Duffy Dose

No running.

Just drinking. Water, of course. And orange juice. Being sick away from home is the pits. Somehow crawling under the crisp hotel sheets is not the same as passing out from exhaustion on the couch under a warm homemade quilt.

My appetite is also insane. Last night for dinner I had a four pieces of garlic bread, a steak, a jacket potato, broccoli and carrots, onion rings and two Cokes. And then I was hungry when I got home.

I guess that's why they say "feed a cold".

Argh. Well, off to Hamburg tonight. So no chance to run until Sunday.

To Run or Not to Run

So for the past few days I have had this horrible horrible cold. Unfortunately, this has curtailed my plan to run in the mornings. And when I get home I am so exhausted that I just basically poop out. All of this kind of stinks, because I know how I get when I skip too many days of running (I don't want to run anymore). The issue is complicated by the fact that tomorrow night I fly out to Hamburg (flights are so cheap from here, how could you not visit another country!!!). I get to play tourist for a day and a half, so there will be no running there. But anyway, back to my original point. I have been confused on whether I should be trying to run or not. I consulted a bunch of websites, which said if you are sick from the neck up, you are okay to work out moderately. I read this as "shorter runs" and "moderate pace". No repeats. No sprint work. WebMD said that working out might actually HELP you feel better.

My issue is actually making myself do it.

I am incredibly stuffed up and weepy. Plus I had a bit of insomnia last night, so I am super tired on top of that. I hate being sick! Don't you think it's funny how when you are well you don't really appreciate the greatness of an unstuffy head? I always think, 'wow, I should really appreciate being well. When I get unstuffed it is going to feel sooooo great!' And then when I actually get unstuffed I don't notice it. And then, I'm like 'oh wait. I'm not stuffy anymore.'

ANYWAY, I have been listening to my body more than my head, and NOT running. Which is probably good. Hopefully this cold will all be gone soon.

GROSS

Ok. Yes. I am talking about my toenails again. So stop reading if you are squeamish.

So after removing my nail polish and looking at my toenails again I started to worry. And I started to think that maybe wearing nail polish on my toenails was sort of exacerbating the problem. So I went to Superdrug to check out solutions. There is this one topical medication that is like nail polish but I cannot find it ANYWHERE. The only reason I know about it is that I got a pamphlet on it at the London marathon. It has these gross illustrations of toenails on it and I kept reading the brochure over and over this weekend (Bill was like "you are obsessed with that brochure aren't you?") So I didn't find that. But I found this other lacquer that looked the same. It was expensive! 16.99 GBP which translates roughly to $34!!! I didn't get it after I read that it was for "preventative treatment for healthy nails". That is not me.

So then I came back and started searching online. This is all very gross.. I think I have either distal subungual onychomycosis or proximal subungual onychomycosis or both, if possible.

I say this because my big toenails are brownish yellow and on closer inspection they have a bunch of white dots by the cuticle. So according to IntelliHealtheven if I do get this thing treated, it will most likely fall off, wwhich is I guess what you all have been telling me from the very beginning even when I was bragging that I had solved the problem with my stupid Sally Hansen Miracle Nail. And even if they don't treatment takes 12 weeks of therapy with an oral medication...which I won't even be able to get until I get home, which is 2 weeks from now!

No cute peep toed high heels all summer :(

Not a Morning Person

Maybe I will have to revise this?

I made the decision to get up early this morning (ok, early for me...6:50) and get my workout in. I have been really bad about working out since Bill was visiting last week. (Which actually is funny. I worked out 3 times last week. Usually that is a lot for me, but since I moved here for the last few weeks I have been working out 5-6 times a week). So I figured I needed to work out today. BUT the problem was that I have been trying to pamper my feet since they are still gross. Well, wearing a pair of cheap high heels that cut into my toes all day at work on Friday did not help. I have never done this before, but I think I am going to try to return them. I mean they REALLY messed up my feet!!! The stores close early here, and I have to eat dinner sometime, so I decided the only time I could work out would be this morning.

It wasn't a huge deal, because there is construction outside of my hotel room every morning which starts around 6, so I usually just lie in bed cursing them for 2 hours.

I made my way to the gym, looking like hell, to use the erg machine.

I had a pretty decent workout!

And afterwards I had a lot of energy!!!

And I could take my time getting ready for work, because I now had an hour, not 15 minutes to half an hour, so I actually had time to fix my hair correctly and worry about what I was wearing and my makeup. In other words, I don't look like the typical slob designer...which makes ME feel better.

OK, the hard thing will be to keep this up when I get home. Its all well and good to get up when you are already having trouble sleeping and walk across the street to the gym. But what about a nice comfy bed in a quiet neighborhood where you have to drive to the gym? We'll see. I'm really really really going to try.

Be-yoo-ti-ful!

Wow! It was so nice out yesterday! Perfect running weather! I always feel like a tool when I mention weather in my blog, but it has seriously been terrible here. It rains every day and has been pretty cold too. So when its nice out, it is SUCH a rare thing.

Bill and I did a nice easy 2.68 miles (I thought we had done more, but checking afterwards on mapmyrun.com, found out the real distance. Whoops). I felt pretty good too. Which is good, because the day before felt really really hard, even though it was only 2 miles. Maybe the lesson is to not take days off. When I take a day off, it seems really hard to get back into it. Well, maybe I can take a DAY off, but not three days off.

I don't even run with my ipod. It seems pointless when you are only out there for twenty something minutes. I just sing songs in my head. Yesterday it was the song from Ferris Bueller's Day Off (I think it is called "March of the Swivelheads"), you know, in the end where he is running through people's lawns to beat his parents home? (Hmmm, sorry for the Ferris Bueller spoiler, for anyone who has not seen the movie :) Anyway, I was singing that I think because I was weaving in and out of all the people on the sidewalk to run. Maybe with all of the weaving I really did do 3 miles yesterday!

He Probably Wants to Kill Me

My husband that is.

Let me first give you some very pertinent information. I am very competitive. It doesn't matter what the stakes are, what the game is, etc. etc. It gets me into trouble a LOT. I remember one time when I was little, my family and another family we were friends with went to play putt-putt. I was such a sore loser (so was my friend Greg though, it wasn't just me), that no one wanted to play putt-putt with us again. Bill (aforementioned husband) will not play Scrabble with me for the same reason.

So here I am, nagging Bill to run. You would love it, I say. At the marathon post-party for my running group, Coach Joe and I almost convinced him to run in the Hyde Park Blast group.

Last night we go for a run. And he kicks my butt. So I acted all sore about it. I was really really trying not to. I was thinking how stupid I was being, but I couldn't help being mad. He asks me if I'm okay. We have found out throughout the years that it is just better to get it all out in the open if something is bugging us. So, unlike a sane woman, who would just say "yeah, I'm fine" I tell him that I am mad.

In fact, I said something like this. "I'm just annoyed. You kicked my butt. I have been training for like over a year, and you haven't even run in a year. It is just so unfair. I mean, I want you to do well. I mean I want you to like running. It's just frustrating."

He very nicely explained that he is just good at running. He very nicely told me that I am a long-distance runner and we only did two miles. He also very nicely pointed out that he would be sore tomorrow and I would be fine. (I guess me being a sore-loser is no surprise to him by now).

I took a shower and I was fine. That is a great improvement from the time it usually takes me to cool down from my stupidness. I just wish I could GROW UP. Errrrrr.

(Oh, and btw, I am very glad that Bill is a good runner. I am just a prat :)

Er, uh, ERG

So, I checked out the gym in the hotel on Saturday. After getting over a small disappointment that there were no free weights or weight machines, I was ecstatic to find an erg machine that wasn't ancient!
If I wanted to build up my arms and shoulders here was a great way to do it.

Since I haven't REALLY been on one of these machines seriously since my college rowing team days, I decided to do a workout based on time and not distance. So I set the clock for 30 minutes.

I always find it funny that you can be in superb shape for one sport but as soon as you switch to another, you start to realize how out of shape you are. I was dying. My back is just not used to getting that kind of workout. The funny thing is though, that most of rowing is in the legs (ask any rower) which is contrary to what most people think. So it was easy enough to go fast, with lots of resistance on the machine...but at about 11 minutes I was having a hard time bringing the bar up to my abs. I told myself I would take a 30 second break at 15 minutes. But then it got to 14 minutes and "Funeral for a Friend" was on my ipod and I thought 'no, you can take a break when the song is over' (knowing full well that by then, I would just finish the workout, since I think it is one of the longest rock songs ever). I got my second wind, and I guess I tricked myself mentally to finish the workout.

I also learned a valuable lesson: I should probably add some cross-training into my running training!

A New PR!!!

So, Beat the Banana was fun, but a LOT different from any race that I've been in.

First of all, this was a very non-competitive fun run. They didn't even have a clock, so I'm glad that I had my running watch with me. We met at the South Bandstand in Hyde Park, but they didn't have roads closed off or anything. In fact, when the woman at the starting line was going over "rules", one of them was "watch out for people and bikers along the course".

EVERYONE wore their t-shirts. Which to me, is really funny . My friend Jen, wanted to wear her Hyde Park Blast tee in the race last year (because they are so cool, and because my company designed them, and because she happened to be the Client Team on that project) and my boss Richard was like "no, no, no, only amateurs wear the race shirt the day of the race". I kept thinking about that when I was watching all of these people in their bright yellow "Beat the Banana" shirts. I shoved mine into my backpack and put it in the tent with all of the other backpacks. But then I realized that if I didn't wear it, I would be the only runner NOT wearing one. And despite my track record of being a non-conformist, there are just some times when you have to conform.

It was a good thing, too, because otherwise I would have gotten lost in the shuffle. Because people work out and run and walk and bike along these paths, it would have been hard to tell who was in the race. And all of the yellow shirts made it easy to spot where the course was.

So I was dying! I felt so tired, and sneezy, running through all of the polleny trees and plants. And I felt like it was HOT (it was only 74). I was trying to do a 9 minute mile. It was hard to figure out though, because they don't mark the miles here, only the kilometers, and I was trying to do the math in my head, but it just is not one of my strong points. It has been really hard for me to get out of my 11-minute mile pace that I was running for the marathon. I thought for sure it wasn't going to happen. I felt like (and the calculations in my head told me) I was doing about a 10 minute mile.

At the last kilometer I looked at my watch and SWORE it said 26 something, but I don't think it did, because I finished with a 26:43! Yay! A new personal record for me!!! (That's an 8:35 mile pace!) I know I'm not breaking any world records, but for me that is AWESOME!

Since Bill wasn't here to buy me ice cream (that's his thing...whenever I get a PR we get whatever kind of ice cream I want. I usually go for Dairy Queen) I got a banana milkshake at dinner tonight.

Oh yes, and now I also have a bright yellow t-shirt that says "Beat the Banana" (and the banana was FAST).

Whoo-hoo for me!

Despite my lack of motivation, I have run ALL THREE nights this week (if you count the week as starting on Sunday). And I think the sheer repetitiveness of just getting out there and doing it is breaking up my running funk.

It is also actually getting warmer out. Yesterday when I ran it was 70 degrees out! Now I know that this is nothing to you Cincinnatians who are braving 80 plus degree weather, but seriously, I have been wearing sweaters to work every day! This makes me happy because I remember the Hyde Park Blast from last year and the heat was killer. I knew that running in 50 degree weather wasn't going to help me that much.

So last night I did hill repeats again to work on building up my sprinting capability. I did 6 repeats (I made sure I counted accurately this time). I think I am going to have to find a better hill to practice on. Or maybe I will just have to do more repeats. I will not say that this time was easy, but I felt great the entire time. I guess I will be able to better guage that tomorrow when the pain sets in.

I realized last night too...I will still have 2 weeks of training once I get home! That should give me more than enough time to get ready for the race. Hurrah!

Tonight is a no-running night. I am moving into my hotel which I think will be enough of a work out for me. I already lugged one of my suitcases and a backpack .77 miles to work so that I can check-in at lunchtime. The other suitcase is the one I am worried about. It is the one that always gets that bright orange HEAVY label on it at the airport. And one of it's wheels are broken (thank you, Charles de Gaulle). So I guess it will be a weight-lifting night.

Beep Beep

Yesterday I actually really really wanted to run. And the temperature was just perfect! I was a little chilly the whole time, with a light breeze. I also decided to shake things up a bit and not do my straight out-and-back run. I ran up to one of the main streets by where I work and totally had the intention of turning left, heading up to Angel/Islington, which is where I usually run. When I got up to the street though I thought, 'hey, why don't I check out where my hotel is?' so I turned right.

It always amazes me in big cities how one block is all blighted and gross, but just two blocks away is where the really really rich live. I mean, that is sort of an exaggeration of what I saw, but I went from youth-hostel-land, to posh-urban-yuppie-land. No trash on the streets! No creepy internet cafés or hole-in-the-wall "restaurants" called things like STAR burger. I am now really really looking forward to moving into Holborn and AWAY from King's Cross even more.

Anyway, one thing that HAS been annoying me on every single one of my runs (come on, you knew I couldn't be all sunny skies, I have been so negative about running lately) are the people on the street. A lot of them crowd the sidewalks, walking, no SAUNTERING five across and not moving when they hear someone behind them...which, I originally thought was just because they couldn't hear me, but come on! I can hear people behind me when I am running and I have my ipod playing! So then I have to either WALK behind them until traffic clears, or go around them if traffic is clear. They never do move for me. The worst though, are the people who are walking TOWARDS me. They SEE me, and they see that if they continue walking the way they are, side by side, that I will have no other option than to stop completely and let them pass. Not because I am a runner, who is taking up some weird amount of space, but because I am a person who occupies some width on the sidewalk. To make it worse, they look at me defiantly, like I am doing something wrong.

OK, OK, so there were actually 3 people last night who moved to the side when they saw me coming. For that I am grateful.

Bill says that this is probably why people only run in the park. At first I agreed, but then I was like, wait, I saw at least 6 runners on runs last night, and I always see runners on my runs. I remember them because they always run with backpacks (I think they actually run to and from work.) Oh well, I guess that is just something I will have to deal with. I can't bear to run in the parks by me because they are so small I would just end up doing a million loops for 30 minutes, which is unbearable. :)

Those London Runners are FAST

So I was eavesdropping on the tube (I know, horrible horrible me, but at rush hour it is extremely close quarters so how can you not eavesdrop?) and I heard this middle-aged man talking about his upcoming 5k this weekend. He said he was going to try and do 15:30, which is what he did last year. Because with a new baby (he has five children apparantly) he hasn't gotten to train as much.

Now, WHAT?

It's just me and my husband and our dog, and I can barely make enough time to run.
Especially that fast!

My boss was telling a similar story at work. He is running a 10k this weekend. He is going to try and do around 34 minutes. He has been training, but not as hard as he would like to.

In the marathon book I am reading they were saying that marathons seem to be the popular thing to do now, and it is not uncommon for much slower runners to run them.

I thought they meant people like me, NOT people who do 7 minute miles the whole time. They are SERIOUS about running here. Even the "celebrities" who just ran the marathon for "fun" were coming in at 4 hours or less. That's why I was so wary when I came back and everyone kept asking me what my time was. NO ONE asks me that at home, except people who are close to me. They are all like "oh, it's so amazing you did a marathon". Here, they were all like "wow that's great you did a marathon. Oh well, you will get a better time next time." How demoralizing!!!

I like how in the states I am considered a runner because I RUN. I get off the couch and instead of watching TV all night, go out and run. Not because I qualified for Boston for the gazillionth time.

:)

What's Next for Runnergrrrl?

Well, I thought I would be joining another training group, this time for the Hyde Park Blast. HOWEVER, I just found out yesterday that after the marathon I will be returning to jolly olde England for 6 weeks! This will become my true running test. Will I be able to keep it up on my own? Who knows. I hope so. But I am definitely one of those people who thrive in a group. And let me tell you, if my husband decides he doesn't want to go to the gym when we get home, I have a really hard time going by myself. So we'll see.

It will also be kind of hard to train for the Blast without blasting through all of those hills in Hyde Park during the training. Although there are hills here, the real Hyde Park is no match for our Cincinnati version. Not to mention that today our high is supposed to top off around 67, whereas I heard yesterday in Cincinnati was more like 80.

Oh well, I will definitely keep on running. I have no excuse. It is only 4.1 miles!!!!
AND, I've decided to keep the blog. I KNOW it says that it's about marathon training, but I guess that will just have to change to more all-encompassing running. Not as exciting, but I don't care. :)

Impossible is Nothing (Part 1)

So this weekend, after an early Saturday run, I went to the London Marathon Expo. Then on Sunday I went over to watch the marathon. It was amazing!!!

The expo was a lot of fun and there were great deals on running gear (or as they call it here, your "kit"). As I got off of the train, there were all these ads with marathon tips sponsored by Nikeplus. The whole marathon was sponsored by adidas and the theme was "impossible is nothing"...when you walked in there was a wall that said "impossible is nothing" and you could sign your name, or a message. It was kind of neat to see how many people had signed it. (Check out the link there are some cool downloads there). The enormity of the whole expo made me realize how huge this event really was.

One thing that I thought was funny (maybe they do this at all marathon expos...I wouldn't know since this was my first one) was that they gave you a bag with all of the samples from sponsors at the END so that you didn't have to walk around with a bag collecting samples. There was even a can of beer included, which made me laugh!

They had like 15 different designs of T-shirts they were selling and I really couldn't help buying one, even though I felt kind of lame because I wasn't really running the marathon. But I figured I was kind of lame by going to the expo too, so I might as well.

Anyway, the whole thing was very exciting and is pumping me up to run the pig!

I am a Nerd

I think I just realized how obsessed with running I am now because I was on the London Marathon website and was reading about the expo where people are going to pick up their packets. I was thinking, I should go to that. I mean, it wouldn't hurt. Those expos have all kinds of booths about running and sometimes good deals on gear. And it really isn't that far away anyway. So I am going tomorrow morning just to check it out. That's when I realized what a nerd I have become when it comes to running. I think also that I just really miss my group. So I am trying to do anything I can to stay in touch with running (yes, this includes actually running).

Our coach has been sending us daily emails with tips in them. He keeps emphasizing that we MUST taper, even though the temptation is great to get some more speedwork or hillwork done. I don't know about everyone else, but I am ENJOYING the taper. My body is TIRED. I am going to need every ounce of energy I have to do another long run like we did last Saturday. But also, I think that this may be because I am familiar with the concept of tapering. I used to be a swimmer and we would taper for the last two weeks before our final meets. I guess I can understand how people would think this concept is strange. I mean, I remember being freaked out in the beginning of my training that I was going to lose everything I had worked for when I had to slow down because of injury. Anyway, I am taking it easy and loving it.

Tomorrow my long run will be 12 miles...nothing!
I am looking forward to it.
And I bought a pocket map last night, so now I know where I am going.

Londoners are the Nicest People

Why? Because I tend to get incredibly lost here.It actually took me 4x to figure out how to get from home to work and vice versa before I finally got it right.

So last night on my run I decided to head into Islington, which is a burrough right next to mine. I headed left on the main road and hit it in no time. I made a little circle around the block and headed back the way I came. I suddenly noticed a park and thought, 'oh that's nice...I don't remember seeing that on the way up'. Not a big deal, I mean it was on the other side of the street. Then, I hit residential area. Hmmm? I turned right and headed up to another main thoroughway. LOST.

I ran (well, I was walking at this point) into a man who says "you're not going to WALK the marathon, are you?" I talked to him for a bit and it turned out his co-worker was training for the marathon that is this weekend. He told me how to get back to Camden, and I figured I knew how to get back from there (I had been there the other day) .I started running again and got to Camden. Nothing looked familiar. I was totally lost. I decided to take the tube back to Kings Cross station...the station by my flat.

Good idea, but there was a fire in an apartment building on Camden Road and the street (and therefore tube station) was closed.

To make a long long story short, I asked a million people for directions and all were very very helpful and nice. I am just an idiot. I get confused here because the street names change like every 2 blocks and there are so many little arteries of streets, it's not set up in a grid. Like, right by my work there is Clerkenwell Green, intersected by Clerkenwell Court AND Clerkenwell Road. Confusing!

I did end up only running the 6 miles I intended, so that was good. I have to get myself a pocket map!

The Hills are Alive

OK, so I was a little bummed that I was going to have to train in London. In my mind, London was very flat. I guess that is because when I was acting as a non-runner tourist I didn't pay attention to hills. Well, London DOES have hills. Especially where I am staying, in Islington. There are so many hills on the way to work that I feel like my walk there is a workout. That being said, my calves and knees has finally started to act up again (I knew there was no way I was in the clear after that 20 mile run). So tonight is a long walk, some icing and an Aleve. Tomorrow will be a run. Coach said at this point, the most important thing is to make sure I get the cardio in. I have worked so hard, I am not going to botch it by injuring myself. On the other hand I don't want my muscles to atrophy either...so I am exercising the principle of I know what's best for my body. Which I think I do now...I couldn't say that at the beginning of the marathon training, but I think I have learned a lot now! This weekend is the London Marathon, and I am going to the park to watch at least some of it. Exciting!

Running Across the Pond

No, I do not have magical powers that allow me to run on top of water. However, my company will be sending me to work in their London office for a few weeks. I was really nervous about this because we have our longest run ever scheduled for Saturday and there was talk that I was going to leave early this week. I could not imagine getting off a plane and trying to figure out a 20 mile route in a city that I am fairly unfamiliar with. Not to mention that I would be jetlagged and unmotivated. It turns out I am leaving on Saturday, which will really help me out! I can run in the morning and THEN hop on the plane. This basically will force me to rest my legs anyway, which I am very bad at doing after long runs. (I am someone who has to be constantly moving, so although I tell myself I am going to rest on Saturdays I usually end up running around doing laundry, cleaning, shopping, etc.) While I am there I am going to follow my training schedule, which should not be so bad because we are tapering, and our mileage goes WAY down. Way down like, I think our last run before the marathon is 3-4 miles. Crazy. These are the running things I will miss though:

1. My husband(of course) who motivates me daily
2. The clinics - I am missing a tapering clinic, AND a "last minute" clinic
3. the team cookout - I am so mad I am missing this!!! I bet it will be a lot of fun!
4. Running with a group - it will take a lot for me to make sure I keep up with my training.

However, I will get to run in London! Fun!
And I am going to try and watch some of the London Marathon , which is April 22nd!