed homes and caused people to leave behind their possessions or chance dying trying to save them.

Our skies are orange, it is extremely hot and things don’t seem to be getting that much better. The winds have died down some, but the fires continue on. Outside it looks as though the end of the world could be coming at any time. It is that eerie silence, that orange sky, the ash falling down on our cars.

I am glued to the television, feeling so sad for the people who have lost possessions. I can’t imagine losing my home as these people have. Imagine, the pictures, the memorabilia, the necessities that we all take for granted.

I’d say that it sucks running in the smoky air, but you know what? It doesn’t suck nearly as much as it could. I’m lucky. I have to breathe in the dirty air for half an hour or forty five minutes but I get to go home, to my home, and take a shower in my shower, and wear my clothes and look at my pictures.

Today’s post isn’t about the sucky runs. Instead, it is about remembering all of the people who are fighting these fires, from the firemen to those living through the destruction.

I’m putting together a plan to raise items for children birth to eighteen through my company. I’m hoping to set up a few drop boxes around the city, collect the items over the next month and then deliver them all to the Red Cross. I’ll start making phone calls tomorrow to local businesses and churches to see if this is possible.

It is important to me that I help for several reasons. For one, I want my daughters to understand the importance of giving back to the community and to those that are less fortunate. Tonight we made brownies for the firefighters down the street, and my daughter drew a card, which we will deliver tomorrow.

It’s also important that as a business owner I support my community.  As a business owner I have resources that individuals don’t have, such as connections with other business owners who might be able to lend a hand, and so I know it is my place to help those who have been so beaten down these last few days.

So while my runs are not looking good this week-and I’m not sure how I’ll do that 11-13 miles on Saturday with the air as bad as it is-my days and nights certainly look a lot better than those that many other people are facing.  And for that reason, I can’t complain about sucking in a little ash when I run.

Keep everyone in Southern California in your minds, and do what you can to help support the people who have lost their homes.

So I am halfway to my 26.2 mile goal. I’ve done the one 13 miler and plan to do 11 – 13 this weekend, Saturday, and then definitely begin at 13 the following weekend and build from there.

In the meantime, I am swamped with work right now. I’m completing 4 websites, a copy job, a logo and my other regular articles for Body Philosophy, All Business, Families, Style Chicago and Today’s BusinessMom (Shew, typing that out was about as long as my days are!)

And of course I am staying up until midnight to work, then waking at 5 to run.

I’m wondering just how much sleep I really need to train for this race!

I read in a training manual that when training for a marathon the runner should have about 7-8 hours per night. Ha! I have gotten more than five hours in a row one night, which was during our vacation this past weekend, and only because my infant was sick and slept the night through-from 7-7.

I was so rested that I was tired the rest of the day!

I talked to my husband about this. I asked him if he felt tired when he got more sleep and he said yes. I think our bodies learn to survive on minimum sleep and then we overdrug ourselves by sleeping longer than normal.

I have a lot of work to do tonight. My 4 1/2 mile run is in the morning.  Will be interesting to see just how much sleep I get tonight and how the run goes.

But I know I’m not alone. I don’t know one mother that averages 7-8 hours of sleep per night!

Maybe I’ll call myself Sleepy Mama Marathoner. I’ll run the race in my PJs. Everyone would understand!

Happy Running Marathon Moms!