I should rename my Blog after Tarpy

So I haven't updated in a few days thanks in part to the fact that I've actually had something to do.  Sweet.  Brian and I got into Atlanta, GA (his hometown) and he has been showing me around and kicking my ass in NCAA 09, so I haven't spent too much time on my computer.  Anyways, since we have been in one place for about a week, I actually got some decent runs in and, other then today (for reasons I'll get into in a bit) I've felt really good.

So 5 days ago was Wednesday, and one of my first runs north of Florida in a while.  I still hate Florida, even if it was really really nice out all the time.  Anyways, Brian wanted to take me on his staple six mile run around his house.  I was game because, well, I didn't know where the hell to go and because apparently to get into shape I need to run more often.  Anyways, it was a nice little lollipop, and we picked it up the whole way and finished in 39:37.  He says it is a hair over 6, and his Nike+ says 6.3, but I bet it is pretty close to 6 even, just because I am not used to feeling pleased with anything I've run in too long, so I'll assume we were going slower then we were.  Either way it was a good run and I was pushing the pace once i figured out how to get back.  (I did not lead, because I did not know where I was going.  4 Years at Brown and that was really all I took away.  That and  that Jacob will succumb to peer pressure if you try hard enough).

Thursday Brian and I met up with his old HS coach, Tillery (sp??), who is racing a marathon next weekend.  He was going for an easy 10 and Brian talked me into jumping in for some of it.  I agreed and ended up sticking it out.  We ran 1:05.1, so again, I assume it was short and not quite 10.  Either way, I hadn't run that far in some time and the effort prompted me to drink 3 Gatorade's and fall asleep early that night.  I am so much fun.  

Friday came along and Brian and I had work most of the morning and early afternoon.  It wasn't that bad except that it was during the 'Cuse game. For those of you who know me (and if not, why are you reading my blog and how did you find it?), you know I enjoy Syracuse basketball.  So go Orange(men).  From what I hear it was a sloppy game where we knew we were better the SF Austin.  But, as I always say "a 'w' is a 'w'."  I do say that too.  Anyways, where I'm going with all this is that Brian and I had work at 5 am Saturday morning and there was College Basketball on CBS all day.  But I ran anyways!  I went out and ran a decent 5 miler (give or take) in 35:26.  Brian didn't run, so I went out for 18 minutes and turned around.  Sweet.  

NCAA bracket side note.  How the hell is Tushar winning the group I'm in?  He didn't know that Brett Favre signed with the Jets last year, and he is from Long Island.  This guys is beating me, really???  My one condolence that was (up until today) I was beating Tarpy, but even that fell away.  

Saturday, got up at 4:30, took a shower and couldn't put in my contacts because my eyes were so dry and refused to cooperate.  Great start to my day.  Anyways, Dal and I do our thing all morning and get out of the Atlanta's women's 5k a little after 12 and have to go drop some bags off at a local TSA.  We stopped at some sports bar and got lunch.  I ate a ton, as I as starving and had not ben eating much lately.

Random aside:  I lost my credit card a little while ago, no big deal, except that I cant buy apps for my iPhone anymore.  So I often peruse the free section.  While doing this one day I found one that tracks my calories consumed and burned in a day and allows me to set goals.  It is sweet, and has helped keep me somewhat in check, in fact, since I've had it, I've only ate unhealthily once.  That day was Saturday.  And by eat unhealthily, I mean drink a lot of beers and not run.  So Saturday night Brian takes me out with some of his friends to a Journey cover band concert (I think they were called Faithful).  They were awesome.  Real Journey most likely wasn't as good.  I should also note I was hammered drunk.  Or, as they say down here "Out of town drunk."

Sunday morning rolls around and I wake up in Brian's friends Charlie's apartment with a bit of a headache, but more just tired then anything else.  Now, for another painful reality, when I was in undergrad I could get plastered wake up bright and early and hammer 18 and laugh about what a great life I lived.  Now I jog 6 miles by myself and feel like death.  46:40.  Ouch.  Maybe Deals loop from the other day was long, not short???  Oh wait, most likely not, I was just running 7:30's and feeling it.

Anyways, my week started off pretty strong, and although it ended a little poorly, all in all I am actually starting to like running again and feel a bit less like a normie (although, I still am) and more like a runner (which I once was).  My last 7 days I ran 5 times for about 35 miles, so thats 7 miles a day, when I was running, or 5 miles a day total (F*** you math 10) last week.  Not great, but really not terrible all things considered.  Goal for next week: 6 days of running, and 40 miles.  The big 40 mile a week barrier, I bet only a couple hundred high school girls would dare run that much next week.

Next stop, Chicago, then the 'Cuse, then P-Town.  Get excited North East, I'm almost back.

1st time in 4 years I ran more miles then the number of beers I drank on St pat's day

(Disclaimer:  This entry is not for pregnant women or dizzy people, as it jumps around a lot, and is very poorly written, even by my standards.)

Typically that would be an indication of how many beers I drank, not how few miles I ran.  This year, however, it is not.  

So last Sunday evening Deal and I decide to go for a run together.  I normally hate running with him, because he is fit and he runs pretty hard, and you know, I have been known to complain even when I'm feeling good, let alone when I'm sucking air.  Anyways, luckily for me, Brian wasn't feeling in the mood to hammer, so we ran an easy 45 mins or so, and I added on another 15 afterwards.  Keeping to my schedule of running an hour a day.  Thanks to this run, I got in just about 29 miles in 4 runs last week.  So lets pretend that I could run all 7 days a week, that would mean I was on pace to run almost 50 miles.  Sweet.  Thats almost real high school girl training.

During my add on I was lucky enough to watch a space shuttle take off.  Random, but, really sweet.  Did you know those things go all the way in to outer space?  Crazy, I know.

Monday was going to, and in hindsight, did, suck.  We had to make it from St. Petersburg Florida to Atlanta.  Sweet, except that we had to get up at 5 and teach a clinic on Nike shoes at a local TSA first.  Spoiler Alert!!!:  I didn't run.   Apparently working/driving from 6am to 8pm isn't conducive to me wanting to run in the rain of Atlanta.  I couldn't have guessed.

Tuesday was St. Patrick's day.  I've heard that Savannah GA does St. Pat's day pretty hard, too bad I was in Atlanta, and too tired to go out.  Not to mention I only know one person here, and Deal wasn't getting crazy.  Instead we did my first "workout" of my "training."  Brian took me to a local park and it started out as just us running together, but you could tell he was a little amped being back home on his old stomping grounds.  Anyways, he runs pretty fast most days if he can, so today I just tried to hang with him.  We ended up running just about 7 hilly miles in 46 minutes.  Now if that doesn't keep Jacob up at night, I don't know what will!  Regardless (or irregardless, speaking of Jacob) I am starting to like hurting again, which is awesome.  Baby steps, right?

This "workout" reminded me of how I used to run back at Chitt.  Everyday we just kind of ran hard to beat up on the kids who couldn't hang with us.  It was fun.  It made me think, though, to a question Coste raised in his blog.  "Could I beat HS freshman me?"  Or something like that.  I could not, it wouldn't even be close.  It would be a funny race to watch, though.  One of the two of me's would throw up, not sure which one, but one would.  A better question, could I ever in my life beat the 8th grade Sarro in anything?  The answer, is no.  If I recall he long jumped 26, ran 45/147/348/810.  Solid all around for a 13 year old.

In closing, congrats to Tarpy for an awesome race.  And a sweet picture where he looks like he actually has muscles.  

http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090315/NEWS/90315001

FML (Inspired by Fmylife.com, check it out).

So I'm not sure how often is appropriate to update my blog.  Tarpy seems to do it after workouts, or races, or good efforts, but I never have any of those, so that would be a boring blog.  Jokin seems to update it everyday, and I forget and or don't want to write "Didn't run, I'm a bitch," so thats out.  I think I'll just do it when I remember, or when I have something cool to relate.  Or when I think I should let people know I'm still alive.  Which, I am.

Side note.  I was supposed to be in DC next weekend, but, this whole concept of scheduling is foreign to my job and of course, everything got changed 5 days ahead of time, so I'm going to Atlanta instead.  Sweet.  At least Hotlanta is, you know, hot.

Anyways, so I think my last post was about how much running in Florida sucks when you are an overweight Irish kid (how old is too old to call yourself a kid?  Am I that old now?) from the northeast.  Well, I ran the following day and decided, screw it, I'll just run for an hour and see how I feel.  Shockingly, it was sweet.  I ran for about 4 miles (28:03) and came upon a track.  I ran a mile around the track to check my pace, it was 6:56 and change, so I'm guessing I had run about 5 miles by the end of it.  Then I decided to run another mile a bit quicker, not fast mind you, I am incapable of that, but quicker.  So, I started decided to run about a 6:15, just to see how it felt.  Note, I used to run 10 milers at this pace.  Also note, after my one mile at 6:12 on the track, I was tired.  FML.

But honestly, it felt good to kind of feel like I ran something other then just a jog.  After my 2 mile middle school girl level tempo on the track, I ran back to my hotel and counted it as 8 and a half miles (1:00.48).  Sweet.  New game plan, just run an hour every day.  That should get me back in shape twice as fast.

Next day:  Didn't run.  I'm a bitch.

Next day:  Ran a little over an hour again, so 8ish miles (I felt like crap and wont pretend I was running 7 min pace, even though I want to pretend that I was.  At least I'm not lying to myself. Also not lying to myself, I can beat Jacob in a marathon right now.  Fact).

Anyways, I managed to not run yesterday either, and today I only had work from 5 to 11:30, so I plan on getting a decent run in this afternoon/evening with Deal.  I feel like I just need to guilt trip myself into running more, but I don't feel guilty because no one is counting on me to be fit, and, unbeknownst to myself, I have much less self motivation then I thought I did.  Especially since my only real goal is to beat Jacob in the marathon, and I could do that with no training for the next 5 years, so I'm not too worried just yet.

Oh Yeah, I Forgot. Florida Sucks.

So I'll start my post out with a little story.  Some time ago (my frosh year) I was lucky enough to run pretty well and was asked to go on the spring break trip to USF.  I was very excited and wanted to show that I deserved to be there.  I had never been to Florida before, and I thought a break from the cold northeast would be good for me.  I was wrong.  After a couple days of getting dropped by the guys in the 90 degree/80% humidity weather we have a workout.  I am doing a 12 mile progression run where I go out 6 in about 6min pace then come back and negative split.  My last 2 miles were at about 7 to 7:15 pace and my coach at the time, John, pulled me aside and said "I don't know what happened to you since indoors, but whatever it is, you need to change it."I hadn't changed shit, except for my geographic location.  Needless to say, I hated Florida.

Why would I think it was great all these years later?  Apparently I assumed the couple (dozen) extra pounds I am packing would provide me with good insulation from the heat, and as such keep me cooler while running.  

Nope.

So the day after I start my blog and feel so gun-ho about running again my friend Brian wants to go for a run.  Just an easy 6 miles or so.  I'm excited and agree.  about 4 miles later I remember I'm still a goofy white Irish kid from upstate NY who thinks 65 and overcast is the nicest weather on the planet.  Damn.  Anyways, I thought 2 things.  First I can't believe I forgot how much running in the heat sucks.  Secondly, how the hell can I ever bitch about running 6 miles?  What happened to me.  Needless to say my next run, on Monday, was an easy 4 miles inside on the treadmill with the AC on.

I came to Florida and choose to run inside on a treadmill to avoid the weather.  What is wrong with me?

On a random note that some running nerds might enjoy.  Years ago I had my gait analyzed and it was determined I was a severe over pronator.  My new job requires me to analyze gaits myself, so I got mine done again, just to give an example of a severe over pronator.  Guess what, I don't over pronate at all.  In fact, my stride is almost perfectly neutral.  So I have been wearing stability shoes for who knows how long for no reason.  Needless to say I gave a bad example of an over pronator, and I also have wasted a bunch of money.  Oh well, at least now I can train in the Lunar Trainers (sweet).

Moral of the story, I have a week left in Florida then its off to either DC or Atlanta.  I hope DC, but Atlanta is a pretty chill city as well.  From their it is back to the glorious north east for a month.  I will be in Boston, Providence, and of course NYC.  Sweet.

Preface to a blog

So I want to start a blog about my running so that I'm not the only person I've ever met not to do so.  Also, because I heard Jacob will be running 95 miles a week by the end of the month, and right now I am running maybe 30, so this should be some motivation.  When we race the marathon, if I lose, I will never be able to talk to any of my friends again, and that would suck after a while.  Before I get into my half ass comeback stories I want to give a little background.

So right now I'm working as a mobile marketing rep for Nike in conjunction with Sports Authority (Dedicated to the Dedicated).  Essentially I drive a Toyota FJ Cruiser and air-stream trailer all over the east coast, and occasionally across the country, to train and educate TSA employees about Bowerman line Nike products.  I also have to work road races and other "events."  This doesn't sound so bad, except to do this I have to unpack a 400 pound treadmill from my trailer and set up several cameras and computers, not to mention trial shoe cubbies, to preform gait analysis.  It takes my partner, Brian Deal, and I about an hour to set up and as long to set down.  Now on extra special days I also have to set up a tent and a whole area display.  The tent is 20x30 feet and, according to directions, is 4-6 people required for set up.  Brian and I can set it up in about 45 minutes now.  In total, the tent, area set up, and gait analysis set up takes Brian and I about  2 and a half hours, then about 2 hours to take down.  So, to put it into perspective, brian and I are working between 8 and 15 hours a day, depending on number of "events," 5-7 days a week while being on our feet the entire time.  

The point of my sob story is such; I don't have a lot of time to run, and when I do I am exhausted.  So bear with me.

For the past few weeks I have been running when I could, about 30-45 minutes a day.  No abs, no lifting, no stretching.  Too much eating.  Appropriate amounts of drinking.  For the last few days, leading up to yesterday I haven't run at all.  Still too much eating.

Yesterday:  I worked from 5:30am to 8:30pm.  I ate one meal in that time, a lamb gyro from a sandwich shop in Miami.  I got back to my hotel and went for a run, 4 miles in 28:02.  I used a treadmill, hence the exact time for my run.  I am at least fairly proud of my ability to still do most of my "runs" at a decent pace, sub 7's or close.  Thats nice.  I just wish I could run more then 5-6 miles at a time.  I guess thats the point of building up, right?  After my run I did my first lifting/abs/stretching session since I graduated from Brown last spring.  I am still not strong, nor ripped in the abdominables, nor flexible.  So at least not everything has changed.  I actually felt pretty good.  My legs were crap, but that is to be expected.  

More to come.