Much to my shock, I am already ahead of schedule this week. I did 9 miles on Monday, 6 miles on Wednesday, and 10 miles today. I had a great run today since it was the first time that Elliott and I busted out the jogging stroller in months. I recently bought a small portable speaker for my mp3 player so Elliott and I both spent the run listening (at least while he was awake) to the Cars movie soundtrack. I often wonder what the fine residents of Freeland think of us. For those of you who follow my Facebook status updates, my concern that his lack of napping at home will lead to the demise of my ultrarunning career was unfounded. He won't nap at home, but the jogging stroller had him sleeping after 10 minutes. On top of that, when he woke up after mile 8 he insisted that we keep running. I only quit after 10 miles because I hadn't anticipated a very long run and had neither water nor energy gels (I also don't want to risk injury by ramping up too quickly after time off). The little guy was upset that the run was over! I mean he was crying tears disappointed! Now if that isn't motivation to up the mileage I don't know what is.
Friday, January 23, 2009
Plans for 2009
Okay, so the last month was a "recovery" month, albeit an unintentional one. I've been feeling a bit adrift and unmotivated without a goal for this year so I've decided to go ahead and pick one. So the official plan for 2009 is to run the Burning River 100 miler on August 1. It's held in Northeast Ohio and takes place before classes start so the logistics should be easier to manage than Haliburton last year. The heat factor is a bit of a concern as is the fact that I'm planning on being in China and Tibet for a couple weeks in June, but it would not be fun if it was easy. You can check out my training schedule below as well as a few area races I would like to complete along the way.
Much to my shock, I am already ahead of schedule this week. I did 9 miles on Monday, 6 miles on Wednesday, and 10 miles today. I had a great run today since it was the first time that Elliott and I busted out the jogging stroller in months. I recently bought a small portable speaker for my mp3 player so Elliott and I both spent the run listening (at least while he was awake) to the Cars movie soundtrack. I often wonder what the fine residents of Freeland think of us. For those of you who follow my Facebook status updates, my concern that his lack of napping at home will lead to the demise of my ultrarunning career was unfounded. He won't nap at home, but the jogging stroller had him sleeping after 10 minutes. On top of that, when he woke up after mile 8 he insisted that we keep running. I only quit after 10 miles because I hadn't anticipated a very long run and had neither water nor energy gels (I also don't want to risk injury by ramping up too quickly after time off). The little guy was upset that the run was over! I mean he was crying tears disappointed! Now if that isn't motivation to up the mileage I don't know what is.
Much to my shock, I am already ahead of schedule this week. I did 9 miles on Monday, 6 miles on Wednesday, and 10 miles today. I had a great run today since it was the first time that Elliott and I busted out the jogging stroller in months. I recently bought a small portable speaker for my mp3 player so Elliott and I both spent the run listening (at least while he was awake) to the Cars movie soundtrack. I often wonder what the fine residents of Freeland think of us. For those of you who follow my Facebook status updates, my concern that his lack of napping at home will lead to the demise of my ultrarunning career was unfounded. He won't nap at home, but the jogging stroller had him sleeping after 10 minutes. On top of that, when he woke up after mile 8 he insisted that we keep running. I only quit after 10 miles because I hadn't anticipated a very long run and had neither water nor energy gels (I also don't want to risk injury by ramping up too quickly after time off). The little guy was upset that the run was over! I mean he was crying tears disappointed! Now if that isn't motivation to up the mileage I don't know what is.
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Snowshoeing!
Well, it's already 17 days into the new year and I've managed to go out for a wopping one run. The refrain is a familiar one, work and weather have stood in my way. While I don't particularly mind running in weather that is in the twenties or even teens, jogging strollers don't do well in snow and my running schedule until now has hinged critically on multi-tasking (i.e. childcare and running). That and a series of 12 hour work days has left me little extra time.
My one run, however, was quite a lot of fun as I've decided to embrace Michigan weather and my semi-rural residence by buying a pair of snowshoes for my birthday. Above is a picture of Elliott and I trying the snowshoes. I tried out pulling Elliott on a sled, which was fun for a while, but I couldn't get up to speed without kicking snow in his face (he had fun being pulled around our yard though!). Later I went out for a hour long run through some fields with the snowshoes by myself. I highly recommend the workout as it is relatively easy to run in them and it is fun to offroad through farm fields and areas that I wouldn't typically run. It is a bit like running in sand so you can expect slower speeds and a bit more of a workout, but it does have me looking forward to more snow. We are expecting about 8 inches by Sunday so that's a good thing.
On a side note, I did end 2008 on a high note with one final informal marathon to wrap up the year. I also racked up 2,599 miles over 2008. It's probably a bit more then that since I have been pretty irregular about recording my runs since my GPS began flaking out. Anyway, happy new year to all. I hope to have some time to think about my goals and plans, as well as those for the Lupus Runners, in the near future so stay tuned!
My one run, however, was quite a lot of fun as I've decided to embrace Michigan weather and my semi-rural residence by buying a pair of snowshoes for my birthday. Above is a picture of Elliott and I trying the snowshoes. I tried out pulling Elliott on a sled, which was fun for a while, but I couldn't get up to speed without kicking snow in his face (he had fun being pulled around our yard though!). Later I went out for a hour long run through some fields with the snowshoes by myself. I highly recommend the workout as it is relatively easy to run in them and it is fun to offroad through farm fields and areas that I wouldn't typically run. It is a bit like running in sand so you can expect slower speeds and a bit more of a workout, but it does have me looking forward to more snow. We are expecting about 8 inches by Sunday so that's a good thing.
On a side note, I did end 2008 on a high note with one final informal marathon to wrap up the year. I also racked up 2,599 miles over 2008. It's probably a bit more then that since I have been pretty irregular about recording my runs since my GPS began flaking out. Anyway, happy new year to all. I hope to have some time to think about my goals and plans, as well as those for the Lupus Runners, in the near future so stay tuned!
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