Qualifying Run Postponed

Today's Run:

Distance: 6 miles

Time: 1:26:25

Pace: 14:22 per mile

I am curious which one is more correct: the Nike+ sensor, which says I ran 6 miles, or the treadmill, which says I ran almost 7. I'm perplexed by this discrepancy, which becomes more pronounced the farther I run, because I use the treadmill to calibrate the sensor. But it's probably fair to assume the sensor is consistent, even if it's consistently skewed.

Either way, I'm not yet ready for tomorrow's qualifying run. Earlier this week I faced a bit of a conundrum, because I could have focused on speeding up my 3 mile time in order to race this weekend, but I would have had to do that at the expense of my distance training.

So, instead, I'll continue focusing on speed during my short runs and endurance on my longer runs, and I'll try to qualify on February 14. That day, I can choose between a 5k or a 10k, so I'll probably make that call a few days prior.

It would be easy to be discouraged by my slow pace today, but two weeks ago it would have been impossible for me to cover 6 miles without stopping every half mile to hyperventilate. So, I'll choose to focus on the positive, instead. My run today took longer than the Australian Open Women's Final, which I intended to watch for the entire 6 miles. At least I lasted longer than Dinara Safina did against Serena!

Improvement!

Today's Run:

Distance: 3 miles

Time: 38:00

Pace: 12:37 per mile

Today, I finally made some progress!

No one ever accused me of winning a race.

Today's Run:

Distance: 4 miles

Time: 55:14

Pace: 13:46 per mile

Today, I decided I would allow myself to take it easy. I was tired, I haven't covered four miles in quite a long time, and I had to use the treadmill again. I was interested to learn that my pace was hardly any slower than it was when I was going half as far and trying to run quickly.

This reminded me of something I had nearly forgotten. My distance running career actually began in 1996.

In 8th grade, I wanted to join the track team. Well, I wanted to get the Bolton Middle School "All Sports Award," and I would not be deterred by the fact that I didn't actually play any of the sports involved (volleyball, basketball, and track). So, I joined the track team, which must have seemed hilarious to everyone who knew me. "Fast" is probably one of the few words that has NEVER been used to describe me.

I had previously acquired a pair of discus throwing shoes in a 99c bin at the Nike Employee Store, so naturally I chose to participate in this event. In fact, because Mom worked at Nike, my footwear for all three of these "all sports" was far superior to my skills in any of them. I can specifically remember the purple and green accents on my white volleyball shoes (the other girls on the B team were wearing cross trainers- losers), the velcro strap that came across my first edition Air Swoopes basketball shoes (no one else in middle school had the first Nike shoe named after a woman), and the Nike Air Max 95s (the most coveted- you remember them, I'm sure). I can assure you, Spike Lee, "It's gotta be the shoes" is a bold faced lie.

Anyhow, back to the track team. After choosing discus and the softball throw (an event I could legitimately compete in, having actually thrown a softball before), I had to determine in which "running" event I would participate. It seemed to me that I finished about halfway behind the winner in any event I tried. I was barely out of the blocks by the time the girls crossed the finish line in the 100m dash. I was probably coming into the straightaway when they finished the 200. I can specifically remember choosing to run the 1500m on the belief that I could be about a half lap behind the winner, and this was still a respectable finish. It helped that everyone else thought that was SUCH a LONG way to run (less than a mile), so the fact that I was willing to compete gave me some street cred (although not nearly as much street cred as the Nike Air Max 95s). Plus, points were given by size of participant, and since I must have been about 65 pounds at the time, I was the only girl in the smallest division. This meant that I could almost always earn first-place points simply by finishing the race.

I can also remember that my goal in the 1500 was usually to avoid coming in last. This involved running next to or slightly behind the slowest, fattest girl and then sprinting past her in about the last 100m. Then people would say things to you like, "Great finish!!" and they would be cheering really loud when you crossed the finish line, even though it had been a full 2 minutes since Ben Metcalf crossed the line to win. That was the other thing- because the race took so long, and had so few participants, they made us run it at the same time as the boys. To his credit, Ben Metcalf was always encouraging when he lapped me. In every single race. In a race that's not even a full four laps long.

So, I guess history should have warned me that today I'd be able to run mile 4 at the same slow speed I ran mile 1. This was probably true in the marathon, as well, where I was literally not yet halfway finished when they announced that someone had won the race.

All of this has made me realize that maybe I'd be better off trying to qualify in a 10k race instead of a 5k race. I've never really "excelled" at short distances... even with the coolest shoes.

Snow Day!

Today's Run:

Distance: 2 miles

Time: 26:57

Pace: 13:26 per mile

Today, it snowed. That made it impossible to run outside, so it was back to the treadmill.

The time says it was worse than yesterday, but I felt much better. It was the first day I felt like I am getting closer to being in shape again. I've been trying to hydrate more throughout the day, so that may also be helping. Hopefully tomorrow will be more of the same!

The Old Man and the Sea

Today's Run:
Distance: 2 miles
Time: 26:42
Pace: 13:19 per mile

If you want to know everything I believe about how one should handle life's trials (as well as why I love literature), you should read Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea.

Santiago hasn't caught a fish in 84 days, but every day he returns to the boat intending to catch one. He drinks the shark liver oil that the other fishermen won't touch because although it tastes disgusting, it strengthens his eyesight. He keeps his lines perfectly straight down in the water and at the correct depths at all times. He'd rather be exact than lucky, he says, because then when luck comes, he will be ready. His young friend, Manolin, realizes that while there are many great fishermen, there is only one Santiago. The other men in the village doubt him, and even pity him, but armed with Manolin's faith in him and his own expertise, Santiago refuses to doubt himself.

Tomorrow, my dad finds out the results of his latest diagnostic scans, which will determine whether or not the latest round of chemotherapy treatments were successful. Maybe it will be the day that after his continual persistence, he catches the fish. Or maybe it will be the heartbreaking day that the sharks begin to attack his prize catch and he will have to fight them off one by one. Either way, I'm confident that my dad has not lost his determination. He has drank the shark liver oil. His lines are not crossed, and they're at the correct depth. If this is his turn to catch some luck, he will be ready. If it isn't, he will fight the sharks with every last weapon on the boat.

When he returns home, fish or no fish, the Manolins in Dad's life will be waiting, certain that he will return despite the doubts of the more practical townspeople.

After all-- a man can be destroyed but not defeated.

Roddickulous

Today's Run:
Distance: 5k
Time: 42:31
Pace: 8:29 per km

Today, I had a plan. One devised to help motivate me into a decent time in the 5k.

I recorded the Australian Open overnight, and I intended to watch Andy Roddick's round of 16 match vs. Tommy Robredo while I ran on the treadmill today. I came downstairs and turned on the TV, and in the 10-15 seconds it takes to switch from live TV (Djokovic vs Baghdatis) to the DVR recording, I heard the announcer say "the winner of this match will likely have an evening match against Andy Roddick in two days time." SABOTAGE! I cued up my recording anyway, only to discover that because it took Federer 5 sets to defeat Berdych, they only showed a few minutes of Roddick's match! So I begrudgingly watched the Federer match during my run and missed what is rumored to be some of the best tennis Andy has played in years. If I could have been watching the match I intended, I probably could have finished my 5k in about 30 minutes, tops. : )

However, since Djokovic did not win his match until well into the middle of the night, this could give Roddick an advantage in a few days when they meet up again in the quarterfinals.

I keep feeling like I haven't improved at all. When I looked back, though, I realized that I have shaved a little over a minute and a half off my 5k time in the past week. Since I still don't feel like I've "broken through" into being in shape again, I'm hoping that each run is getting me closer and closer to feeling fit again. Once I get to that point I am optimistic that I will be able to start recording decent times again.

Slow but steady...

Today's Run:

Distance: 5k

Time: 42:04

Pace: 8:24 per km

Better than my previous 5k runs, and the first one outside, but still not too good. The good news is there is another 5k in DC on 2/14 if I'm not up to speed for the 2/1 qualifying race.

Just as...

Yesterday's Run:

Distance: 3.17km

Time: 26:22

Pace: 8:18 per km

I'm taking an entire class on JRR Tolkien this semester, so I'm about 500 pages into hobbits, dwarves, wargs, orcs, wizards, and elves. What a reader can't help but notice on their journey is that every time they start to lose faith, or be overcome by fear, help is just around the corner. I wish I could count up the number of sentences that start with "Just as," as in: "Just as Frodo nearly yielded to the temptation to slip on the ring, Gandalf emerged..."

I took this afternoon off so I can shift from PM runs into AM runs for the next several days. My legs are sore, and my lungs still burn after the first three minutes of the workout. I'm hoping that after tomorrow morning's run, I'll be able to say, "Just as Liz began to fear she would not get in shape for her Feb 1 qualifying run, she realized her lungs had doubled in capacity and all the lactic acid was flushed out of her legs." Help from wizards, elves, dwarves, and/or eagles may be needed.

Outdoors vs. Treadmill

Today's Run:

Distance: 3.45k

Time: 28:39

Pace: 8:18 per km

Sentiment: I prefer running outdoors.

I don't try to hide the fact that I hate the cold. When I attend outdoor events, I tend to put on three times as many clothes as those accompanying me. I go out of my way to walk through buildings on campus to warm myself up along the way. Currently, I'm working on willing myself to Melbourne through strength of mind as I watch the Australian Open (some people consider 100 degrees to be "too hot," but unless I was actually playing in the match, no way).

Evidently, I hate the treadmill even more. Today I ran outside despite the fact that it was below freezing. This actually worked as a bit of an incentive, since I couldn't come back inside out of the cold until I had finished my loop. And, despite the fact that I was running up and down hills, I sped up my pace a little bit.

I wish it would warm up like 15 degrees, and I wish I could finally shake this cold. Then maybe I could feel the same enthusiasm about running that my little cartoon over there on the right pretends that I have. Fake it until you make it, I guess.

Nike+iPod

Today's Run:

Distance: 5k

Time: 43:11

Pace: 8:37 per km

Sentiment: A miniscule improvement, but with sore legs and Baja Fresh in my belly, I'll take it.

When I was training for the Chicago Marathon in 2003, I didn't even have an iPod. These days, I have an iPod AND the Nike+iPod chip. The Nike+ chip is designed to go inside a Nike+ shoe, and it communicates with your iPod as an advanced pedometer. I can't run in Nikes, so I'm thankful for the RunAway clip, which allows me to clip the Nike+ chip right onto my Asics (take that, Phil Knight!).

This is not any old pedometer, though. You calibrate it and plug in your weight, so it knows exactly how far you've run and how many calories you've burned (although I'm not sure it accounts for incline). You set your time, calorie, or distance goal, and a woman comes on over the top of your music to inform you of your progress (I'm trying to decide what her name should be). She also tells you when you're finished, and if you've accomplished a good run, a fitness celebrity comes on to congratulate you. Today, for example, Lance Armstrong came on to tell me I "burned a serious number of calories!" It's pretty cool.

When you plug your iPod in to your computer, it uploads your workout data to a website, where you can look at graphs of your runs, compare them to one another, and more. If you know someone else who has it, you can challenge them over the internet, or you can make friends with other users. You can even create your own avatar to put on your blog (see right!) or facebook page. I guess this is fitness in the 21st century!

The website especially seems like a useful tool. In a country where the majority of people are overweight, I can see how creating this virtual community where people can support and complete with one another would be highly beneficial. I think Lance was one of the frontrunners in developing this technology- he certainly takes the lead in marketing it.

I think Lance knows a lot about building a sense of community to provide people with the support they need. Whether with inspiring performances in a sport Americans otherwise care nothing about, or with small silicone wristbands, Lance knows how to bring people together. As difficult as it must be to reach a fitness goal without the support of others, it must be impossible to successfully battle cancer without that support. To view the manifesto of the Lance Armstrong Foundation, click here.

So, Dad, in support, I threw up after my run yesterday. : ) The good news is, I did not throw up today!

National Half Marathon

Today's Run:
Distance: 5k
Time: 43:46
Pace: 8:42 per km
Sentiment: I have a long way to go before I'm back in shape. I think I'd lose in a foot race to the Biggest Loser contestants.

My dad is battling cancer. He is often frustrated because there is so little he can do. In our family, we struggle under circumstances that we can't control.

I live on the opposite coast from Dad, so it feels like there is even less that I can do. I continue to feel like there has to be something I could do about Dad's illness.

So I have decided to do the following:

1) I will qualify for the National Half-Marathon.

2) If I qualify in time to register, I will raise at least $1000 in my dad's name for the Lance Armstrong Foundation as part of the LAF Grassroots Fundraising Program.

3) I will complete the National Half-Marathon through Washington, D.C. on March 21, 2009.

4) I'll keep my dad, and whomever else is interested enough to follow along, updated about my progress through this blog.

There are a few obstacles. I have not yet qualified for the National Half Marathon, and I can't register until I do. My 2003 Chicago Marathon time would have qualified me if I could have finished it 11 minutes faster. My half marathon split would have qualified me, but they do not keep an official record of split times. I ran a 5k in preparation for that marathon that surely would have qualified me, but that race does not keep official results. I ran another 5k in 2004, but I missed the qualifying time by 1 minute 22 seconds.

So, the first goal is to qualify for the half-marathon by completing a "Super Bowl Sunday" 5k on February 1 in under 31:00. This is a 10 minute mile pace. Considering how long if took me to finish 5k this morning, this feels a little ambitious, but I'm determined. If I can't qualify on February 1, there is another qualifying race on March 1, at which point I will surely be able to come in under 31:00.

Hopefully, the National Half-Marathon will not fill up before I can qualify! The website says they will advertise when there are only 1,000 of the 8,000 spots remaining. Last year, they only had 4,000 finishers... so I hope my chances are good.