My Treadmill is My Most Prized Possession

February 2011

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Location:

Provo,UT,USA

Member Since:

Oct 04, 2008

Gender:

Female

Goal Type:

Boston Qualifier

Running Accomplishments:

8 Marathons completed; PR of 3:29.  Hoping to run Boston in next few years if I can ever register before the dang thing fills (have missed the last 2 years because of this).

Short-Term Running Goals:

Hoping to re-qualify for Boston sometime in 2011.  Hoping to hit marathon #10 in 2011.

Long-Term Running Goals:

Run 100 marathons in my lifetime and live to tell the tale.

Personal:

Married.  2 daughters.  Have a love/hate relationship with running.  Hate the first 3 miles of EVERY run without fail and grumble the whole time.  Feel okay during 3-6.  Love 6+ and LOVE how I feel when I am done (like I can take on the world and then some!). 

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Miles:This week: 0.00 Month: 0.00 Year: 0.00
Total Distance
161.00
Total Distance
5.00

Felt much better today/less sore.  Not sure if it was the Aleve I took last night or the pound of chocolate marshmallow cookies I consumed by myself at 11:00 p.m. while watching the Bachelor and feeing ridiculosuly self-indulgent for doing so (husband has been gone and/or out of town for almost a week now so I needed a serious go-crazy night---the good news is that you apparently can't die from overdosing on chocholate; the bad news is that there are still 4 more cookies downstairs calling my name).  As it is a new month, I am ramping it up from a starting pace of 6.6 to 6.7 (did 6.6 in January, did 6.5 in December), to hopefully help with the speed.  Also found out today that I am NOT pregnant (which is a big sigh of relief because I have a marathon in 8 weeks).  Silly, I know.  But its been seriously stressing me out because I didn't want to miss another marathon 8 weeks out (the EXACT same time I found out I was pregnant with Izzy a few years ago--right after a 17 mile run with Luz; it would have been TOO ironic).  Anyway, Scott is coming home late tonight after flying to Utah for job interviews.  Hopefully will hear on jobs this week.  Hopefully they will NOT want a start date before April 15 or I will have to either (a) miss the D.C. marathon or (b) have to convince my husband to fly me out to D.C. weeks after we spend all of our money moving our stuff across the country AGAIN for the second time in one year.  All of these things are not really related to running, but at the same time are all related to running as running is my number one hobby, past-time, focus, and sanity-saver thus all events that might interfere with running and marathons are potential issues that must be considered. 

Comments(3)
Total Distance
8.00

Watched Dan in Real Life.  Started at 6.7 and bumped up every 10 minutes until finish.  Solid run.

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Total Distance
5.00

Was pathetically dragging this morning but as soon as I got on the treadmill and got going things were fine and worked through it like a machine.  Hope this means my body is getting in good marathon shape even if my mind isn't there at all.  How does one train for mental tenacity/focus?  Not sure I have it in me these days.

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Total Distance
8.00

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Total Distance
18.00

18 miles in 9:20s on a treadmill takes a long time.  I am still feeling in a "machine-like" state in pounding out the miles and feeling great afterwards, so hopefully this means my training is going well.

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Total Distance
5.00

Once again, physically a machine-like painless run.  Mentally I whined for about 30 minutes in my head before getting on the dang treadmill.  Had a phone interview for pretty much my dream part-time/teaching job at 12:00 and was stressed all morning about it every time I thought about it--like sick to my stomach stressed.  Was SO grateful for the 45 minutes of running and not-thinking about it--just calm, relaxed doing my thing.  So, to the running gods or whoever invented running or treadmills or to the divine heavens for the fact that I have legs that work and knees that haven't gone out on me yet--THANK YOU!!!

Comments(6)
Total Distance
5.00

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Total Distance
5.00

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Total Distance
2.00

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Total Distance
8.00

Watched a friends 3 year-old twins today then am hosting my sister and her 3 little boys all weekend; just happy to get the run done today...not sure when my 13 is going to get done this weekend.  Good luck to me!  And hope you all have lovely Saturday morning runs...Cath

Comments(2)
Total Distance
13.00

Miraculously got my run done today.  I watched the 5 kids so my sister could run her 6 miles, then she watched the kids so I could run my 13.  Ran it in 1:53, which I think is about 8:40s or 8:45s which was probably a little fast for my long run, but I was feeling guilty about running that long when my sister was watching 5 kids downstairs (my husband is on-call and working all weekend) so my last 2 miles were actually done in 7:30s.  All in all, felt really good, just wish the run was done in less-stressful circumstances (kids ran in and out intermittently and I had to take a few quick breaks to help them out), but such is the life of a young marathoning mom.  Hey, it may not have been pretty, but I am just grateful I got it done.  Next week have all 5 kids straight while sister is in Spain.  Good luck to me in getting any running done (let alone the 20 miles scheduled for next weekend).

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Total Distance
8.00

Happy to get my longer midweek run out of the way; praying I can find time this week to get the others done.  Hoping to hear on job for Scott tomorrow---AAAH!

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Total Distance
5.00

Just happy to get it done today.

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Total Distance
5.00

5 miles in 42 minutes starting at a 6.7 and going up every 5 minutes to 7.3 then up .1 every minute for the last mile (my MO of late).  Felt fine; happy to get the run done with all the kids here.  Plus I forgot to say yesterday that Scott gave me not flowers, chocolates, or jewelry for Valentines, but an official registration for the Utah Valley Marathon.  What can I say?  This man knows me very well.  Everyone at work gave him a really hard time about it, but he kept telling them that is what I wanted and he was 100% right.  Hey, I gave him a KitchenAid Commerical Grade for our 9th Anniversary and he thought it was pretty much the awesomest gift of all time.  Love that we give each other "us" gifts rather than just going with defaults.  So now I have about 8-9 weeks until Washington D.C. then Utah Valley in June which, CRAZY, is only about 4 months away.  Then will hopefully pick up St. George or an alternate in the fall. Would love to do Park City again but can't commit to Park City and St. George (Scott and I have agreed to limit ourselves to 3 big races per year to save on weekends, kids, training, cost, and sanity) and am sure Park City will fill before we find out about St. George.  Anyway, those are my new racing plans as of today.  Sounds like a fun summer to me.

Comments(3)
Total Distance
5.00

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Total Distance
2.00

Cross training day walking at increasing inclines on the treadmill up to a 12.0.

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Total Distance
12.00

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Total Distance
5.00

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Total Distance
5.00

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Total Distance
5.00

Things have been a little crazy around here as of late so I am just glad at this point to be entering my mileage even if I add no fun comments.  Last week I survived 5 children under the age of 7 including an 8 month old baby with double ear infections who is very cute, but was only happy if he was sleeping, eating, or held.  Needless to say, I have made the determination that I am not cut-out for a large family or perhaps even a family of over 2 children.  I am way to OCD and prefer my house clean, organized, quiet, and under control at all times (none of which was happening last week).  I was very happy to do it for my sister, who is always helping me out and really needed a getaway with her husband, and overall the kids were actually great even though the baby was slightly high maitnenance, but it was just the sheer numbers or rather the sheer out-numbering.  Scott and I ate out every single night without exaggeration (no way I was cooking for 7 after long day alone with all the kids) and everywhere we went people just stared and counted as I had baby on hip, Scott had Izzy on hip, I am holding hand of 4 year old and Scott is holding hands of 2 6 year-olds connected together--3 boys, 2 girls.  And since Scott and I look like we are about 24 and 26 respectively, I am sure they were thinking, "Holy crap, have you ever heard of birth control?  Seriously people!"  I am sure the Utah license plates didn't help the situation as we re-inforced every stereo-type people have ever had about Utah Mormons.  Awesome.  Anyway, good experience for a week and very glad it isn't my life.  AMAZED at women who hold down the fort with large numbers of children.  Seriously, they are made out of something different--something much more resilient, less obsessive, more balanced.  So proud of myself for getting the runs down (and of the kids for watching Sesame Street everyday for an hour and the baby for napping) and for Scott-champion of the universe--who watched all 5 kids on Saturday so I could do 12 miles (it wasn't the 20 that was scheduled, but hey, sometimes I am sure even Hal has to make exceptions).  Anyway, this week Scott is out of town AGAIN for another interview in Utah that is tomorrow morning.  This dang job process has been going since January 1 and I am really hoping that this week or next he (a) has a job and (b) we have a moving date.  In good news, since he does not yet have a job it is highly unlikely that we will be moving before D.C. so I am getting excited for me and Luzylew to do that together.  Well, its 11:00 and I need to go watch some dumb TV and eat some brownies in order to feel that I have accomplished and finished the day off right.  Signing off for now.

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Total Distance
2.00

Cross-training day walking up to 12.0 incline, total of 30 minutes. Woke up feeling like crap having gotten the cold Izzy has had all week.  With Scott out of town and both my kids sick--Madie with stomach flu and Izzy with cold/croup, I was bound to catch one of the two and am grateful I got the cold.  Dragged all day then had visiting teachers come at 8:30 and stay until about 10:00, then I puttered around until 11:20 when I finally got on the treadmill and had some nice relaxation time for the day whilst watching BBC's Pride and Prejudice, which has been my viewing for the past several days (I wish there were more 6 mini-series shows like this as running long distances on the treadmill is much less depressing when you don't have to watch 2 or 3 movies).

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Total Distance
8.00

AP of 8:30s and happy to get it done since I am still feeling a little under the weather and since Izzy was up at 12:30 and came and slept in my bed then Madie woke up at 2:30 because of this massive thunderstorm at which point everyone ended up in my bed and none of us got back to bed until about 4:00.  Enjoyed watching another hour of Pride and Prejudice and wish it could just go on and on I so love watching Jane Austen.  Scott interviewed yesterday with a job that he really, really, really wants so that has been kind of stressing us out all week but they said they would decide and call today so now I am just waiting for my phone to ring to hear the yes or no from Scott.  All in all, a decent run with only a few interruptions from Izzy for Sesame Street and bathroom issues but I can't complain since she is so good to let me get a solid 70 minutes of exercise in.  Scott still gone tomorrow so will have to get my 12 done somehow...I am usual pretty anti-TV and have a no TV at all during the week rule for my kids but I must say, this marathon training go around with Scott being gone so much Sesame Street has been my saving grace.  Hopefully the 1 hour a day of educational Big Bird is not doing the kids too much long-term damage; I figure that the mental stability the running provides their mother is hopefully worth whatever brain-deadness they are experience while watching PBS as I run...

Comments(1)
Total Distance
12.00

AP 9:00.  Last mile: 8:10.  Woke up feeling terribly again especially after a long night with Izzy who woke up several times and at one point was up for about an hour crying about her hurting ear and missing her daddy.  Sick kids while sick with no husband is no fun.  Anyway, this morning I was trying to figure out when/how to do my run when I saw that Izzy's tongue was white, so of course self-diagnose both her and I with strep throat.  I swear I instantly felt about 10 times worse knowing how "serious" our condition was and figured a medical waiver from my long run was in order.  About an hour later, my mentally imposed suddenly very sickly self felt still sluggish and kind of crappy but figured I really wasn't sick enough to cop out on the run so with Madeline at a birthday party I set Izzy up to watch a Barbie movie (figuring that being 2 and all and sick its the best way to keep her down and relaxing anyway, right?) and pounded out the 12 miles on my treadmill while finishing up BBCs Pride and Prejudice then watching the "extra features" which turned out to be highly disappointing (I like the in-depth interviews with all the cast and at least 2 hours of extra features as this prolongs the duration of films that I watch on the treadmill).  Am now out of Gatorade and had to drink water throughout, so when I was done stopped by the gas station for Gatorade and chocolate milk (running staples of course), and am glad to say I finished it respectably, though now I have the inevitable post-running desire/justified feeling that I should be able to sit on my couch and eat ridiculous amounts of dove chocolates for the rest of the night.  Not really sure 12 miles qualifies for this feeling, since it hardly seems like a "long run."  Aaah, where did the good old days go when 6 was long, 8 was impressive, and anythinng over 10 was a huge accomplishment?  Crazy marathon freaks.

Comments(5)
Total Distance
5.00

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Total Distance
161.00
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