Please Don't Let Them Take Me, Too

My office sounds like the triage area in a plague movie.

There’s the guy down the hall who hacks these full-body cough-and-snorts at least 1-2 times a minute (I was keeping a tally). No wonder my nerves are shot! And with the students back, a chorus of sickly coughs rings constantly throughout the building.

I think I may be the only person who has not yet been sick.

Now I’m wondering whether the hint of chest cold I feel is really something or just my typical dose of hypochondria.

Despite the threat, I went swimming late in the workday for a mere 2,100 yards:

• 500 yards free
• 5 x 200 yards alt. IM and free
• 500 yards free
• 100 yards free warm down

My energy was lagging (between the snowstorm and still-problematic sleep patterns), but my primary excuse for cutting the swim short was time. Of course. But for an excellent reason: I gave myself a good 40 minutes in the pool before I had to head home to take Neil out for his birthday dinner! And he was very grateful for all of the birthday wishes. Thanks to everyone!

It was fairly easy to take a running rest today. Not only was it too cold to walk to and from my car in the nearby parking lot at work, the track at the rec. center was packed with ROTC folks again. And we all know what happens when ROTC and I coincide.

But I swore that place off last month anyway. I’m an outside runner now! (My goodness was it easier to say that earlier this week!)

Less than a month from today, I will be in Portland becoming a bigger Web nerd than I am at the be-a-bigger-Web-nerd-than-you-already-are conference. Rumor has it, however, that Portland is swell and has plentiful running terrain.

I’m actually looking forward very much to the running possibilities and to hunting down the home offices of Tin House, one of the best short fiction publishers of all time. Hey, we all have our vices.

And, finally, as an example of my mental running health, I have slipped into second place in my Nike challenge (someone new logged 21 miles this morning) and I didn't even think about running today.

OK, I did think about it. But I didn't have my shoes.

Happy Birthday to Neil!

It broke my heart to realize a few weeks ago that Neil’s birthday was going to fall on the one night during the week on which I have a class until 9 p.m. But that’s why you must celebrate the week o’birthday. And weeklong-celebrate we shall.

I can’t divulge too much about the week’s presents and plans (you know, in case he’s out there reading too), but I picked up a month’s supply of burrito cards from Chipotle after work today. And it really made me realize another reason why I love this running thing: freedom.

If you had told me a year ago to run the 3-mile roundtrip from the rec. center to Chipotle, my response would essentially have been, psshaw! No, I wouldn’t have preferred to drive, but I would have promised you I could never run that far and didn’t have time to walk it.

But today I booked it across campus after work, got in a brief run, picked up a gift that keeps giving for the man, and had enough time to wash up and get to class. No wasted gas, no wasted time. Just the freedom of having my workout and letting Neil eat his burritos too.

The trip took me about 10 minutes there, 10 minutes back (and almost as long waiting in line—what kind of idiot goes to a college-area Chipotle at 5 p.m.?), which is approximately the same time it would have taken to drive with all the traffic, bad drivers and poorly timed lights in the area. Not to mention the parking!

The only downside was that godforsaken weather: 30 degrees, seriously? For the first time ever I was underdressed. It wasn’t that bad with only a t-shirt and fleece, but my gloveless hands were really biting it. And I had just taken my gloves out of my bag and put them in the closet for the season. Gaffe after gaffe today, I’m telling you!

So, while today’s run put my April mileage at 18.57 miles (that’s 7.13 miles ahead of my nearest competitor—something tells me, however, that someone’s going to log all of their 300 miles on one day and give me the boot!), tomorrow and Friday will return my focus to swimming. It seems like forever since I last swam—although it was only last Sunday.

It will be a lunchtime swim, so I won’t expect a repeat of Sunday’s 5,000 yards. But a girl can aim high and dream. Who knows: perhaps Flipper will be there.

Increasing my frequency in running has really made me feel better while I’m running. It used to take me much more time to a) warm up to the idea of going for a run and b) warm up during the run. While I’ll do all this talk about kicking challengers’ butts, I assure you that I am my top competition.

Sometimes to trash talk with myself gets a little confusing, but it works out in the end.

I’m totally digging the process of becoming a better runner and seeing the fruits of my training, hard work and everyone’s great advice and even better support.

Getting My Vitamin D

Can you believe the beautiful day? It must have topped out close to 80 degrees in the NEOhio this afternoon, and, despite some uber-wind, was the nicest day this year.

So nice, in fact, that I ran 6.13 miles during lunch and maintained my lead in my Nike challenge.

Some people may think I have a problem with my competitiveness with respect to these challenges. And if I were a liar, I would say you were wrong. But, really: what’s so bad about a little teeth gnashing and hard work to outrun a bunch of strangers I’ll never ever meet? Not much, I say.

Counting today’s run, I am up to 15.57 miles for the month of April, which is more than half of my original January goal!

But I do understand the concept of resting. I wanted to take advantage of these past beautiful days before disasters like Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday set in (forecast: 20s and 30s with that snow stuff!). Perhaps I’ll have a chance to snowboard yet this season.

Worry not: I'm making up my swimming days on Thursday and Friday (maybe even Saturday?).

And hope is finally in sight: I have less than four weeks left in the semester. I’m really looking forward to being able to focus on my training with a full week’s worth of lunch hours… and then I’ll work on my thesis this summer at home.

Another Shining Moment

Sure, I lost my NCAA bracket this year, but I ran 6.31 miles this evening like it was nothing.

Sigh. Remember the days when I would book home to blog about running four miles outside? I think that was in February.

I set out this evening to just get in a couple miles: the anxiety of being in sixth place on my Nike+ challenge was making me itch. So, I thought I could add a few miles and inch my way toward the top. But the luxury of improvement is hitting three miles and not even noticing it. In fact, I only turned toward home when I noticed the amount of time I had run (I had to get back to start dinner, homework, and game-watching).

And as usual, I got lost on my run, but this time it was in a residential neighborhood where I felt less terrified of strange people and animals creeping out from the wetlands. Plus, I had the sun setting in the west to guide me home.

Georgetown may not have won the NCAA championship and Neil may have won my office’s bracket pool, but I am topping my Nike+ challenge right now with 9.43 miles in the month of April. And that’s really all that matters to me right now. That and watching this year’s “One Shining Moment.”

4.6K by Water, 5K by Land

Sure, I felt great on Saturday after that 12-mile run. But between the eight-hour class and Georgetown busting my bracket, it made for a perfect day of rest. It wasn’t all downtime, however: I visited my mom in Euclid where we ate too much food and took the dogs for a walk. It always startles me now when I realize how much colder it is lakefront during early spring. Good thing I always over dress.

Nevertheless, I woke up this morning ready to swim. The energy was there but, no, I didn’t try to bike it this time. I did, however, swim to the tune of 5,000 yards, my longest post-competition swim yet:

• 4 x 500 yards free
• 500 yards kick (200 fly, 200 free, 100 breaststroke kick)
• 10 x 200 yards alt. free and IM
• 100 yards warm down
• 400 yards yeah, right: as if I would stop at 4,600 yards free

That's right: I did a warm down and then swam another 400 yards. I took off my goggles after the last 100 yards and lifted myself half way out of the pool before I dropped back in, slapped my goggles back on and just swam the final 400. Maybe I'm too obsessive compulsive?

By the time I calculated that I was just another 400 yards from swimming 3 miles, I already had shampoo in my hair. I was (this) close to going back, but I didn’t think the rec. people would dig the suds in the pool. Maybe they would have. Who knows?

And just as Joe was talking about runner’s high, I came home with some serious swimmer’s high. So, I strapped on my shoes and went for a 5K run—I figured it only made sense with the nearly 5K swim. (Truth is that I always forget that I’m swimming yards—I’ve been used to swimming meters—and the match-up would have been fun. Maybe a little sad, but still fun.)

I’m taking part in two Nike+ challenges this month—one for the fastest 3K and another for most miles in April. I’m in fifth right now for miles and was cursing myself for having run my 12 miles two days before the start of April! But I have calmed down my far-too-competitive side and figured I’ll just have to do it again!

And those 12 miles will help for the Cleveland 10-miler, which is coming up in less than four weeks.