back to the nest

My new summer anthem, and the song that will power me through the 15-mile run I have planned for Monday:

Yeah, you heard me. !5 miles of running. For fun. Just to see if I can. Because I still don’t have a new job and am running out of productive things to do during the day.

I’ll start in Washington Crossing (PA) running along the Delaware Canal to New Hope, then cross the bridge to Lambertville (NJ) and follow the Raritan Canal to Titusville, taking pictures the whole way as proof. Then I’ll drag my sorry ass across the bridge there back to Washington Crossing. Wish me luck, I need it. Bad.

Definitely.

So here’s what’s been going on.  A few weeks ago, I was very abruptly laid off.  Hence me not feeling very talkative these days.

In an attempt to turn a negative into a positive (somewhat), I used all that free time to train for this past Sunday’s half marathon in Providence, RI.  No work = eat, sleep, and run.  It definitely paid off.

Photos from the race, comments, and my results:

Lopsided sunglasses. There were lots of other pre-race pictures, but I’m not tying to give any of you nightmares so this is what you get.

Third annual Cox Rhode Races. The half was sponsored by Shape Up RI and not Willow Tree Poultry like I had initially thought. No compromising of my vegetarian morals!

This race was fun because I stayed with my sister and my mom came too. They’re bottom right in this picture.

The port-o-potties lined up along the starting area were a little strange. There wasn’t much room around there.

Starting off. It was so crowded that everyone basically had to walk for the first 10-15 seconds.

Homegirl’s lookin’ rough! But at least I passed that guy.

The best part!

Woo hoo! I wanted to get much closer to 2 hours this time and actually did it.

Compared to last time:

Results from my first half marathon, October 2009.

The training this time was clearly worth it.  I’m in 500% better shape than I was in October.  My boyfriend Hal Higdon knows what he’s talking about!  The weather was great (high 60’s and slightly overcast, but no rain) and the course was scenic.  I felt good throughout the entire race, even though it was much hillier than I thought it would be.  I kept up the mentality that the faster I ran, the sooner I’d be able to go eat a ton of food that I couldn’t have while I was training.  That helped.  And I didn’t have to make a single bathroom pit stop.  Good times!

Next race:  ING Rock ‘n Roll Half Marathon in Philly, September 19.   The goal will be to finish anywhere under 2 hours.  I think I can definitely do it.

So.  The amazing Hal Higdon’s daughter-in-law was doing a little web research on the great man, and happened across this…and busted me.

In addition to being caught for my one-sided love affair, I’ve also been busted for not updating my running progress here by Hal himself.  According to some posters on his message board, this makes me an extremely “unreliable” girlfriend, and they may be right.  You don’t want to get yourself mixed up with a girl like me, Hal.  Not only am I unreliable, but I also don’t take off my socks before going to bed.  Yikes.  Hopefully we can still be friends…with benefits??

Not THOSE kind of benefits, people!  We’re talking about running here.  Get a hobby.

So just an update, I’m finishing week 5 on Hal’s novice training plan, though I should be closer to finishing week 6/starting week 7.  I blame being behind on my 26th birthday weekend, and also on the fact that it’s my life and I do what I want, so back up off me yo.  Additionally, I haven’t really felt like writing about running since over the past few weeks I’ve been completely confined to running at the gym due to craptastical weather.   My approach has been “get on the treadmill and get it over with.”  Tragic.  I also haven’t followed the plan exactly based on the days of the week, which is fine because Hal said I could.  I have at least been getting the right amount of total mileage and long runs per week, so I think that should at least count for something.

Today is exciting though, because I’m about to run outside for the first time in weeks!  Look at the weather:

Also excited, because back in January some nerd (you know who you are) told me to get Nike Plus for my iPod, because apparently you don’t have to have Nike shoes (which hate immensely) to use it.  This person was also nice enough to inform me that I’m basically the last person in America to find that out.  So thanks.  Anyway, I did buy Nike Plus in January, used it once, and then the weather was never good enough for me to run outside.  Or I’m just a baby.  Feel free to call it whatever you want.

Super excited to get my ass back out there in a few minutes, but I can hear the wind as I write this.  Oh, and the temp is now 42° and not 39° like in the picture.  Yay!

PS – OMG I still love Hal.  4-Eva.

Happy Friday!  I can say this, because I’m taking tomorrow off for a trip to my old stomping ground, State College, PA for the weekend.  So, it feels like a Friday.  Don’t worry, I won’t forget about you.

Keeping up with my theme of loving cracked-out house plants, I found this:

Plants wearing pants!  How can you go wrong?  They look like astronauts, and I think I’m in love.

My favorite!

Domsai Terrariums found on The Green Head, home to the weirdest stuff you can buy online.  It’s more than just kind of addicting.

And just an update on race training; it was a lovely day for running.  30 degrees and downright tropical for this time of year.  My boss even used the word “balmy” to describe today, it was that warm.  I may have to run a little further than the suggested 3 miles, but not much.  Shhhhhh.

Today was the day that I stopped being lame about running outside and started training for real.  I clearly picked the best day of the week weather-wise to decide to do this:

And it was a whole lot colder at 8am.  Trust me.

I know that the thing for running bloggers to do is mention what they’re eating. Before my run, I had some oatmeal.  The flavor on the box was supposed to be “Hazelnut Latte.”  The actual flavor of said oatmeal?  Popcorn.  Quaker Hazelnut Latte Oatmeal tastes like popcorn.  Stay far away if you can.

So who the heck is Hal Higdon?  No idea, but I sort of like his training method.  And Hal is really hot too.

This plan is for a novice.  I hardly consider myself a a novice when it comes to running (I’ve been a distance runner since high school), but I’m following a novice plan because I didn’t train the right way the first time, and figured I should take it slow, at least at first.

I did start the schedule up on Wednesday since I’ve been running indoors fairly regularly since the holidays.  I was planning on cheating and doing 3+ miles instead of the recommended 2, but being cold and a baby made sure that I just about hit the two-mile mark.  But all in all, it was a good run and I really have missed being outside.

Oh yeah, here’s Hal:

And speaking of old people, I’ve been saving this gem by the folks (specifically, the mamadukes) from when I first moved home in August for the perfect time, and I think today is it:

“Be careful running outside with headphones, because we read in the paper about a lady who was running with headphones and a tree fell on her and she died!  Just be careful!”

There may be a 1 in 17 billion (over/under) chance of that actually happening to me, but fine.  I’ll be careful and watch out for falling trees.

If you’ve been keeping up with my special blog, you may be aware that I completed my first half-marathon back in October of this year, and am planning to complete my second in May of next year.

While I had fun running the half-marathon at the Baltimore Running Festival, the fact that I felt paralyzed from the waist down 2/3 into the race and for a good few hours following leads me to believe that my bootleg “training program” of just running whenever I felt like it for however long I felt like it doesn’t exactly “work.”

Even though the Willow Tree Half in Providence is 5 months away, I’d like to start training for it now, because I feel all kinds of motivated for it these days.  The thing is, most half-mara programs only take an average of 3 months (a full takes about 5).

So!  I’ve been on a mission to find a program for a half that takes 5 months.  Extensive interweb searches have proved to be far from fruitful.  There HAS to be a 5 month program!! Gaaaa!

Has anyone out there ever heard of a 5 month schedule, or am I just totes crazy to be even trying to find one?  I’m sort of banking on those couple of readers who are also race runners making my wish come true here.

In fact, any pre-training advice from anyone would be useful right about now.  Not only would I like to avoid feeling like death warmed over wrapped in helium balloon foil for May’s race, but I’d also like to decrease the time of the first one by at least 20 minutes.  Plus, once the training physically gets underway, I’ll be holding myself accountable by, you guessed it, blogging about it.  And who knows, maybe Brandi will be sooo inspired, she’ll decide to East-Coast-it and run it too.  Just sayin.’