Monday, Monday

Gonna go ahead and post Tuesday's training schedule now, because I know I'm not going to have time to do Monday's. Ugh. I feel all relaxed and refreshed from my weekend but didn't nearly get enough homework done, and tomorrow's a big day at work. So stay tuned for a report on how this goes on Tuesday night, and hold me to that mess!

Old Habits

Click here for notes on day 1 on this Disney Detox of mine. :)

Training Logs and Nutrition

Hallo, everyone. I finally figured out a way to share training logs on this blog, while preserving the formatting I did. Only trouble is that I can't get them big enough this way. Sigh. Here's at least a glimpse of tomorrow's schedule while I work out the kinks. :) You *can* click on the images to make them larger if you're really interested.

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I'm also going to see if I can tackle a pre-Disney Marathon diet detox of sorts. I'm tired of being so addicted to food and so am going to try to pull myself off all the crap for the next 10 weeks to see if I can sort of get out of the habit of eating a) stuff that doesn't make me a better runner and b) stuff that doesn't do my health or the health of the planet any good.

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You'd be proud of me: I'm even increasing the number of calories I eat a day (up from the minimum of 1200 to lose weight to 1391) so I can make sure I'm getting a good amount of protein in to support my training. Baby steps. :)

In the meantime, our girl Kara didn't compete in today's New York City Marathon because she's taking time off to plan a family, but the race was still really fun to watch this morning. Here's a pic of the female winner, Ethiopia's Derartu Tulu, crossing the finish line with a time of 2:28:52. Amazing. Still, Kara's 3rd place finish in the same race in 2008 was better: 2:25:53. The race was slower this year.

Anyway, inspiring stuff. Welcome, November, and your lovely cold-weather marathon training. :)

Born to Run

According to a story in the New York Times today, "the human body is meant for distance." Some of the evidence for why humans evolved for long distances is a little off (or at least contradicts other science of what we were evolved for). I'm talking about the article's suggestion that we evolved to run long distances so that we could eat meat. There's tons of science that shows that we, indeed, did not evolve to eat meat. But besides that, the piece was interesting and at the very least encouraging to us distance runners. Maybe it's not a total violation of nature to run 26.2 miles at once (or more).

I'm Back.

And I'm sorry I've been away so long! I haven't run since the last time I posted about getting sick. Oy. It's been a busy and stressful few weeks, and I had a semi-epiphany about my training that shaped a new approach to this.

This blog is about qualifying for the Boston Marathon, but one of the big reasons I wanted to qualify for Boston was because I thought it would be a vehicle for me to get my life back on track. To get inspired again, to get confident again, and frankly, to get thin again. For almost a year now I've put an incredible amount of pressure on myself, trying to engineer my diet and training to lose all the weight I've gained in a really short time, and all I did was disappoint myself.

No more of that. I'm pledging to merely eat and train to qualify for Boston and for running ... not for weight loss, and not by a certain date. I've gotten rid of my scale, and I'll measure my progress in running and health markers alone. I've found that being thin isn't much of a long-term motivator for me ... to stick with something I have to have real reasons to stand on (like being able to enjoy running even more, not wear a size 4).

In the time I've been away I also started a blog about re-ordering my relationship with food along the lines of what I outline above. Might not be for everyone, but if you're interested, here's the link.

In the meantime, here's the training schedule for tomorrow:

(2) 3-mile runs (gotta build up slowly lest I get sick)
2 hours of yoga
1 hour core work
1 hour, mat workout
15 minutes jumprope

One Lucky Runner: An Entry in 3 Parts

This is where I get to run every day.

On one of my first times out to the C&O Towpath at Great Falls National Park, I told myself, I'll just run to the end of the towpath and turn around. Ha! Had no idea that this lovely, flat, woodsy/river-y path goes on for 184.5 miles. That woulda been a heck of a run!

Since then, though, the towpath's been a great companion on long runs. In warmer weather the first 2 miles of it on the Maryland side of Great Falls are busy with folks walking, biking (and some running), and then once you get past the falls overlook, the crowds drop off, and it's mostly just you, the ducks, occasional lone runner, and historical landmarks. Oh, and if you're lucky, you can also stumble upon beavers (I have!), deer, songbirds, squirrels, and herons. Go for a long run on the towpath in the snow? Magic. Quiet magic. Get stuck out there after dark? Suddenly you find the will to run those last 6 miles back to the car way faster than you thought you could. :)

I made it back before dark Wednesday night, but I wasn't out of the woods yet ...

One Out of Shape Girl

The weather was nice and crisp for my run on the towpath at around 7, when I took the pictures above.  I was excited about getting out there again. I only went for 4 miles, and if I had to rank the run on a scale of 1-10 (10's the highest), I'd only give it a 4 or 5. Stuff that shouldn't have been hurting was hurting. It wasn't awful, but it certainly wasn't great (often when I've been away from running a while, my first run back out goes really well). This time I felt heavy and tired quickly on. But it wasn't impossible.

Until I got home, and I got sick. For those of you who don't know, running sometimes makes me sick. Literally. :) It's a long story, but it can set in 30-45 minutes *after* my run's already over, and often I get no indication that I'm going to be sick till then (I've had runs go great, and then I get home and am out for the count). Doctors and running coaches can't figure it out, I've had tonsa tests, and nothin.' It started in 2003, and for a number of reasons (long process of deduction here), I think I have to build up my mileage very slowly to sidestep this sick thing.

Suffice it to say, it was a bad night. But this brings me to part 3 in this entry: 

One Good Bird

I was feeling awwwwful, but wouldn't you know, my senegal Squirrelly stayed with me all night, keeping me company with comforting little nighttime birdie noises (you bird-lovers will know this as beak grinding ... as well as little peeps and chirps). You Squirrel-lovers will know why this is so remarkable: this little bird is usually NOT quiet ... especially at night. He can be a beast (a cute one, dammit). But I like to think that he sensed that something was wrong with his mom and was therefore being a good boy. :)

In any case, Wednesday night was a mini-wake-up call for me that I'm going to have to take this build-up back to the marathon much more slowly than I'd originally intended, going out for 2-3 miles at a time and steadily adding the miles, as much as I hate to go that slow. Trouble with this sick thing is that even if my body feels fine with the mileage during the run, I can still get sick later. So I'm going to have to take it frustratingly slow ... maybe that'll make success all the sweeter when it comes? This means that this year's Philly Marathon is likely not in my future ... but I still have plenty of time to meet all my other goals/mile-markers.

In the meantime, I'm going to count myself lucky that I can run, and that I've got a gorgeous national park and a lovely, bad little bird on my side.

Biggest Loser is SO motivating.

Total guilty pleasure. But I love it. More substantive posts soon, promise.

Water Miles

So they opened a new, fancy aquatic center by my house, which apparenly is free for DC residents and just fabulously quiet eaaaarly in the mornings.

Wondering whether it's quiet enough to minimize embarassment from aqua-jogging, which apparently all the pro's do cause it helps you log the miles while keeping injuries at bay.

As if wearing a swimsuit in public wasn't embarassing enough ...

Go!

Until one is committed,

there is hesitancy,

the chance to draw back,

always ineffectiveness.

Concerning all acts

of initiative and creation,

there is one elementary truth

the ignorance of which

kills countless ideas and splendid plans:

that the moment one definitely commits oneself,

then providence moves too.

All sorts of things occur

to help one that would never

otherwise have occurred.

A whole stream of events issues from the decision,

raising in one's favor all manner

of unforseen incidents,

meetings and material assistance

which no man could have dreamed

would have come his way.

Whatever you can do

or dream you can, begin it.

Boldness has genius,

power and magic in it.

Begin it now.

-Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Tomorrow's training:

Run and Learn

Another one from Runner's World:

People begin running for any number of motives, but we stick to it for one basic reason-to find out who we really are. -- George Sheehan, M.D.

above: the C&O Towpath at Great Falls National Park, where I've done a lot of self discovery mile after mile. It's one of my all-time favorite places.

Please excuse the brief entry today ... it's been an exhausting week. More tomorrow!

Words to Run/Live By

A lot of running lessons ring true for life, too ... particularly with an event like the marathon. I'm subscribed to Runner's World's "Daily Kick in the Butt" emails, a sort-of quote-of-the-day mailing every weekday. I save the good ones for later, when I might need 'em.

I needed this one today:

The man who can drive himself further once the effort gets painful is the man who will win. - Sir Roger Bannister, First athlete to run the mile in less than four minutes

The Saps Are Running Again

As I've said, Boston's the holy grail for many runners. Here's how fast you gotta be:

A lot of non-runners (read: non-crazies) look at these times and think, shit, RUN for more than THREE hours? They can't believe how long that is ... but anyone who's run more than a mile knows how FAST these times really are for mortals ... and that most of us who attempt 26.2 miles are out there a hell of a lot longer that 3.5 hours. I know of a guy who had been trying to qualify for years ... every year he'd try to get faster, and it never happened for him. Finally he was able to qualify when he broke into an older age bracket, allowing for a slower time! Yipes!

My qualifying time (at the age of 29 ... unless I have to wait till I'm 60) is 3:40, which amounts to running 26.2 miles at a pace of a little more than 8.5 minutes a mile. I think my fastest *mile* was 8.5 minutes ... maybe a little faster. But do 25.2 more of those? That's different.

So Boston's the gold standard -- you might say it separates serious runners from casual joggers. There are few other marathons that are merit-based like this one ... most of the races in the U.S., you just pay for, and if you can keep a pace of a 16-min-mile for the whole 26.2, you're in.

And yet Boston hasn't always been this exclusive.

There's a little irony to this story, one that Runner's World articulated succinctly in this year's pre-Boston coverage. I'm including an excerpt below (punctuated by images of the elite female runners at this year's race, including my FAVORITE marathonner, Kara Goucher, who took 3rd at Boston. These elite women ran the race in about 2.5 hours, translating into slightly more than 5.5 minute-mile paces. Incredible.).


Read the full Runner's World article here.

Through much of its 113-year history, the Boston Marathon amounted to a small annual spectacle attracting few runners beyond the eastern United States and Canada. Every Patriots' Day (a holiday little recognized outside the Boston area), runners would assemble in bucolic Hopkinton to begin the rolling trek to downtown Boston. Dressed in cotton singlets, shorts, and floppy sneakers, many with handkerchiefs tied around their neck or head, the ragtag gaggle of runners looked like Depression- era hobos. Local sportswriters adored the marathon; it let them unleash their most colorful phrases. "It must be spring," they wrote nearly every year. "The saps are running again."



During the World War II years, Boston attracted as few as 67 runners; by 1965, the field had climbed to only 447. "It was still a number that a handful of race officials could deal with, even in the days of no computers and no office staff," says Boston historian Tom Derderian, author of the classic Boston Marathon: The History of the World's Premier Running Event. There was no crush to get into the marathon, no cutoff date or field limit, and no entry fee. You ponied up a dollar to join the Amateur Athletic Union, and sent your entry to de facto race director Jock Semple, athletic trainer to the Boston Celtics and Boston Bruins.




Semple, a lovable if hotheaded Scotsman, veteran marathoner, and coach of the Boston Athletic Association (BAA) running club, maintained his cool for several more years. In 1967, the Boston field grew to a barely manageable 741. Then in 1969, Semple was flooded with 1,342 entries. In an early, pre-Frank Shorter running boomlet, more Americans were beginning to run and to focus on Boston, one of the country's only marathons, and certainly its best known. The mail, the logistics, and especially the phone calls proved too much. "What? You want to know if you can run the marathon in your track spikes?" Crrrash! The sound of Semple slamming down the phone.


To enter the 1970 Boston Marathon, Semple and BAA president Will Cloney decided runners would have to provide a written declaration, signed by a coach, that they could break four hours. Didn't work. The wave of entries and phone calls continued. "What? You say you can run a mile, and you want to do the marathon, only you don't know how long it is?" Crrrash!

.... To slow the marathon's growth and preserve it for competitive runners, Semple and Cloney got more serious about limiting Boston entries. For the 1971 Boston Marathon, they instituted a prior-race test: You had to have already run 26.2 miles in less than 3:30.

... And that's how Boston got to be so fast. Guess I shoulda tried to run the Patriots' Day Race back in 1969. The last time I was called fast was in 2nd grade, and I wasn't running. "Katie, you fassss," my friend Latoya said. Hmmm.

Mile Markers

Hallo, happy readers. Can I just tell you how nice it's been *already* to see how many of you commented/chose to follow me/just *opened* the email? Thanks. :) I feel spoiled.

So I wanted to share some milestones -- er, mile-markers -- with you. These are the smaller goals I want to meet if I'm to qualify for the big day in April 2011.

1. Get in shape!!! Deadline: November 22, 2009

I'm pretty out of shape right now, but I aim to be at least back up to marathon distances and in much better condition by the Philadelphia Marathon, for which I'm registered. How cool is this: the marathon ends at the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the infamous steps Rocky ran up in the movie. :) Nice. I don't expect to turn in any P.R.'s (that's personal record) at the Philly Marathon -- it's just a date for me to get a good run in (it's supposed to be one of the better, faster, and coooolder marathons -- yay), and meet my weight loss/fitness goals.

2. Run a normal marathon and be in even better shape (read: lots of cross-training): Deadline: Disney Marathon 2010: January 11, 2010

By this time I hope to be running normal marathon times (for me, an average pace of 10-11 minutes per mile ... still a far cry from Boston qualifying times!! more on that tomorrow), and do a *much* better job than I did at last year's Disney Marathon, when my mom KICKED MY ASS! Although Mommy, if you're reading this, I know that if you were running the race again this year, you'd still kick my ass, Rocky Marathon under my belt or not. :)


3. January 2010: Start online training with McMillan Coaching -- Greg McMillan coaches elite, olympic runners, like this girl, Paige Higgins, who WON the 2006 Disney Marathon:


For a small fortune (ok, maybe as much as I've spent on stupid exercise dvd's this year), you can pay to have him coach you online (this is geared toward regular runners like me, who seek the holy grail of running: qualifying for Boston). This is how I plan to actually get *faster.* I'd like to train with McMillan till November 2010, the last mile-marker here ... read on.


4. One last marathon before the big one ... Deadline: Marine Corps Marathon, October, 2010.

Already registered. It'll be fun.

5. And the last marker is THE marker: the 2010 Philly Marathon, November 2010. To "qualify" for the Boston Marathon, you have to submit a race time from a recognized course, and Philly's one of those. It's also apparently one of the "fastest" marathon courses for qualifying for Boston. Not all marathon courses are created equally ... though they're all 26.2 miles, some of them are hillier than others (read: harder), some courses are more crowded (read: harder and more obnoxious), and so on. Runner's World rated the Philly Marathon as the BEST race to use to qualify for Boston in 2007. And I'm hoping it'll work just as well in 2010.

If I run that thing in 3 hours and 40 minutes, then I'll end up here 5 months later. And you can stop reading this blog. :)

7,000-Mile Journey

Apparently a journey of 1,000 miles begins with a single step. My journey to the 115th Boston Marathon in April 2011 is more than 7,000 miles long (that's how many miles I hope to log in the 19 months between now and then).

And this is my first step. I've wanted to become a runner for a long time. A real runner. I ran my first marathon two years ago. Running is a chore. It's painful, monotonous, and time-consuming. It's also the closest thing I've ever felt to flying. On a bad day running, I am exhausted. On a good day, I am invincible.

I've been a little too -vincible lately ... too lackluster, too unmotivated, too glued to yesterday. Been trying to find the motivation to run again, to work-so-hard-you-cry again, to come alive again. But the past 9 months have been colored by fits of stops and starts ... high hopes for renewal but no real movement. These low moments come in races, too. But in races, there are hundreds -- sometimes thousands -- of ways out, if you just know where to look.

It's 10 a.m, and you hate running in the morning. You've headed into mile 15, and every muscle in your body is screaming. You're hating life, thinking come oooooooon, why didn't I train better?!, and you can't believe that old man is passing you AGAIN.

And then ...

Then, you turn a corner and are greeted by this:

and this:


and this:



These are the spectators. They are what make races worth every last second (and every last dime). They cheer you on, shout your name, and tell you to go, go, go!!! "Lookin' good!" "You can do it!" "Almost there!" And know what? I usually believe them. I can't tell you how good it feels to see them there. Somewhere near the end of the race, usually where they're all lined up, cheering as loud as they can, I usually end up crying a little. Gawd. I know. But it's just so simple and good and inspirational ... these complete strangers, encouraging you to run faster and harder than you have before. Encouraging you to believe. And then you do.



So that's the real reason for starting this blog. I'm hoping you'll be my spectators as I tackle my greatest running (and ok, personal) challenge to date -- qualifying for the 2011 Boston Marathon. It's really hard, you gotta be really fast (well, for the average runner, and boy am I average!), and -- though I've said it before -- I really, really want it.

So I'll be here, running and blogging, for the next (roughly) year and a half. I promise to try my best, stick to my training, eat right, and blog about it every day. Feel free to come along to keep me honest, tell me I run like a girl, or tell me not to poop in my pants (guys, that is such a myth -- they HAVE porto-potties on marathon courses). Please drop in and comment as little or a lot as you like ... in any case, it'll be great just to know you're there.

On the docket for tomorrow: short trail run and cross-training. You hafta be strong to be fast. Andy knows: