There’s nothing much to say about these early morning runs anymore. I mean, they’re getting easier, I think, or I’m getting used to waking up so early. Today it was pretty humid, which sucked. And Kristina and I took Tylenol PM last night to help us sleep so we both were pretty groggy when we got started, but we woke up about halfway through the run. I tell you, it’s not a bad way to start a run. That way, you’re only really awake for part of it, and the first half is only a blur. Ha ha. Don’t worry, we’re not going to become addicted to Tylenol PM.

I think we also went faster today because we hit our normal halfway point at 12 minutes, not 15, like we did on Monday. So we went a bit further today. It didn’t even seem harder! Nice. Before I went to work, I drove our route (which on Mondays and Wednesdays is the neighborhood route, plus a few extra blocks) and found that the running part was 2.4 miles. So that means our speed today was 4.8 miles per hour, which is a 12:30 mile. Yay! Improvement!

On a horrifically sad note, our friend Anne’s (who we lived in London with) dad was diagnosed yesterday with terminal cancer. Annie lives in New York City now, and is flying in tomorrow to be with her family and friends for a few days. Her dad is a really really sweet man (he helped me get out a speeding ticket – he is forever in my debt) and I am very sad about all this. Why do dads always have to die? Sigh. Anyway, obviously our trip to Houston is out of the question, but that’s okay. Houston will always be there.

This morning run business is getting easier and easier. Last night I went to bed at 10:00 or some strangely early hour (for me) and though I didn’t sleep very soundly (I seemed to wake up every 2 hours, like clockwork) I slept for long enough that I was well-rested. Now I’m not tired like I was yesterday, so this morning running thing might not be so bad after all.

Yesterday afternoon I felt downright lazy, seeing everyone running around and being outdoorsy. I forgot that I had already exercised, so that will take a bit of getting used to as well. It was a gorgeous afternoon, though. Sigh. How I wish New Orleans could always be like this. Well, maybe 5-10 degrees cooler. But the low humidity is beautiful!

We decided that on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, we would run at the park, since we don’t have to be up as early. We were supposed to run with Sarah, so we started at her house, but (surprise, surprise!*) she wasn’t there, so we went without her. There was some fog lingering in the grassy areas, and when we got to the golf-course side of the park, the sun was streaming through the trees looking rather fetching. We also went the opposite way that we usually do, which made the whole run just that much stranger. We had to go around once, then keep going for 5 more minutes, then turn around to make the entire 30 minutes. According to my (not entirely reliable) pedometer, we went 2.2 miles in 30 minutes, which is a 13:40 mile, approximately. I’m fine with that, I’m not surprised or anything, but Kristina’s getting a little antsy. She wants to go faster, which is fine, but I’m just not ready for that. But then she’s not training for anything, so it’s not surprising that her goals might consist of speed instead of endurance. Hmmm.

Anyway, the 30 minutes isn’t bad at all, we’re really getting used to it. I think in the next couple of weeks we’re going to have a few minutes to that, maybe 3-5 minutes a week? And longer on the weekends? Maybe 45 minutes to start with? I really do need to make up a training schedule for the weeks remaining until I start the marathon training. I have eight full weeks (not including this one) until then. Hmmmm. Will work on that.

Oooh – also, I think I’ve lost a couple more pounds. My scale sucks though, so I’m not entirely sure. I’ll pretend like it’s right. Ha ha!

*Sarah is always late. Always, always, always. You can set your watch by it. (Set it back at least 30 minutes.)

Today was the first time I’ve run since Wednesday. Ack! But I did run 4 times last week, so it’s not as if I’ve slacked or anything, really. Today was also the start of our new running schedule, which entails running in the morning. I don’t mind running in the morning, it’s just that I’m so tired for the rest of the day. But it is nice to get it out of the way so that our evenings aren’t completely taken up by running. I’m sure once I get into the new schedule, I’ll be fine. But on Mondays and Wednesdays, Kristina has class at 8:30, so we have to go at 6:30. At least on Tuesdays and Thursdays we can go at 7:15 or so. That’ll be better. I even had to come to work early today because I had nothing else to do. Well, it’ll just take some getting used to. And with the time changing this weekend coming up, we don’t really have much choice.

Anyway – about our run – we ran for 30 minutes, easily, no problem. So, really, it’s great! Perhaps I should be looking on the bright side – we do much better in the morning because we’re not already worn out from the day.

This coming weekend, we’re going to Houston. Can’t wait to run around Mike and Debbie’s neighborhood again. There’s a path around their neighborhood that I ran around last time I went but I wasn’t properly hydrated that time. This time, I have better endurance, the weather is cooler, and I know to bring water. And Kristina will be with me. Yay! Fun! And we’re going to a Halloween party. Last night I sewed our costumes. Well, part of them. I don’t feel like describing them now, so I’ll post pictures of them when I’m done.

Woah! As of yesterday, I’ve run 4 days in a row! I think it’s been a while since I’ve done that. And since I’m planning on running tonight, that’ll make it five in a row. That’s usually what I do in a week, but I’m going to Baton Rouge on Saturday, so I probably won’t be able to run then. But I’d really like to run around the lakes while I’m there. I’ll see if Kristina wants to. Anyway, not important. Last night’s run was good for me, bad for Kristina. It was colder than it’s ever been, and Kristina is very sensitive to cold. Can’t understand why, really, since she’s from a cold place, seems like she should be immune to it, but anyway. She had a bit of trouble at the beginning with her knee but she stretched it, then she was just cold, and the shorts she borrowed from me were annoying her, so after we had gone about half way around, she just started walking and I ran alongside her. Ah ha! Now you can see that I just use the word “running” to make myself feel better…but I’m not going to say I’m “jogging” just because I’m slow. In fact, I was running somewhat slower than usual yesterday, so at least we do run a little faster than walking pace. And she wasn’t even walking that fast. Ha ha.

On to more serious stuff…I got an email today from my oldest friend in the world, Paula. Ever since high school, our lives have been wildly divergent…she got married about 4 years ago, and now she has two adorable kids, Cole, who is now about 5, and Caitlin, who is almost 3, I think. I haven’t seen them since my college graduation, over 2 years ago. Yesterday, I found Paula’s email address in my address book, so I decided to drop her a line and see if she still had the same address. I didn’t hold out much hope since it had been so long since I’d heard from her. But she emailed me back, saying she had a lot of news for me, and today I found out what that was.

I have to say I wasn’t surprised that she had big news, because every time I’ve talked to her, she’s had big news. The first time I talked to her (since college, probably) she had gotten married and had Cole. The second time, a year later, she had Caitlin. And now, as it turns out, she’s just gotten back from spending a year in Memphis with Caitlin at St. Jude Children’s Hospital. Caitlin was diagnosed with leukemia a year ago, a really bad variety of it, and she was in chemotherapy and all of that mess. She is in remission now, miraculously, and back in Louisiana with Paula and her big brother and her dad. Anyway, that’s the gist of it. I’ve probably messed up some of the details, but it got me thinking.

Ever since I decided to run this marathon, I have thought about doing it for a charity, but since I’m in the US, and the affiliated charities are in the UK, I wasn’t really sure how to go about it. Originally, I thought I’d probably do it for the American Heart Association, in my dad’s memory, since he died of a heart attack. But they get so much money already, and yesterday I read in the paper that the local Ronald McDonald House is sorely lacking in funds since September 11. And Paula and her family stayed at the Ronald McDonald House in Memphis for part of the time that Caitlin was in the hospital, so maybe that would be a good charity too. I’m going to wait to hear what she says, she might have some ideas.

It’s cold here! Finally! I’ve been waiting for cold weather (ok, cold for Southern Louisiana – it got down to the 50s last night, I think) but I forgot that cold weather also equals dry weather. Which means I’ll get just as thirsty as I did in the hot weather. But that’s good, really, because it will force me to stay hydrated. Must get some more nice winter moisturizer, though. My skin’s going to really dry out.

So yesterday after work I went to the park again, with the goal of going 30 minutes straight, and I was trying to psyche myself up for it, thinking to myself “I want to tell Chris I ran 30 minutes straight by myself” and that I wanted to tell Kristina too. But as usual, my brain got the best of me and made me decide that 20 minutes straight was plenty. I think it’s really because of the park. I’m sure I could have gone a measly ten minutes further, but that would have meant going around the park again, because I hit that 20 minutes exactly at the parking lot. And I was feeling pretty good too. I think that I will have to start doing out-and-back courses once I start my real marathon training so that this doesn’t happen. Also, I’ve decided I’m not going to take a watch with me when I do those runs. At least with an out-and-back course, if I want to get home, I have to run. 🙂 Or I might try the “drop me off 5 miles away” thing. That might be interesting.

Still, even though I wussed out of hitting my goal, I’m not unhappy about my run last night. These are my easy runs. Kristina’s back, so she’ll make me go the entire time, and this time, we’ll go around the fly as well or something, to make sure we get that 30 minutes in. Yay!

I realized yesterday that Sunday was 6 months until the marathon! Ack! I know that doesn’t really mean anything, except that I will be starting my real marathon training in 2 1/2 months. It all starts the week between Christmas and New Year’s, which seems like it would be a hectic and inconvenient time to start it, but I think it will be good. And it’s not like I’ll be running much that first week anyway. In fact, I’ll probably be running less often, since the training program is only for 4 days a week.

But I’m getting ahead of myself now. I still have 2 1/2 months to get in better shape, to be able to consistently run for 30 minutes at a time. Actually, I need to be able to run 3 miles at a time, which I obviously can do (see 5K report, above) but consistency is the key here. Yesterday evening I went to the park after work, and went with the intention of running twice around. But without Kristina to pace me, I went out too fast, ran half a mile, got out of breath, and walked some. I walked to Sarah’s house, which is on the park, stopped and talked to her brother, and then continued on the dirt path that goes around the outside of the park, but then I felt a little silly. The only people who seem to use that path are good runners. I’m not ready for that yet. 😀 Plus, I’d probably trip over a root or something.

So I got back on the path, and finished the loop around the park. Mostly running. Just not all running, like I wanted to do. I really need Kristina to help me with pacing. Maybe that’s what I need to work on for the next 2 1/2 months – pace. I was thinking about asking for a heart rate monitor for Christmas, just a simple one to help me with that. We’ll see. This Christmas will be fun – last year I couldn’t think of anything I wanted except amazon.co.uk gift certificates (I love to read British books) but this year, it’ll be all running stuff. Shoes, clothes, little gadgets…yeah!

This afternoon, after work, I’m supposed to go running with Sarah. Yeah, we’ll see about that. She’s not exactly Ms. Reliable about these things.

Oh, yeah, and yesterday, I passed by LaSalle Park, in Metairie (or Kenner? not sure) and it has two running paths, one is 1.8 miles and the other is 1.2 miles. I’d really like to find a longer path (like the 6 mile loop around the lakes in Baton Rouge) but this one might be interesting. At least I can do 3 mile circuits instead of 1.77 mile ones.

Friday, we finally got to run again. The weather was so gross during the week, we really couldn’t run. Thursday it thunderstormed badly, but fortunately, Friday was clear and cool. We went to the park and ran for 27.5 minutes. Not bad! It was getting dark so instead of going around the park twice, we added the zoo parking lot, which made the total probably a bit over 2 miles. It wasn’t too hard, and we would have gone further to make it a complete 30 minutes, but it was dark by that point.

Saturday we didn’t run, but we went to Jazzland and I swear I got more exercise on the evil, evil, evil rollercoaster (which evil, evil Kristina make me go on, and sit at the back, which is apparently the fastest place to be) just clenching my stomach muscles to keep it in place and screaming my head off. Fortunately, it started storming right after that, so we had to go home and couldn’t ride it again. Too bad. I suspect we may go again this weekend, though, so I’m not really safe. I mean, I like roller coasters, but this one was a bit much. It was wooden, so it was bumpy. And it was really fast! Ack! I’m getting nervous just thinking about it now! Flashback! Aaaahhhh!

Okay, so then it was sunny again on Sunday, and this time we decided to go run on the levee. That was different, finally. I’ve been desperate for a new route, and this one will be good, I think, especially when I have to start doing long runs. Apparently, you can go all the way to Kenner on the levee, which is 20 miles away or so. We went out for 16 minutes and then turned around, but we weren’t able to run the whole way. Kristina’s knee was hurting her when she ran (I diagnosed it as her ITB giving her pain. Now my excessive reading on running is coming in handy! I have probably 4 books with stretches to help her with that. Yay!) We ran most of the way, though, and overall it was a good run. Almost 3 miles, I think. I used my pedometer again, and I think it’s almost correct now. I’m going to calibrate it at the park today since there’s a measured mile there. Kristina’s going to Dallas this afternoon for the Dallas-Redskins Monday Night Football game with Kettie and Maura, so I’ll be running alone.

Went for a short, once around the park yesterday alone. Kristina’s mom was cooking dinner (lamb chops…mmmm) so I had to hurry. I don’t know how long it took, I didn’t have my stopwatch with me, but I’m pretty sure I went out faster than usual. It’s hard for me to pace myself without Kristina, and the effort was definitely greater. That’s okay, though. I didn’t run all the way around the park, I did have to walk a few times, but considering my speed (tee hee – maybe 11 minute miles – lightning!) I’m not disappointed or surprised. I also got a new pedometer and wanted to try it out. Apparently I had the stride length set waaaay too long because it said I went 3.5 miles, when it was really only 1.77. I wish!

Today Kristina’s coming with me. I want to go for 30 minutes straight. Want to make sure I can do it again, not just during a race. I’m excited about it.

I’m still a little discouraged about my lack of weight loss. I’ve lost about 7 lbs in 6 months which is practically nothing. I know a lot of it has to be muscle, I’ve definitely lost inches. But still. I want to lose at least 35 more pounds before the marathon. I think once my training runs start getting longer, it won’t be difficult. Once I start my real marathon training, I’ll be far more careful about what I eat. Or before that. I promise!

Went for a walk last night. It was nice, just a stroll. I stretched before and after. Today, I have no pain. So maybe I was overreacting a little. I hope. We’ll see how I feel after the race tomorrow.

I’m tired. Didn’t sleep for long enough last night. I have a problem with books. I had maybe 50-75 pages left of a book and there was no way I was going to sleep with that few pages left. So of course I finished it, and missed out on some much-needed sleep. I’m hoping I can leave work a little early today to get some rest. Maybe I’ll nap at lunchtime.

Don’t know why I’m writing anything today. I didn’t run yesterday because I’m paranoid about my hip pain. Apparently, it’s a groin muscle and I may have strained it, which according to everything I’ve read, is about the worst injury you can have. Naturally. It doesn’t hurt that bad, though. I stretched it a lot last night, and so maybe if I just take it easy, it’ll be okay. I mean, the books were all talking about possible pelvic stress fractures and years of recovery. Ack! It doesn’t even hurt that bad! Just a little achy! So today, maybe we can just go for a walk and perhaps jog a teeny bit, just to see how it feels. And we’re definitely going the other way around the path if we go to the park. I’m now really convinced that the camber of the path is what’s causing this problem.

Kristina’s mom is coming in tonight, so we’re definitely not running tomorrow (going to some Oktoberfest thing, I think) which I think is good – rest before Saturday! I’m excited about this race. Not as nervous as I was for the first 5K. Yay!

Yesterday, we went around the fly, 1.5 miles, and then around the park, 1.77. Supposedly, we did about a 5K. Not bad, except that it took us like 50 minutes. Ha ha! Of course, we were stopped for several minutes by a train, so maybe it was more like 45? Still bad. But we ran more of it than ever, so I think we did okay. My goal for the 5K on Saturday is not to have a faster time than the last one (39:05) but just to feel better afterwards. I think we’re better at pacing ourselves now, so it should be better.

Some muscle in my right hip was hurting yesterday during the run. During the forced train break, I stretched it, so it felt better afterwards, but it’s sore today. I need to figure out what that is so I can fix it. It’s still sore this morning. Also, my lower back gets a little achy too, only on the right side. I think I need to work on core strengthening. It feels like my back muscles are just too weak.

Good news – apparently the new Runner’s World has Baton Rouge as it’s “On the Road” article. Cool! Hopefully I’ll get it today.