Team in Training – how I’ve missed you!

I just got back from the TNT summer kickoff event and forgot how much I love Team in Training. Once my event was over and I had sent follow up letters I tried to reclaim my life a little. Get a little more sleep, be a little more social, work on getting my life going in the right direction… but I have missed having weekly training runs and people who are runners to talk to and tonight was a wake up call.

I LOVE volunteering! Who knew?! I have decided that I’m going to try and be an unoffical mentor for the summer runners. I won’t be going to the event and don’t need to worry about fundraising, but I get to support the runners at the training runs, give them fundraising advice and guidance and keep tabs on their progress. Yay! I’m excited.

H and I are going to run Gasparilla which also happens to be a TNT event and I think I’m going to help out at the Expo on Saturday and then after we finish the half, go over to the TNT water stop and cheer on the marathoners! Double yay!

In other news, I suck and did NOT go running this morning. Someone should stone be for being such a sucky runner. I DID go out the other day though and did some speed work!

Okay, that’s all.

GO TEAM!

An accidental 10 miler.

So I ran 10 miles today, on accident. It was a bad idea. Let me repeat, a BAD idea. My lower extremities are in exquisite pain and I reek of icy-hot. And yet, I’m strangely content.

Let me explain. This morning H told me that she was going to run 8 miles later on, if I wanted to join. While I wanted to do a longer run, I thought that 8 miles might be a bit extreme since my longest run recently was the 10k last weekend. She did promise she’d be going really slowly, but still I wasn’t certain. By the afternoon I had decided, “why the hell not?” and sent her a text saying I was game.

We set off on our run around 4:45 or so with E in tow on roller blades. We made it out to the St. Pete beach yacht club, which was nearly our turn around point and H realized that we were at the place where she does boot camp. We ran to the little park and she found a hair clip she had lost this past Wednesday. Now as part of the boot camp they do a mile warm up run to the park, then run a mile back to the meeting spot (at a gym on the beach). H and E swear that the warm up is more like a mile and a half or two. Well since I was there with my garmin, we decided to run to the gym to see just how far the warm up is. As we were running the additional two miles (because it is in fact a one mile warm up) we didn’t intend on running, we ran past both the husband and the wife who helped us in our TNT endeavors, which was pretty neat.

After our minor detour, we ran back home, dreaming of food and sweets. It was torture smelling all the delicious dinners that people were making and being starved. It was also getting fairly cold for my liking and dark. I’m really not a fan of running in the dark unless I’m running in the company of a strong man to protect me. But I have to say that our route is probably one of the safest routes for us to be running in the dark.

Anyway, the aftermath of our run is that my knees hate me. I severely hope that I didn’t do any lasting damage, but I can’t walk up and down the stairs at the moment. I had to have H drive me to target tonight, since the knee that is in the most pain happens to be my driving leg. Great.

While I am in pain, it’s somewhat enjoyable. I like knowing that I worked my body and that I earned the right to eat all the sinful chocolate that I crave. The run would just not be as rewarding if I WASN’T in pain. Also, not advisable, I’m happy to know that I can pull 10 miles out of my ass, if need be. Hah. I guess I will end up doing the Gasparilla half after all.

I was going to run tomorrow, but perhaps I’ll have to walk it out, instead.

Running Anniversary and Race Report :)

It was a big weekend in running for me! Thursday, January 15th was my two year running anniversary. I know that sounds rather cheesy, but I really feel like when I started running it was like the opening of a new chapter in my life. I had never been athletic and hadn’t found any form of physical activity or exercise that I enjoyed, but I fell in love with running. I love thinking of myself as a runner. I love the challenge that running gives me. I love that it’s hard and it hurts. I love that it gives me something to talk to other people about. I love that it connects me with a community of people. I love the opportunities it opens up to me. I love running. So happy two year running anniversary to me!

I ran the St. Pete Beach Classic 10k this Saturday. I had run the 5k last year and remember feeling like I wanted to die. I hadn’t been running consistently at the time and just signed up for the race on a whim. This year I signed up hoping that I’d use the race date as a motivator to resume my regular running schedule, but that didn’t happen. With the new work schedule, internship, crappy day light hours and life, my running has taken a back seat. It’s not something that I’m happy about, but at the moment I’m trying to find a new groove to make everything work. Point is, I haven’t been running and yet I did the 10k. I did it and felt wonderful.

It was freezing! A chilly 42 degrees for my whimpy Florida skin. I was worried that my lack of training/preparation was going to end in disaster, but I guess my base is still with me. I powered through the 6.2 miles with no problems, stayed strong and enjoyed the run. A funny thing is that I saw my Arch-Nemeis at the beginning of the race and one of my sister’s friends told me that I had to beat them. I told C that I didn’t think I was as fast as they were and C told me that I could trip them at the finish line if that’s what it came down to. C was joking, of course. Anyway, I did see Arch-Nemeis in the last leg of the race and they didn’t need my help, they were suffering on their own. I laughed a little inside, which probably makes me a bad person, I’m sorry.

This was actually my first race since Nike, which is sad. I need to get back on the horse. I’m definitely doing the Bay to Bay 12k. I want to do Gasparilla, either the 15k or the half. I just don’t know if I have time to prepare for the half.