What will I learn this weekend?

This weekend I make my marathon debut.  I don't expect it to be pretty.  I've been going between fear, ambivalence and all out panic for a few weeks now.  I've been trying to deny it, overcome it, work through it, ignore it... and the problem is, I don't know what "it" is that I'm battling.

In August I started suffering from insomnia.  I thought it was due to a stressful event.  Event occurred.  it's more than 2 months later.  I still ain't sleeping right.  I'm not running right.  I'm not excited.  I'm terrified.

But I'm preparing.  I'm trying to carb-load like a good marathoner.... well except that thanks to my RNY I have this tiny little pouch for a stomach.  I can't eat a lot at any given meal, and I have an extra hard time with carbs that can occasionally cause me instestinal pain that lands me in the ER hooked up to morphine.  This has happened twice.  Once was a few hours after eating a soft pretzel.  The second time... no real immediately preceeding food, do we're not really sure why it happened.    Needless to say, with no known culprit, I just don't know what to do about carb-loading.  I'm adding an extra serving of carbs every day this week.  maybe 2 extra servings on Friday or Saturday.

I had my first Annie's mac n' cheese since my surgery.  I love white cheddar.  I used to eat a box of this stuff in a sitting, with hot dogs!  I ate about 1/3 of my whole wheat Annie's shells n' cheddar last night.  a little weird tasting, but trying to get more nutritional bang for my buck with the whole wheat pasta.  go me.

I was advised today not to try the full marathon on Sunday.  With so many physical concerns (lack of sleep, nutrition issues and another pesky ailment that remains a mystery and requires further testing), I can see why it was suggested I do something I'm more confident in and run the half marathon. i'm afraid and exhausted, and no one is holding a gun to my head to run this marathon. 

And yet, I still plan to run it.  or die trying.  ok...that's a little dramatic. but I'd rather saddle up to the start line and see how far I go, risking a DNF or an 8 hour time than to not try.  I surprise myself a lot, so I might just do better than I fear.  Adrenaline does a lot for a person.  Family members on the course with blue-raspberry coolattas from Dunkin Donuts can do a lot for a person.

I can't wait to see what race report I get to write when this is done. I know I'm gonna learn a lot about running, about myself, and about my boyfriend who gets to watch this marathon up close and personal.  Wish us luck!!

2 years of running is *some* preparation, I guess!

So yes, I survived the RnR Providence Half Marathon.  It was drizzling at the start and rained/poured on and off the whole damn way.  I had a great fear of blisters, but finished with only 1, and a few weeks later, none of my toenails have fallen off, so I guess it went alright.

My sister and I before heading out to the race.

My plan on race day to was to stick with my boyfriend, if I could.  He had never run a Half, but had been running and playing soccer pretty regularly all summer, so I thought he'd fare better on the course.  Turns out we were probably both going to finish around the same time no matter what we did.  there were times when I just wanted to charge ahead faster than him, but I'm pretty sure that would have left me walking a lot more towards the end and he would have caught up.  So I just stuck with him and we stopped for stretching when we needed it, walked all the water stops and plugged along best we could.  I enjoyed all the bands that dared to come out and play in the rain along the course.  I made sure they knew I enjoyed them by clapping and cheering for them, singing along and dancing my way past them.

I think this was in the first 4-6 miles.  Not really sure.

The course was well designed, most of it familiar from the half I ran in Providence in May.  Of course, there weren't all those puddles the first time around.  *sigh*  I guess we all have to learn to run in the rain.  Even pouring rain.  No thunder though, so it was safe.

My sister finished in 2:25ish, which is awesome.  Her first half, crap weather, and she goes sub 2:30.  Very proud!  Of course, she left us at mile 1 when we were warmed up enough to stop and stretch. LOL  We didn't see her again until a turn-around at Mile 11, and of course, at the end with a beer!

John and I finished in 2:43 (i think).  Nothing to write home about for me, but it's his PR for now!  His last "long" run was 9 miles - in June.  so I'm super proud of him too!

We finished! We're smiling! We're SOAKED.

We met up with my family afterwards, told them to go home and get out of the rain, and the three runners got our free beer and enjoyed the Sugar Ray concert in the continuing rain.  This was very helpful as it was time to stretch and deal with my calf muscle that kept cramping the last mile. OMG PAIN.  dancing around in the rain, eating and drinking was good for the body.  When we finally got to the car and rung out our clothes, it was safe to drive home without fear of massive cramping. 

I hope next year there is no rain.  Though, I'm not sure I'm interested in running long distance in the summer.  I just don't like it.  The rain was actually preferable.

The very BEST part of the race... getting ourselves back on track for marathon training.  October 16, here I come!!!!!!

totally unprepared.

I think my last "long" run was on July 4th, a 10K.  I ran a 10K last night as a training run for my 4th Half Marathon, which is SUNDAY.  Yup, since my last half on May 1, the longest I've run is a 10k.  Not frequently, not regularly, not nothing.

I do not like running in the summer.  I don't like the heat, I don't like the humidity and my asthma doesn't like it either.  I am trying out using Singulair to treat my exercise induced asthma on these awful days, but it's really hard to determine what's causing my misery when it's hot, humid AND i'm completely out of racing form.

The good news (for my running) is that we're on the down side of summer, so things will cool off soon.  The Rock N Roll Half is supposed to be the mid-point of my marathon training, and it's almost become a relaunch.  Whatever, gotta get it done.  After this weekend, I'm heading into previously untravelled experiences runningwise, letting the weekend long runs start drifting upwards of 13.1 miles. 

Well, I'll let you know how it goes on Sunday.  I'm hoping to run more than I walk, and enjoy the scenery and the music of the first Providence Rock and Roll Half Marathon.

Training days are really here!

Finally, I have a race on the horizon!  I should never have let it go this long, cuz it's hard to get back into the swing of things once you've sat on your butt for a few months!

That's all in the past now.  On May 1st I will run my 3rd Half Marathon a few days before my 37th birthday.  What does that mean?  Nothing, really.  Not the birthday part anyway.  I ran my longest training run of the season yesterday, 7 miles and it felt pretty good.  I love when long runs give me confidence.  I'm struggling with some gear - trying to find the right waist pack to run with, but physically, I felt pretty strong.  I could have run more except that when I have a # of miles in mind it becomes very difficult for me to run MORE than that.  Plus I was cold towards the end. 

Anyway, I'm getting very pumped up for the Cox Road Race Half Marathon in Providence, RI.  I think being out to watch the Boston Marathon in a couple of weeks will have me bursting to get out and race, though I'm not expecting a PR in May...(would love to). 

I'm really hoping to PR in June.  Last year I ran the Worcester Half Marathon in hopes of running sub 2:30, and I ran 2:22.  I ran the BAA Half in October and despite being sick the week before, I ran 2:20.  I'm aiming for 2:15 in Worcester this year - got to catch up with my fellow Team Pink member Anamarie who just debuted in the Half at 2:15!

You can tell how athletic I've been, since this is my first post of 2011

Taking a rest is good.  Taking nearly 3 months off...not so good, but what's done is done.  I'm well rested and developing a bad sleep pattern, so it's definitely time to exercise and see if that straightens me out.  It sure isn't going to make anything worse, that's for damn sure!

Part of the slacking was having a real lack of a goal.  Sure, J and are planning to run a Half and a Full in preparation for our 2012 Goofy Challenge, but without having pinned down events, we were just floating along doing nothing.  The weather (snowpocalypse every week!) and our dread of treadmills were not helping either.  So I picked a race and pretty much said "THIS IS IT".  We're slowly getting ourselves back on track, and even ran together this past weekend.  Just two miles, but we've got to ease our way back in.

Oh, and speaking of the Goofy Challenge, check out the cool shirt J had made for us for Christmas!

FRONT:

and BACK:

We wore these on our first race of the year, a 5 Miler on New Year's Day.  Lots of the runners knew what it meant, and a few had plans to go to Disney the following week to run the Half or the Full.  No one had taken on the Goofy yet...  I did know someone who did the Goofy this year - He ran the Half in less than 2 hours and the Full in less than 4.  REMARKABLE.  I'm not entirely sure what my goals will be, but I sure as hell will not finish a marathon in under 4, even if I sleep the whole day before, nevermind run a Half!!  :)

Anyway, May 1st I hope to run a Half Marathon in Providence, RI, and possibly another one on June 4th in Worcester, MA.  I'll need to find some other races between now and then, but for now, I've got a training schedule to work with.  WOOT!  It feels good to have some real goals to work with. 

So I'll throw it out to the internet - I'd like to run a 2:15 Half this year.  My best was a 2:20 last year, so here's hoping!

fall running plans

Yup, the chill is really starting to hang in the air.  My asthma gets to battle a new enemy - over the summer it was the high humidity, now it's the low humidity!  Good times.

This fall I'm hoping to keep up the running as best I can.  Having a partner that is learning to run is actually a big help.  If I were on my own yesterday, I'm not sure I would have gotten off my butt, but he said "I can go for my usual, and you can do your long run".  Well, that pinched my ego.  I've been going for long runs on Sundays since we met - so it's what he expects. Can't wimp out on a nice day when we've got nothing else going on!

So, we changed into our gear and headed out.  We ran the first mile together and then I split off to a longer route and he kept going on the 3 mile loop.  I didn't really know what my plan was for the "long".  I didn't have water, GU or my inhaler, so it was going to be less than 6.  I whined in my head so much that I was going just do 3, but then I didn't like my whining, so I told myself I HAD to do 5 cuz I'm half-marathoner and it should be easy, even on a hard day. 

That's right, I had to yell at myself.  I called myself a whiney bitch.  What kind of role model would I be to my partner if I just said "eh, i didn't FEEL like it"?  So, 5 miles it was.  Around 4 miles I found my groove, too.  I may have found it just because I knew that I only had to do one more and my finish line was a pizza place where John was waiting for me.  Whatever, I did it, and I was glad.

Days like these are why I keep my racing calendar stocked up.  If I don't have a reason to keep it up, I might not.  That scares the crap out of me!  But having a race to prepare for - a new goal to reach, a new PR, a new distance - whatever it is, that really keeps me "honest" with my training.

On the horizon - perhaps a 5 miler on the 14th.  A 5k turkey trot on the 25th, and a 5K Jingle run on 12/5.  I believe we've also got a 5 miler on Jan 1.  John will probably not be ready to run 5 miles straight by the 14th, but New Years he should be ready.  Hopefully his 5K will be without stops on Thanksgiving too.  Right now his stops are mostly for stretching though... so you can't help those if you cramp. 

Our 2011 running goals are lofty, so I'm glad we've got some fun stuff planned to close out 2010.  We've even got ourselves a team name and logo.  I can't release the logo yet, but we are named Missile Toes - born out of our first "team" event, the Jingle 5K.  We may or may not have actual Mistle Toe for that run!

Bariathlete's "pilot" episode

Yup, I'm gonna blog. I want to be accountable for my workouts, and I want to share tips, get tips, meet other bariathletes, other athletes in general and runners specifically!

What is a "bariathlete"?

I underwent bariatric surgery for weight loss - specifically the gastric bypass - in November of 2008. I was 34 years old and I weighed upwards of 270 lbs at my heighest weight and stood at 5'6. I am now maintaining a loss of over 120 lbs and have become a runner. I have been running less than a year, but am committed to keep pushing myself to run further, faster, and better.

My running resume, short, includes:
October 2009: 5K
April 2010: 10 Miler
May 2010: 5K
June 2010: Half Marathon (13.1 miles)
July 2010: 10K