Archive for the 'Around Town' Category
This week Carol was out of town and she invited me to substitute for her in her Monday/Wednesday women’s running program. I’m inspired, as you may guess, by women (like many in Carol’s classes) who push past their inner barriers and take up running as adults (or renew their commitment to it). This quarter, in fact, I had the privilege of writing about some of the women in Carol’s programs in Adventures Northwest magazine (for an online version of my first ever ANW article many moons ago, see this!). Pick up the current issue on news stands around Whatcom County now to read about how Carol inspires us all to do our best and make our running more effective.
This week I got the chance to directly cheer on Carol’s program participants along with my own workouts.
Sunday: Wow, I can’t even remember what I did on Sunday. My guess is that it was a slow three mile run (that tells you how busy this week has been).
Monday: Speed work. 25 minutes of running one lap hard on the track followed by a half lap of slow recovery.
Tuesday: Just a slow walk.
Wednesday: Pace work. 25 minutes of running two laps at a 10K pace and one lap of recovery. Because I was coaching and timing others, my workouts consisted of warm-ups and cool downs in both the morning and evening classes and two sets of drills, core exercises and stretches. I did about a hundred lunges, which made me super sore.
Thursday: Seven miles with friends (thanks Janna and Bill).
Friday: Three slow miles.
Saturday: I plan to do 14 or 15 miles–feeling ready to get beyond the half marathon distance for my long run. I’m considering doing the Vancouver Marathon on May 5, so I really need to ramp up to get ready.
This week has also been a remarkable week for me because my new book has shown up in bookstores, and we’ve had some media interest. I find book promotion fascinating but hard and have been especially grateful for my commitment to running this week. I want to give a huge shout out and thanks to those of you who have wished me well this week. Especially to my running pals who understand how running keeps us grounded: Thanks.
Oh, and also thanks to whoever arranged for the sunshine this week! It was amazing and uplifting to see the sky. I understand we’re in for a sunny weekend in the Northwest. Happy Easter to those of you who celebrate. You’ll have a great day for egg hunts.
Happy Friday! A big thanks to those of you who have commented regularly on my training updates. I’ve never really blogged about my training process before and it’s fun to hear about your workouts as I’m going along with mine.
This week I’m moving my long run to Sunday because we’ve got company (more on that in a moment). So, quickly, here’s the training for this week:
Sunday: 3 slow miles
Monday: Speed work. After a warm up, Carol’s group did 25 minutes of “ins and outs” (running hard on the straight part of the track and slowing down to bring the heart rate back to normal on the curved part of the track). Carol ran with me and really pushed me on the straights. I was sore on Tuesday.
Tuesday: Off
Wednesday: Pace work. This week I did two-mile repeats (two of them) with two minutes rest between. My goal was to run each of the 4 miles at my 9:30 pace, but I started out too fast. My first mile was about 9:20. I say “about” because my Garmin funked out on me and stopped measuring my pace for the first mile, but I’m starting to get the feel of the different paces. The second mile I definitely ran at a 9:31 pace. Miles 3 and 4 were slower: 9:54 and 9:47, respectively. Carol had encouraged me to slow down a bit from my one-mile repeats, even at the beginning of this workout. She was wanting to make sure I don’t go out too fast (which I did) and that I finish strong (which I didn’t). This is my last pace run before the 10K Smelt Run in La Conner next Saturday, so we’ll see how it goes! Even the pace I did on Wednesday would get me in under an hour (my goal) for my 10K next weekend.
Thursday: 3 slow miles.
Friday: 4 slow miles.
Saturday: I’ll be walking the “Two For the Road” with my pal, Sharon.
Sunday (I know it’s the start of next week, technically): Long run at Birch Bay–maybe 10 to 12 miles.
Marathon Man Comes to Visit:
So, aside from my training this week, the other exciting thing we’ve had going on is that Bill and I have been hosting an international visitor. Trent Morrow, otherwise known as Marathon Man, is here in the States working on his goal to break/shatter/smash/take down the world record to run the most marathons in one year. To complete this quest, he’ll have to run at least 160 marathons in 2013 (that’s right, if you do the math it comes out to 3.08 marathons per week). We are home base for him these last few days as he gets ready for the Woolley Runs (Saturday), the Birch Bay Marathon (Sunday), and the President’s Day Footrace (Monday).
Trent is working hard to find sponsors and welcomes conversation with folks who can share local knowledge with him in the cities he’ll be visiting. See his site for his tentative itinerary. As you can see (below), he spent his Valentine’s Day with two lovely Bellingham ladies and a container of chocolate ice cream. What could be better?
If you’d like to follow Trent on his journey (or contribute to his cause, offer him lodging, tweet him with encouragements, or suggest a sponsor), you can find him on Facebook and Twitter. And stay tuned right here for an interview with him in the coming weeks. We’ve been delighted to have the chance to get to know him.
Don’t Forget
And one more thing, since you’re here. This is the weekend (Saturday and Sunday) you can download our 26.2 Life Lessons: Helping You Keep Pace with the Marathon of Life on your Kindle or Kindle app. Spread the word. The more the merrier!
Yesterday I was scheduled to have lunch with a friend at a little soup and bread cafe about three miles from my house. I was busy throughout the morning, scurrying around to get work and laundry done, cramming in bits of writing here and there between phone calls, wondering how I would get my run in. I’m not training for anything specific, so four miles would do the trick, but when…?
It dawned on me that I could RUN to meet my friend and have her drive me home after lunch (as I said, I was swamped, or I might have decided to run back home too). I mean, I’ve got two good, functional legs; there isn’t any reason they can’t be my transportation from here to there! So that’s what I did.
I took the long way to add on an extra mile and I met my friend at 1pm for soup. As I jogged along, I thought about my dear grandmother. She’s having surgery today to replace a hip that is nothing but bone on bone. For months I’ve watched her labor and moan as she stands up, watched her propel herself forward with her walker by sheer force of will. And more than once I’ve put my palms on my own hips and thanked them for working properly–for now.
I’m not sure how I’ll manage to re-work my identity if and when there comes a day that one or more of my joints give out. It’ll be hard. For now, I want to remember to tell my body how much I appreciate the fact that it’s doing what I ask it to do. It’s not perfect (e.g., muffin top, dangling skin on arms, etc.), but it does everything I need it to do and I because of that, I try never to criticize it.
If you think of it, send my gram good wishes today at 10am. We’re hoping this new hip will get her back to bargain hunting in second hand stores.
I’m still a little under the weather, but limping along this week. This time of year is always a little hard (see my recent Psychology Today post on Running Away from the Holiday Blues) with the holidays and weather and the short days, but throwing this cold in the mix has worn me out. Seems like a cold is all it is, though, so… Rest and wait.
In the meantime, I’ve had plenty of time at my computer to work on various projects:
My new book, Beyond Belief: The Secret Lives of Women in Extreme Religion will be out in April. Susan and I got our “first pages” last week and I used my down time Monday to finish proofreading the draft.
NaNoWriMo is over and I enjoyed every minute of it. I spent some of my tea-sipping days this week reading through the round robin novels my writer friends and I created last month. Check out TAKE ONE and TAKE TWO of No Rest For the Wicked. They are deliciously hilarious.
I’ve also had the chance to do some additional brainstorming and scheming with my friends Carol Frazey and Rose Sporty Diva Coates. We’re cooking up some workshops and races to offer in 2013. Check out Running 4 Our Lives for more information and stay tuned.
And last, but not least, I’ve spearheaded my next writing/editing project, an anthology of women writing about how their writing has changed their sense of who they are. (Check out camiostman.net for details or to learn how to submit something.)
So, even though I’ve been low in energy, it turns out there’s a lot you can do from a sitting position. Who knew?
Even so, I’m hoping my nose will stop running this weekend and my legs will get back to it. Thanks to all of you who sent me your remedies and cures. I’m sure they helped me cut this bug short!
Every year Bill and I get tickets to attend the touring Banff Film Festival here in Bellingham. The 2012 event was just this last Tuesday. And as usual, it was an edge-of-your-seat blast.
We saw 10 films, starting with the Gimp Monkeys (a film about the first all-disabled ascent of Yosemite’s El Capitan) and ending with Honnold 3.0 (young Alex up to his old tricks with a new twist).
I always come out of of the theater with a bit of a headache from holding my breath. I also come away inspired. Although I’ve got no desire to climb Half Dome without ropes or to build a bike ramp in my backyard, I can’t get over the guts and insanity of the athletes in these films, and I can’t help but want to be like them, if in some small way.
If you haven’t ever attended a showing of the world tour of award winning films from the Banff Film Festival, you should–seriously! You’ll walk away with a headache and feeling like a risk-averse couch potato, but it’ll be worth it.
Here’s where you can find the schedule.