Increasingly frustrated

As I write this, my 10K is 5 days away and I feel woefully unprepared. I realize it's only 6.2 miles and not some ridiculous 13 or 26. I realize I was more than capable of running 5 and 5.5 miles a few weeks ago. The huge bummer is that I still just don't feel well enough to be running. Yesterday, I saw a woman stretching in her running outfit and getting ready to start out for a jog and the inside of my stomach felt nauseous just thinking about it. This is not a typical reaction. I don't know what to do. I've been sleeping a lot and pounding the fluids and being as healthy as I otherwise can. I feel okay mentally. I'm well enough to come into work. But I have not run in two weeks!! And it's not some psychological thing.

Right now I've got some weird chest congestion where coughing ravages my throat and sounds horrible. Plus I've got some sort of sinuses or head cold and can barely breathe. I thought about going to the treadmill at the gym to maybe sweat out some toxins but I don't think it'd be very gracious of me to be coughing all over the machines. And since I haven't felt all that wonderful, I've been eating less than normal. I just don't feel that I have that inner fuel (and fire) to go prancing along for 30 minutes, let alone an hour or more. I get that more beastly runners have no problem logging 10 miles on a hangover with diarrhea while stopping to puke every 2 miles. I'm just not that masochistic, I guess.

I'm getting so upset about this. Before this cold or congestion (or whatever it is) I though I had some minor flu that was hurtling through my office. That lasted a few days. I think I was better for about one day and then *bam* now this.

I just don't want to go to the race and WALK like I freakin' did for most of that half marathon. No. This was my moment to put that behind me and surge through a race feeling healthy, upbeat and injury-free. I guess I'll continue to take my cold pills every 4 hours or so and hope that something turns around very very soon!!

"a complex and torid affair"

Everything we do is geared towards tipping the balance...

*Big news*

I'll be the new editor-in-chief of Her Active Life since Katie, the current editor, had to step down. That wonderful lady is incredibly busy and moving on to grad school. I wish her my best!

The other awesome news is that Grand Traverse Woman magazine wants me to do an article on moms who run. I emailed them a submission inquiry since I have an article basically finished about the 2007 Bayshore races. However, I'll have to do some tweaking to slant it towards the mom perspective.

Guess I'll be staying in most of the weekend, which isn't a problem since I'm not feeling too spritely. Seems everyone is sick right now :(

If you know any moms who've run the Bayshore (any distance) help me get in contact with them!

Sick and tired...No, really.

I think my zest for working a bunch of crazy hours to gain that overtime and my zest to keep getting to the gym to train combined with some virus in the air to leave me rather sick this past week. I only managed one run last week, at least it was a great run. Then I missed one day of work and left early another day. I was feeling nauseous and experiencing flu-like body aches. My appetite was nonexistent. It was hard on the psyche to miss some workouts but sometimes your body just forces you to take a break. That's what I did. I got some rest. I visited with my family to bond and relax. I had a wonderful weekend. Now I'm giving myself one more day to recuperate. I'm power dosing on fruits and veggies and soup. I'm going to go for a walk to absorb lots of scintillating vitamin D and get my body in motion. Then the plan is to try another run on Tuesday. My race is less than 2 weeks away. I'm sure I'll do fine. The question becomes: can I do great?

Haven't written much lately

This is an article that I actually wrote a long time ago but it must have been lost in the pipeline. It's basically a product review of a traction over-shoe that you wear over your running shoes for more stability when running on icy surfaces.

Here's another quickie about a news article that discusses the health benefits of sleeping to fight against weight gain.

Click on the links!!

movin' up!

I had a pretty great workout on Monday evening. I ran 3.5 miles at a good pace for me. I also did an hour of weights. I love that feeling of bumping up the resistance and I had a lot of that. For the leg press, I did 85lbs for my single leg presses (2x12, each); for both legs I was up to 115 (2x12); and for the last set where i push up with both legs and come down solely on the stability of one leg, I managed 100lbs. Those were some impressive achievements! I also did some balancing exercises, lunges on the foam tubes and the old adductors/abductors. hooray for me. Gosh, only two weeks until my 10K. I hope the weather is decent!

Since Martinique is so hip with "map my run"...

I ran 5.5 miles earlier this week. My goal with finishing out the week is to run 4.5 today and 3 on Saturday. Since it is so unbelievably gorgeous outside, I had to find an outdoor run. This leads me to my heading---here is my run for the world to see:

5.5 and back on track

This week is starting off with a lot of promise. On Sunday, I finally got to yoga for the first time in awhile. That was exhilarating, even though getting up early on Sunday isn't what I love to do on the weekends.

Monday was a long day at work and that opened up Tuesday for the gym. I decided that I had enough with the easy 3 milers and I vowed to kick in a bit of extra effort. After 3.2 miles on the treadmill, I had to jump off and grab some water (forgot my water bottle, doh!) and then I thought I had some energy left. I hopped back on for another 2.3 which was a total of 5.5 combined. Woohoo! Go me!

What's even better is this spring time weather. I can't wait for some outdoor runs!

Mar 2--Mar 8: 8 mere miles

Hey I had a lot going on that week but I still made it to the gym. And everyone needs a week with less mileage now and then. Right? Right!! That's what I thought.

My sister was in town and on Friday we went to the gym and on Sunday we went to Bikram Yoga. I'm pretty lucky that someone can visit me for the weekend and I can still get some exercise. Not a lot of people are that lucky! And I can still drink some beers and put down some ice cream. Booyah!!

30 days until the race

Today I made it to the gym before work. I guess miracles happen twice in one week. Who knew?! This was a prime example of a quick session. I walked for ten minutes and then I ran 3 miles in 34 minutes. I also saw the most darling Taylor Swift video on the country station. Gosh, I'm such a technology bumpkin that I have to actually go to the gym to watch cable tv. Oh well, the gym membership fee is much cheaper than the cost of Comcast! Seems like southeast Michigan residents are expecting a big winter storm this weekend. Hopefully it passes soon enough and I can get back to running outside!

I've got a peg leg at the end of my stumper, shake your ...

I wear heel inserts in one of my shoes. They have been an enormous help in preventing back pain that I used to get when I would run. I'm lucky I figured this out---extremely lucky. How many people can have their back pain cured by purchasing some $8 item? Not too many. I always know when they are getting worn out because, right on cue, my back starts hurting. Well I have felt pretty strong about my training this year and I wanted to avoid the loss of any running days from back pain. So I ordered some new heel inserts. I ran 3 miles today and *voila* all systems functioned smoothly. Gotta love that. Then I did a bunch of leg weights. It was a robust early start to the day, but sometimes that's how you gotta play these things.

this sweet tender video brought tears to my eyes

Feb 24--Feb 29: 12 miles

I was right on target for this week. Exactly where I wanted to be. I accomplished three runs at 4, 3 and 5 miles each. Hooray! I'm a bit sore from the back to back days, but I'll be allowing myself a rest day before busting into next week's rigorous plan. I think next week might be the time where I bump up my long run to 6 miles, but we'll see. Again, the race is five weeks out and I don't need to go overboard and do anything potentially damaging this early on. I'm pretty proud that my last weeks have seen a gradual increase in mileage. Gradual---that's the key word. That's how I keep my body functioning optimally.