Long Time Coming

Well, this post was a long time in coming. I realize it's been too long since we gave an update! But the real piece de resistance is our half-marathon! After more of a year of trying to become runners, and 5 months of direct training, the race is coming in a mere 6 days.

There have definitely been some imperfections, but by and large we have stuck to the schedule we set ourselves. Jonathan is in terrific shape and will have NO problem finishing the half-marathon. He's a natural runner, leggy and nimble.

I on the other hand am going in an injured pony. About 3 weeks ago we did our first 8-mile run on a Sunday afternoon. I had been marveling that very morning on my healthy joints! Over 13 months of running and never a single injury. I always warmed up and stretched, but never made a huge deal about it so I didn't give it a lot of credit. That afternoon we were going out with a couple other people and had gotten a babysitter. For some reason I was slow getting ready, then forgot my water, then had to use the restroom.... I was holding everyone up! So when I finally got outside we just took off and ran. Those 8 miles were some of the longest, slowest, most difficult of my whole running career. Afterward, my left knee felt a little stiff. The next day, more stiff. I immediately started an aggressive regimen of ice, stretching, and anti-inflammatories. For the last 3 weeks I have kept it up, and each time I run the knee gets a little more stiff. I've had it looked at by our physical therapist and had an ultrasound exam (they found just a little fluid on it). It has never really been painful per se, just very stiff. After yesterday's 10-mile run, our last long training run before the big day, it hurt less than I thought it would. Today after clinic, though, it was the stiffest ever. I'm going to need to rest it all week and keep up the icing. I'm very confident I'll still be able to finish the half marathon although I will be thrilled to do it in less than 3 hours.

Wish us luck! For info on the race, check out: http://www.kansasmarathon.com.

Cross training

Well, despite the lack of updates here, we have in fact been training still. Here's an over-the-shoulder photo of some of us on our bikes for cross training. We've been doing some stretching and strengthening exercises, gradually increasing the length of the runs, and interspersing shorter runs as well.

So far our longest run has been 5 miles, but that will continue to increase every week up until the time of the half marathon. Unfortunately one of our team members hurt her knee pretty badly and won't be running with us, but there are four of us who are planning to run together.

New Year's Day Run

We decided in the midst of our new training schedule to shake things up a bit with a run in Syracuse on New Year's Day. It was a small, very poorly organized race that nevertheless was pretty fun. We signed up for the 4-mile run, which was just two laps around their golf course. On the first go-round, the person who was advertised to be stationed at a confusing "Y" in the route was not in fact there, and we followed a bunch of other people down the wrong path. Thankfully we did make it back to the start for the second round, on which we were properly directed. My advice to next year's organizers: SIGNS!

Our training has been going pretty well, as long as we stay healthy. I had started developing some bronchitis the day of that run, and since it was longer than our typical runs so far I think my body was rather unhappy at the exertion. Thus I sent Jonathan out alone for our scheduled Saturday run yesterday. We're up to "long runs" of 2.5 miles, which we'll increase to 3 miles over the next 3 weeks. I hope to add some Pilates and strength training over these weeks too. Then on Jan 26 begins our official 12 weeks of half-marathon training, which is much more intense. After the way this 4-mile race treated me, I really hope I'm up to it.

Things I think I need to work on (besides conditioning, obviously): Stride length. As I jog my body seems to want to stay very compact. I don't go very fast, which doesn't bother me, but I think this is probably not the most efficient way to run 13.1 miles. Jonathan, when running without me, stretches his legs out and gets sore in different muscles than he does when he runs with me (when he pretty much looks like he's trying not to walk). TWO, I need to find out if there are special considerations for knock-kneed distance runners. Any special stretches or weightlifting I should do to compensate for my valgus? I do recall being told in medical school that "Thou Shalt Not Varus" is a cardinal rule of sports, so if I'm going to have deformed knees I picked the right ones to have.

(And a note: we've changed our blog name to reflect our new goal!)

Are We Crazy??

This blog has been dormant for a while, but I think it's time to start up again. We are going to run a half-marathon!!!

We started a training program designed by Hal Higdon. We'll start with the "Novice" 5K training program for the first 7 weeks, then when we're comfortable going 3 miles at a time easily, we'll ratchet it up to the "Novice" half-marathon training program for the next 12 weeks.

Stay tuned!

Dry Run

I'm in Phoenix--my birthday present from Robyn this year was a long weekend visiting my good friend Chris and his wife Aimee without my kids. Today since Chris and Aimee had some work they needed to do in the morning, I decided (after sleeping in) I'd go for a run before it got too hot. Of course, being Phoenix, it was already in the 80s at 9:30 when I got outside. When I called Chris to ask about a spare key he reminded me to bring some water, because Phoenix is very dry. It's a good thing, too: without water I don't know if I would have lasted ten minutes. Western Kansas has been pretty dry, too, but not quite as hot, and most days when we go out for a run I don't sweat too much. Today by the end I was pretty gross.

The run itself wasn't bad. I put my earbuds on and listened to an episode of "This American Life" while I ran. I don't have the spiffy armband holster that Robyn has for her Treo so my Palm was just in my gym shorts pocket, which is not great, and my earbuds aren't really made for running so I had to adjust them often. But it gave me something to listen to while I ran around the neighborhood, trying to remember which street Chris' house was on so I wouldn't get totally lost. It was a little confusing because of some cul-de-sacs and streets that didn't go all the way through where I expected them to, but I didn't stray too far and managed to run for about 35 minutes before heading back.

We missed several runs this past week because of Robyn's work and my movie theater meetings, but we're hoping to get a few in while we're in Portland if possible.

We Are Officially Off The Couch!

I wanted to post some pictures from our first joint 5K running experience. For what it's worth, our official chip time was 42:29.55. Jonathan placed 102 out of 110 male runners (he could've gone MUCH faster without his chubby wife, trust me), and I placed 138 out of 170 females. Also, please take into account that due to my needing to stand in the port-a-potty line until just about 60 seconds before race time, we started at the very back of the pack, and so you could probably take about 2 minutes off that race time to be completely accurate.


Here we are pre-race. Note my extraordinary hodgepodge of clothing layers: Tights, running skort, technical long-sleeve shirt, official race T-shirt, and cushy hoodie sweatshirt. Note Jonathan's extraordinarly inappropriate legwear. After the race I took him to R.E.I. and we bought some sporting pants for his birthday.


We took this pre-race from the parking lot across the street. We jog/walked over there thinking we might get lucky and find open potties in the Visitor's Center, rather than stand in line for the Port-a-Johns. Sadly, no, but we did get this awesome view.


The obligatory "here we are!" self-taken photo


Robyn feels STRONG as she starts the race. Once again, notice how far back in the pack we are.


Another pic of the amazing scenery, and the miles and miles of people in front of us.


The rocks here make a formation called "Kissing Camels." If you can't figure out why, well, you have no imagination. Sorry. Jonathan took this one while jogging backwards in front of his huffing-and-puffing wife.


And, a photo of huffing-and-puffing wife, taken while kneeling. Yes, he had time to stop and kneel while I chugged along. :-)


Some gorgeous rocks.


More gorgeous rocks. At some point the 5-mile race branched off down into this canyon (which I knew you ran down and then turned around to come back up) -- we figure the scenery on that route was probably even more amazing than what we got. But we DID want to finish before lunch...


The only photo we have of Jonathan in the race. Note how he handed me the camera, then jogged a ways ahead so I could snap the photo (which is blurry because I did not pause my chugging).


More beauty!


Here, Robyn is really, really happy to be on the downhill slope. One thing I noticed, though, was that once I got into my rhythm I really didn't want to break it, even to go faster on the downhills. Grannies were passing me as I slowly just went along at the same pace I had had all along, and I was OK with that. I was still running, after all, and it felt comfortable. I wasn't about to mess with that just to break the pride of an active old lady or two.


The home stretch is in sight, here. The red rocks in front of us are the same Kissing Camels rocks we saw as we started the race. The route comes around that curve you see and goes downhill back to where the race started.


And we're done!!! Robyn still feels strong, but is craving a banana. :)

YES!!!

Pictures soon to follow, but I couldn't wait to post this for our faithful reader(s?) - we did it! The 5K was more difficult than what we had done before in training, and it took us close to 40 minutes to complete. But despite hills and altitude and a very early morning, we ran the whole way! For the first 1.5-2 miles, we were apace with the "sporadic runners" - those who would run a ways at a pace too fast for them (and thus pass us), and then have to stop and walk (thus allowing us to pass them). Finally, though, we got by them and finished with other runners. The scenery was GORGEOUS (as you'll see when we get home to post the photos) and the weather was perfect, if a tad on the chilly side. Can't wait until next year!