You may have noticed I have been on hiatus.

MIA.

In South Georgia, on a house hunting expedition, as we prepare for our cross country move. We spent eleven days there, and they were jam packed days in which we got little sleep, trudged from house to house for four days in a row, suffered a lot from the three hour time difference and, thankfully, found a house that we absolutely love! Yes! We did it! We found a house!

The home is in great shape but needs some TLC as it was a bank owned property, but here is the view from our backyard! When we get the front yard cleaned up I’ll post a photo of it.

Here is a photo of our girls as we walked along the St Mary’s Historical area downtown.

We are back in So Cal now for seven weeks and then we will begin the next part of our life. It starts with a cross country drive, car loaded down, kids strapped in their seats! Now, that will be one to write about!

So I had a scary run experience while there. I felt fine starting off at 5 AM, one 17 oz bottle of water, one of Gatorade, some bagel in my stomach, a power bar in my pack. My goal: 8 miles.

I felt the humidity as soon as I stepped outside but I was committed to staying hydrated by drinking those two bottles during the run. I started drinking immediately.

About two miles in I met a guy that has run marathons in 42 states. He belongs to the 50 marathons in 50 states club. I have not looked into it yet, as I had no internet access at the condo where we stayed, but as soon as I do I will post some info. It sounds like fun.

Anyway, my stomach began to rumble about 3 miles into the run. I knew I wouldn’t make it the 8. Even the guy who lived in South Carolina said it was hot, so I knew it must be, and I have always had a sensitivity to the heat so I have to be careful when it gets really hot. Yet he had only one bottle of water, I had two bottles of liquid, and I felt prepared.

At mile 6 I told him I couldn’t go any further. I didn’t feel sick, just tired and hot and I really had to go to the bathroom.

And go I did. I won’t go into any gory details, but if you run distances you know what I’m talking about.

I was so hot I stripped down between trips to the toilet and put some water on my head. I ate a bowl of oatmeal, though I felt like puking, and I guzzled large amounts of liquids to replenish myself.

But I couldn’t stop going to the bathroom. Finally I took a cold shower, tried to eat some pretzels, which I could barely swallow, and laid down again.

We had to go house hunting and I didn’t want to miss the three houses that were first, and that were also located near our condo, so I made it down to the car but I told my husband I might not make it much further. He suggested I stay home but I didn’t want to miss it. I felt very tired, and had a hard time keeping my eyes open. Eventually, I came around some. By nighttime I felt fine.

The next day, while walking down the stairs of our new house, I pulled a muscle in my leg.

Let’s just say that the heat and humidity obviously got to me. I was not only overly hot but then I became dehydrated, and the dehydration caused the sickness to get worse and then the muscle pull the next day.

I think of myself as a smart runner. I had already run in that area a few times, so this wasn’t my first run in the humidity, and I didn’t even feel that sick while running; I just had to go to the bathroom.

It scared me so much that I took tentative runs the rest of the time. The muscle pull got better a few days later. I did a three miler and then a four miler before we left. They went fine.

I think part of the problem was that I didn’t hydrate myself as much as i should have the day before I ran. Once we get there I think I will have to make a really conscious effort of drinking tons of liquid the night before a long run in the humidity. I did go for the run at the early morning time I always do, but it was still hot, hot, hot.

Despite that run, and that scare, the rest of the runs were great. I missed having my weights and my exercise ball and particularly my kettlebell! I did my situps and crunches and push ups but they just didn’t feel the same! I’m glad to be back home with all of my tools. The condo didn’t have a great yoga place either. My new house: Perfect! I can do it right in the living room overlooking the marsh. I can’t wait!

I hope everyone has been healthy and having fun and having good runs. I have some weight to make up. I lost about four pounds, and I’m sure that part of that was how sick I got. I need to get that weight back on, so chocolate, here I come! Today I did a nine miler, and it was great. It was cool here, with some mist over the ocean. It’s going to be hard to leave this weather behind, the coolness of the early mornings, but I can’t wait to get to where we are going, either!

Happy Running!

I was thinking this morning about the fact that many of the fastest women in races are in my age category – over 30.

I was wondering about the readers here who are running longer distances – at least 10K races, if not halfs and fulls.

How long were you a runner before you began doing distances?

I started running about 12 years ago. I started off with 5Ks. I did some longer runs for a while, but when I started going too far too fast and got hurt I stopped, and I didn’t pick up longer distances until after the birth of my first daughter.

After her birth and before my second daughter blessed our lives I miscarried. Not only was it a bad emotional experience, but it was a bad physical one as well that left me in the hospital overnight and in bed for quite a few days. I almost required a blood transfusion. The fear on my husband’s face that first night stopped me cold, as he is so strong that I always rely on him to hold me up when I am scared.

A few weeks later, numb and recovering, I started running again.

Four months following the miscarriage, after having not run at all during the two month pregnancy, I finished my first half marathon.

The rest, as they say, is history.

It took about ten years for me to decide that my casual jogging was actually more than that.

How long did it take you to go from your first jog to your first endurance race?

And what do you think pushed you to do so?

In Lance Armstrongs book that i just read, It’s Not About the Bike, he talks about how endurance athletes generally have gone through something and are running (figuratively) from something.

Maybe this is how it starts. We have a bad experience and then we run, run, run. Or ride, ride, ride.

Do you know what propelled you forward? Was it a life changing event, or was it just the next gradual step from running a 5K?

I’d love to hear your thoughts and your reasonings. We all have those very long times on the pavement when we can think, and so I’m sure that these thoughts have, at some point in training, crossed your mind. If you’d like to share, we’d like to read!

Oh! Today’s long run was horrid!

This rarely happens for me. I really love my distance runs. When I have a bad run, it’s typically mid week when I’m tired.

I think I might be fighting something. I have an ulcer on my lip, which is generally an indication that a virus has invaded my body. I never get sick-you know, puking, sneezing, coughing. It’ s a joke around here about how strong my immunity is to various things that my kids and husband pick up. Actually, my oldest daughter has an immune system like mine. But I do get ulcers.

I’ve also been dead tired these past two days. In fact, I didn’t train as hard this week, dropping my biking and swimming routine on Thursday and just keeping the twenty minutes, speed run with some ab work.

When I woke this morning after eight hours of sleep I knew it was going to be a dreaded run. In fact, I thought maybe I”d just do a few miles.

I did end up at eight, which was just one mile less than I wanted to run. My runs these past Saturdays have been:

9
9
11

Then today was 8.

Next week I hope to do 13, and then we will be traveling for a few weeks so I’ll do a shorter, maybe 8 miler again, and then maybe a 10 before my 15.

I actually hit a wall today, which never really happens for me. I put on my headphones right into the run, about a mile in, when normally that would come much, much later. I like to spend those first forty five minutes to an hour just thinking about things, and I can’t think when the music is blaring. But the music made the run more tolerable.

I turned around at four miles, just after stepping onto the beach, and headed home.

I have to figure out if I am fighting something or if I am not getting enough calories. So I’m going to start tracking my weight now, since I’m climbing up the mileage scale. I have a tendency to lose weight, to become over thin. I know that some people will read that and say, “Oh gees, let’s get out the violins,” but actually it is a problem. I don’t like to be too gaunt. I prefer a little meat on the bones. But when I get up in mileage, the meat sheds pretty quickly. I love to eat, so it’s not that I don’t put enough in, but perhaps i need to pick some higher fat choices this time around.

Today’s weight: 134.6 after breakfast. Now, yesterday’s weight was 135 pre-food, so I ate oatmeal with bananas and honey and a piece of toast for breakfast. Before my run, thinking I might go out and do the 13 today, I had half a bagel (well, half of a half) and then halfway into the run I had a gel pack.

I hate it that a long run turned crappy like that. I like to think back on those long runs and realize how much I enjoy getting out into the world, in the quiet of my mind, and just experiencing things.

Hopefully, next week’s thirteen will be much better!

It’s funny, but long distance running has taught me one thing: To listen to my body.

It’s not that I didn’t listen before. I did.

I just didn’t react.

Here’s a scenario. My knee hurt. I was running a few times a week a few miles at a time. I was addicted to running, having traded it in long ago for my one a day pack of cigarettes. I didn’t want to falter. So I didn’t slow down. Kept running. Hurt the knee. Out for quite some time.

Fast forward to when I began training for a marathon. My knee hurt. I cut back. Knee pain went away.

You see the difference?

I have always listened to my body. I have always heard what it had to say. However, now I finally have put two things together: If it hurts and I don’t take care of it, I don’t have it anymore. Or, at least, it doesn’t work as well as it did.

When training for a long run, I’ve become acutely aware of everything that is going on in my body. I can tell when I’m hungry long before the hunger pains strike. In fact, I eat now in advance. I eat when I wake up, before I get out of the door, on mornings when I’m running over an hour. If I’m going past one and a half hours I not only eat before I leave but I also take my preemptive slug of gel around forty five minutes so I won’t burn out at mile 13.

If my feet hurt when I am done with a run, I rest them. I put the tight shoes away and pull on the sneakers.

Now, when my body tells me something, I listen.

I’ve also gotten better at hearing what it has to say, which I think is because I am more in tune with my body when I’m out there going 12, 14, 16 miles at a time. I can feel my neck growing stiff from holding my arms at my sides, so I stretch them. I stop during a long run when my knee begins to twinge a bit and I stretch my legs out so it won’t hurt when I am done. I am so much more in tune to how I feel, to what my body feels, and to what will happen if I don’t care for myself, than I ever was.

Of course, this is mostly selfish on my part, I suppose. I don’t want to hurt myself so badly that I can’t get back out there and run again. If I hurt my knee, I won’t make the marathon. If I don’t eat, I’ll not have enough energy to kick it into high gear at the end of the race-whether I am racing others or just the clock.

How has long distance helped you relate to your body? Do you feel what it tells you more than you used to, and do you listen?

I love long distance running.

I’ve said this before and I’ll say this over and over again. I just love the days that I get up early, load up my pack and head out into the early dawn-sometimes pre-dawn-day.

Today I spent my time thinking about so many different things and I made some discoveries on this run.

First, I discovered, or rediscovered, the vividness of everything after a long run. Does this happen to you? The sky, when blue, is the bluest it has every been. The green of leaves on the tree outside are so bright green it’s almost unbelievable. I know these things are always these colors, right? But why does everything seem so much brighter, so much more alive, when you finish an 11 miler?

Secondly, the body is an amazing machine. Seriously. You can train it to do almost anything you want it to do. I mean, you can run 26.2 miles or more! You just have to train. I thought of my body today as I ran, the way that it met that last marathon challenge and the way that I hope it meets this one. How is it that my feet can pound the pavement that long and still carry me around the rest of the day? That my arms can remain in the same position for 2 hours and not remain sore after the run? It is so true, that if we treat our bodies well, they will treat us well, and since we have to live in this shell for (hopefully) a really long time, I think its in our best interest to be kind to our body!

Thirdly, our minds are even more amazing than our bodies. It is our mind that says, “Okay, I’ve been running now for an hour and a half. I’m hot. I’m sweaty. I want something to eat-like a side of beef and a dozen eggs-but I’m gonna keep on going for a bit longer. When we train our minds to think positive thoughts, positive thoughts will follow. Don’t believe me? Train for a marathon. You can’t run 26.2 if you spend the entire time getting down on yourself, thinking you can’t do it.

The beautiful thing is this: If you train your mind to run long distances, you can train your mind to do anything. If you can stand the silence of being alone for this long of a time, you can do whatever it is that you want to do. I have yet to meet a runner with a negative attitude about life. Have you? Most runners really appreciate everything around them. I think that we learn to do this through our running, particularly in the distances, because we spend so much time training ourselves to think positively. We can make the finish line. We can do that last four mile stint before we get home. We can climb that obnoxious hill that suddenly jumped out in front of us.

I made one other startling discovery on this run. As I ran down the beach I stopped at a line of public restrooms to use the bathroom (damn long runs-that is the ONE negative thing I can say about them-I can’t get through them without having to GO!) I pushed the first few doors. Two were locked, and then the third swung open but stopped short. I looked down and saw a body on the floor. Yep, a body. Was it dead? I don’t know. I screamed, turned, and ran. I looked back and was not being followed. The door hadn’t reopened. Being alone and female, I was not about to go back and see if that guy was okay (and it was a guy, I think, from the state of the blue jeans). Instead, I hurried on. Living in a beach community, it’s not abnormal to find someone passed out somewhere along the beach. Thankfully it was daylight and there were other runners around, so I felt pretty safe. I couldn’t find someone to tell about the body though, as there weren’t any county workers or police there yet. So, I don’t know what happened to that guy, but I can tell you he scared the living daylights out of me this morning!

We all know how just one little thing can change the course of our lives forever.

One moment. One instant. One second.

The same goes with training. I recall training for my first marathon, the Surf City, and during a house cleaning episode I ran my very large, very heavy chair over my big toe, which immediately swelled. I thought for sure I had broken it. I called my mom crying. I had trained so hard.

Luckily, the toe ended up being fine.

Fast forward to this morning. I was cleaning again and, as most of you know, training for the Long Beach marathon. The phone rang. I sprinted towards it, praying it was my husband.

It was.

You see, we’ve been waiting for some news about a new job, in a new state, clear across the country.

Our family is all on the east coast; we are on the west. We love it here. California offers so much to those who enjoy fitness and health.

On the other hand, if you moved here right as the housing market boomed and you didn’t buy, you are out. A median home costs $600K in our neighborhood. We like our neighborhood, but the homes for this price are old and mostly need updating. At $600K we would be breaking the banks and then have work to do.

This relocation meant a few things. First, we’d be closer to family. Second, we’d be able to afford a house. Third, we are gypsies at heart, my husband and I. We enjoy going new places, exploring new territories. The thought of ’settling’ down’ kind of terrifies us.

So we have had our fingers crossed. And the call came.

He got the job!

We are moving. Not only that, we are doing so in just three short months. Two weeks after the Long Beach Marathon. I hadn’t signed up for it yet knowing what might happen. Now it looks like I won’t.

I could, I suppose. However, I’m going to be so busy with packing and moving arrangements that I don’t want to put an added stress on what will be a hectic few months.

Instead, I’m going to run the Disney Marathon in January. I signed up yesterday, after hearing about our move. My family lives fairly close, so we could make it a family weekend and I could do the race. I’d love to do one where my mom is at the finish line. When she had her stroke in December, I ran my first marathon in February for her.

Now, maybe the next time she can be waiting at the finish line along with the rest of my family.

The really cool thing: When we found out he got the job, my mom was in an airplane on the way to visit us for a week. She got off of the airplane and after telling me about the trip, I asked her this: Next time you come out, do you want to fly nonstop or would you prefer to do it this way again, with a stop in between?

Mom: I guess with the stop.

Me: Oh, well, it doesn’t matter anyway. This is your last visit to California anyway.

My mom broke down in tears.

Life changes so fast. We have been in California for six years. I’ve enjoyed the time here, but I am glad to be moving on.

So, on to my running and my personal certification training. I’m going to do that marathon in january and get the certification and begin a mommy boot camp class in Georgia, where we will be living. I can’t find anything like it in that area and it has been something I’ve wanted to do for quite some time.

And for my running, I know it will be different. It will be humid there, and I’m used to running in the dry heat. It will be less traffic (the town is fairly small) and I can’t wait to not dodge lights and cars who don’t look before pulling out of a shopping center.

I will keep you posted on the training during the move.

Life is going to be hectic, but then it is already.

You just gotta keep running through!

Today I began the full three events-swim, bike and run-at the gym.

I started off with a 1,000 meter swim. Not bad, as I did it first and was glad that I did because the pool was open with only one other swimmer. The swim was a good one and I realized something funny during it: While I love swimming, I loathe biking, but only at the gym. I have a feeling if I were working out outside, swimming would be tough in the ocean or lakes because I’d be concerned about whatever was below the surface and biking would be great because I’d actually be going somewhere!

Swim: 1000 meters/40 laps; approx. 29 minutes. I stopped a few times to listen for the paging system, in case my youngest needed to leave childcare! I want to do this entire swim next week without stopping, and I’d like a better way to time myself. I know that I did the first 250 meters in about 5 1/2 minutes without stopping; after that, it’s a guess.

The transition was easy: I shed my suit, put on my running clothes and headed upstairs. I did a five mile bike ride. The other day when riding I stood up after and had a really sharp pain in my calf muscle. I made sure that night and the next day after my run that I stretched the hell out of it. It felt better today; no sharp pain. I took it easy on the levels though just in case. I have to do a 11 mile run on Saturday and don’t want any odd pains to stand in my way!

Bike Ride: 5 miles (like 5.2 or something) in 15 minutes.

I then stepped onto the treadmill, glad to see my legs held me up. This is only the second time I have biked and then run after. I’m sure when I get going a little farther on the bike, the run after will be more tough.

I did 2 miles and averaged just 9:30 min miles. I really wanted it to be closer to 9, and I did get down to 8:40 min miles a few times, but not enough.

The entire workout took about 65 minutes. I got done feeling great but really, really hungry! I had started off this morning with a cup of coffee, a hard boiled egg and a banana before the workout. I have a feeling if I go much longer than the sixty-five minutes I’m going to need to eat something during, or take one of my gel packs that I use on long runs.

I realized something about the bike: I need to practice. I don’t enjoy biking. I love to swim and run, so I want to do these two, and I don’t want to increase the bike because I don’t enjoy it. I think if I were outside, again, I would, but inside I just don’t.

So, with shower and all I was at the gym for about an hour and a half. The girls, of course, did fine in daycare, though I was feeling a bit guilty by the amount of time it took. And I know that when I get to doing some longer bikes and runs it will take even longer. However, I think I will cap myself at a certain point before this triathlon. I have to check and see again how long the distances are, but I think the run is only four miles, which isn’t too bad.

Completing all three of those today really made me feel great! I am feeling a bit more confident, like the triathlon won’t be unattainable, especially if I start small.

A question for all of my tri friends; How far are you going in training before a race? Do you try out the entire length first? Or, like a marathon, only go to a certain point in training and push it a bit farther on race day?