What day is it?

Feb 9
I like to stick to my schedule. Looking at the weather forecast heading into this weekend though, it was pretty clear that my schedule wasn't helping me. Saturday: 26 F, 50% Chance of Precipitation; Sunday: 7 F, 80% Chance of Precipitation, Windy. The more I thought about it, the more I thought why not just run my 9 miles on Saturday. So that's what I ended up doing. Friday night it looked like I might even be able to run on the roads by my house, but by Saturday morning enough snow had fallen to remove that from being possible. So mid-morning I headed into town to see if the roads were clear enough to run there. The road that I start my long runs in town on, Sunnyside Dr., is usually pretty clear. I figured that if North Blvd. looked bad I could always just mark out a 2.25 mile section of Sunnyside and run that back & forth twice. North Blvd. was looking like a two track through the snow, so I ended up marking the small loop on Sunnyside Dr. with my car.

I got to my mom's house and geared up. This was my first time using bodyglide. I wasn't sure how much to use. The stuff looks and feels like stick deodorant, no smell though. It didn't feel all that slippery, but it's supposed to work, fingers crossed. This would also be my inaugural fuel belt/gatorade run. The belt has a tendency to loosen itself while being put on, so I wasn't sure how that would work, had to put it on a few times to get it right. All set, walking down the driveway, time to put on the watch, where's my watch? Where is my watch!?! I left my watch at home. Back in the house, do you have a watch I can borrow? No help. I ended up grabbing my phone, I figured worst case scenario I can look at the time when I start and stop. Walk down the hill to get to my start, very deep snow on the sidewalk, good thing I intend to play in traffic. Mess around with my phone for a minute or two down there and find it has a stopwatch, awesome, what luck! About 2 seconds into running, my bottle was bouncing all over the place. I rotated the belt so that bottle was on my right hip and that seemed to help. The running itself went really easy. The roads were clear in the travel lanes, but the shoulders were mostly snow covered. I wore my yaktrax in case it was slippery, but I don't think I ever encountered any ice. As I approached the turn around for the first time I took off my fuel belt and readjusted it, as it had begun to slip. I was able to put it back on with only a stop for a second or so. After that I didn't feel another peep from it. The rest of the run went pretty smooth. I got sprayed with slush and snow a few times, but I guess that is to be expected when you run outside in February. If cars just stayed in their lanes I would have been more dry, but I know they had the best of intentions. When I approached the end for the final time I pulled out my cell phone. It was no longer on the stopwatch, that's a bad sign. I went to the stopwatch and it was stopped at 17:46, well I guess that's how long that lasted. The pocket on the fuel belt is pretty tight for my phone so the button could have been pressed when I was jostling around. I estimated that I started at about 10:36 am and my phone was reading 12:46 pm when I finished, so I'm calling this 9 miles at a very slow 2:10:00. The important thing was no pain, no nausea. I was tired, no doubt, but not ill. The gatorade had done it's job perfectly and the bodyglide was a winner as well. 8$ for bodyglide feels like such a deal now, heck I'd pay twice that for something that works this good. I made it back to my mom's house, changed clothes, did some stretches, and sampled a peice or two of fresh shortbread, then I headed home.

Feb 10
Today I just wanted to do a recovery run. My legs were a little sore so I wasn't sure what I was going to be able complete. The weather was in fact much worse today so I was very glad to have done my long run yesterday. Horizontal snow, that's all I'm going to say. I mounted the mill some time before lunch and started out at 4.5 mph. Those first couple minutes definitely felt a bit sore, but by 5 minutes I was able to increase the speed to 4.6 mph. At 10 minutes I figured I'd try 5.0 mph and just see what I could push myself to do. The soreness was gone so I didn't feel like I was hanging myself out to dry. I was able to finish 3 miles at that speed in 36:54. A little bit after stretching the soreness in my legs came back, but that's to be expected.

My mother-in-law cut my hair off this evening. The last time it was cut was August 2007. I'm hoping the treadmill in the basement won't be so hot the next time I run on it. What follows can be considered for the record.

(Post Haircut)

(Christmas 2006, my hair was about this length before I got it cut.
Of course this was a good 80 some lbs ago too.)

Feb 11
I weighed 282.4 lbs this morning. That is a gain of .2 lbs this week, bringing my total weight loss to 84.6 lbs. The rest of last week I was weighing 285ish, so to be back in the 282's this morning feels like a victory.

The last couple days I've been looking at possible replacement half marathons. I've found 4 races that could be considered, but none really seem perfect. The first is The Martian Half Marathon on 4/6/08. The race is in Dearborn which is a heck of a drive, but I have friends who live within 10 minutes. (The race shirt is also very worth checking out.) This would be perfect, except my youngest daughter's first birthday party is already scheduled for this day. Next is the National City Half Marathon on 4/26/08. This race is held in Kalamazoo which is 140 some miles from me. The closest person I even know lives 70 some miles away from Kalamazoo. It's possible but it would take some doing. The next one isn't even a half, the River Bank Run 25k on 5/10/08. This race is held in Grand Rapids which is 90 miles away and it's 15.5 miles long. The distance is very intimidating, but right now this is the race that I'm giving the most consideration. The final race is the Run Charlevoix Half Marathon on 6/28/08. It's not too far away, but a half marathon at the end of June is going to be very warm. There are a few half marathons that are run in the fall, but I really don't want to wait that long. So at this point it's come down to a question, is 15.5 miles with a 3 1/2 hour cut-off too ambitious?

Since I wrote the above paragraph a fellow Michigander/runaholic/blogger, Sarah, commented about a half marathon I didn't know existed. I looked at the info and everything about it is perfect except for these paragraphs I found on the official website:

Minimum mile pace for the half marathon: 12 minutes

Due to road closures limitations, there is a minimum allowed pace of 12 minutes per mile for the half marathon. We must clear Huron River Drive by 11:20 AM. Based on the starting time, this requires a 12 minute per mile pace be maintained. If you cannot make this pace for the entire 13.1 mile race, you should not attempt the half marathon, but are encouraged to sign up for the 10K or the 5K.

If I’m not sure I can keep the minimum pace, should I attempt the half marathon?

NO! Definitely not. (see below) Try the 10K or 5K.

I rode the indoor bike tonight on the Upper Body program. It is setup so that you can do exercises while you peddle, but I wasn't interested in that, I just wanted to try a 45 minute workout. The numbness started to get to me so I didn't last much past my usual time. I ended up riding 10.07 miles in 34:15. I doubt I'll try for a longer bike workout again, at least not on the indoor bike.

Feb 12
The treadmill was whining at me again this evening. I could hear it, so I went downstairs and kicked it's ass for 3 miles. When I was done I told it to be quiet or I'd be back for it. My guess is it'll start to get uppity again on Thursday. I ran 5:00 at 4.5, 5:00 at 4.6, 5:00 at 5.0, and 21:28 at 5.1 mph. That last setting surprised me but I guess I just willed myself to finish something I had started. Total time was 36:28, a new treadmill record.