March of Dimes and bday recaps

The last few days have been a really happy time for me. My birthday was nothing short of fantastic and I got to run a 5k on Saturday for a good cause. {long post warning!}

Reasons my birthday totally rocked:

• My little boy held a bouquet of flowers for me and stood by the front door waiting for me to come home on Thursday. Unfortunately I came in through the back--oops! Completely adorable anyway. 
• My hubby bought me a few, small things that I would have considered luxuries to buy for myself. I think those are the best gifts! Not spending tons of money, not going over the top, but thoughtful things. AND he brought me donuts at my office in the middle of the day. He rocks my face off! (and no, I did not eat them all myself, but I thought about it!)

• I lunched with two girls I've gotten to be friends with at work, then Thursday evening went out for drinks with one of them. We had such a good time! AND, she brought me fresh eggs from her landlord's urban chickens. Because I kind of have this thing with urban chickens. I mean, honestly, people do that?!? Apparently yes. 

• I got thrown out of a colleague's office, lol. He had seized an opportunity earlier in the day and I was beating myself up for not having thought of it. He reminded me that I don't think of these things because I'm new at the job. He asked how old I was (he's my dad's age). I told him it was my birthday, actually, and told him how old I was turning. And he said, "Get the hell out of my office." I <3 my co-workers. 
• Yesterday Mr. Joanna and I went to see A Prairie Home Companion live. I've wanted to see it for years. Probably since I read Lake Wobegon Days in high school. If you're from a small town and you've never read it--do! After the show we had dinner with a group of friends and hung out with some of them until late in the evening. It was such a good time!!
• I got a ton of messages from friends on Facebook, through email, and a few phone calls. It put such a smile on my face! Not to mention the earlier celebrations I'd had with The Beastie, my parents, and my MIL. 

All told, it was a great birthday/weekend with friends near and far. And the weekend was great for another reason, too--I got a new 5k PR in a race put on by a great organization, March of Dimes. I'm pretty sure the swag was worth more than what I paid in entry fees--talk about a win-win! Here's the recap: 

The 5k was much smaller than the 2 mile walk, and started 5 minutes earlier. So the line-up was small, and there wasn't a starting mat. Everyone's start time was gun time, even though it was chip timed. They counted down and sounded a loud horn and we took off, going immediately down a short hill to start. I couldn't help myself, I just took off! I looked at the Garmin about a minute in and saw that I was under a 7-minute pace. Ooops! Had to rein it in, so I did, at least a little. The first mile ticked off pretty easily, at a 7:32 pace. 

Early in the second mile I caught up to a dude about my age. As I came up on him I saw him look over at me. He might as well have said it out loud--he did NOT want to get chicked! He picked up the pace and got about a shoulder ahead of me. He held on for about 30 seconds then "pulled over" and slowed way down and let me pass him. I'm pretty sure it was my only chicking of the day. I'll be honest--it made me smile. :) About half-way through the second mile I was surprised I was still holding my pace and feeling good about it. It started getting hillier and windy farther into the mile. Mile time: 7:45. 

At the beginning of the third mile I faced the steepest hill yet and was running into stiff wind. I was working hard and not moving very quickly. I kind of wanted it to stop for a minute, but I knew if I gave up for even a second I would hate myself for it at the end. I remembered my mantras and dug in and pushed. My pace follows the same curve as the elevation changes pretty closely. Mile time: 8:01.

In the last tenth I took off, per the usual. As I crossed the finish the timing crew started waving a thing like a ping pong paddle at me. Have any of you ever seen timing done like that? No finish mats, but hand-held sensors? It was a first for me. I wondered how they would handle the clumps of people. 

Total time (and new PR): 24:13. woot!!

I made a new local runner friend while waiting for the awards announcement. Then the awards came and something totally unprecedented happened: I took second overall for the women! Even though it was a really small race, I couldn't believe it! I got a little trophy, which my son has since confiscated and calls it the Piston Cup (since, of course, all things revolve around Cars). 

After the race, I headed out for a loop around the park to finish off the rest of my miles for the day (12 total). It's really not my favorite place to run, but the change of scenery was nice, and the weather was great. Overall, it was a great birthday and weekend. Thanks to everyone who was a part of it!

Post-half training

I noticed that JoannaRuns got a few new followers this week--welcome, and thanks for joining my journey!!


I learned a lot this week. Primarily, that I left too much on the course last Saturday. But it took me a few days to figure this out. Going into this week I had 40 miles on the schedule, which is a first for me, ever. I kept telling myself, "Sure, it's 40 miles, but it's an easy 40." Um, right. Just because there was no speed or pace work doesn't make the distance any shorter.

• Monday: 5 miles, easy. My legs felt like J-e-l-l-o for about 1.5, then it was fine. 
• Tuesday: our yoga instructor didn't show up...again. So my yoga buddy and I went out to breakfast instead. Yeah, I'm hardcore like that.
• Wednesday: 8 miles, easy. It was pretty unremarkable. Average pace 9:46. 
• Thursday: missed the 6:40am text from my neighbor saying she needed more sleep. So I waited 10 minutes then headed out to hit our usual route. Soon thereafter I went to the airport to pick up The Beastie for our epic scrappy weekend, which included this:
  
  
• Friday: due to a scheduling conflict I decided to switch my rest day from Sunday to Friday, then run Saturday and Sunday. So I rested. 
• Saturday: Friday night I stayed up late eating cake and drinking wine, so an early morning run wasn't happening. That left me 6:30-7:45pm to run. Conveniently placed right after dinner, I wanted to puke every.single.step of the way. It was a really bad decision. I finished 6.3 of my 8 mile run before it got dark and I *really* wanted to hurl. Gross. My stomach hurt all night up to and including,
• Sunday: at 4am, when I woke up to take The Beastie to the airport. I got home at 5:30am, crawled back into bed, and just fell asleep before The Kiddo awoke at 5:45 demanding chicken nuggets. WTF. Even though Sunday is my weekend day to get up with him, Mr. Joanna took the bullet and let me stay in bed. i love that man so much. 

I really never did recover enough today to be productive. It was hard enough to walk to the park and sit on a bench while the kiddo played for an hour. And grocery shopping was almost torture. It was only this morning that I accepted the truth: I PR'ed by a bigger margin than I expected last weekend. Then I didn't decrease mileage at all (just intensity). Then I ran 6.3 miles about 20 minutes after eating dinner. Then I got up at 4am and slept in snippets through the morning after that. The outcome:

the 16 miles just wasn't happening today.

I've accepted that life got in the way of my best laid plans. I also acknowledge that I have a tendency to over-schedule myself, but honestly, that's how I'm happiest. Even so, I've accepted all of the following about today's FAIL:

1. I'm afraid. I have a marathon in 5 weeks. I only have 2 more really long runs, and I've only hit 16 miles once so far this training cycle. So I'm afraid. Am I really going to be able to PR by the margin I've imagined?
2. I'm relieved that I allowed myself to rest. I needed it, and it was the right decision. 
3. I have no idea what time I'm going to pull at Cleveland. 
4. The recent heat wave (90? In April? Really?) has me scared about weather on race day.
5. I now understand what it means to "leave too much on the course" 

Tomorrow begins a new week of marathon training. I'm going to nail this week. It's another 40 mile week, and it includes speed and pace work, and I'm determined. The next 2 weeks are absolutely critical. Stick with me. 

March recap

this will be my last transmission from Earth's Central Time Zone, er, this will be my last blog post before the Martian Half. The kiddo and I head out tomorrow and we're ready for an awesome weekend. Mr. Joanna is ready for a long weekend of mostly yard work at home, sadly. But before heading out, the March Recap!


Miles planned/ran: 141/128.9
Rest days planned/taken: 5/6
Highest mileage week: 36.8
Long runs planned/ran: 4/3.5 (because this happened)
Pace workouts planned/ran: 3/3 
XT days planned/done: 5/5
Tempo or interval runs planned/ran: 5/5
Favorite run: I'm going to have to say my 16-miler. I had some fun and confidence-boosting tempo and pace workouts, but the 16-miler had gorgeous weather and I got my pacing right FTW. 
Current goal: sub-2 half on Saturday!!
Current obsession: see Current goal.
Current need: new dress pants, because nothing I own fits. See "current excitement," and no, I am not pregnant. 
Current excitement: too many to choose from~the trip this weekend, my continuing weight loss (thank you, sparkpeople!), and a visit from The Beastie next week!!
Current bane of my existence: the big toe on my right foot. Yep, still hurts. 
Current wish list: Crabtree & Evelyn lavender shower gel. I'm almost out and I always feel like it's a luxury to buy it. 
Current indulgence: As an early birthday present, my Mom bought me a necklace that I fell in love with while we were strolling around a boutique a few neighborhoods over. It's gorgeous and I love it! 


Special March Addition to the recap:
I've finally picked a name for the new Garmin: Clepsydra. This was a nomination from RunningFirst and I really like it. It's Greek for water clock/water thief. What better name for a running accessory could there be?!? Thank you for all the name suggestions! 

730.1 AND DONE

Guess what? I DID IT! Today's 6-miler put me one little tiny tenth of a mile over my yearly goal. After all the confusion and re-planning, I can officially say that this year is in the books. DONE. And as proof of this (and proof that I don't post only the nice pictures), here I am the minute that treadmill stopped. And btw, and you can quote me on this, you know you're a runner mom when you wipe sweat off your brow at 4.3 miles and realize that your hands smell like Play-Doh. 

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for all of your support and encouragement, not just here at the end, but throughout the year. It's been a totally crazy year. I liked the list approach RunningFirst took, so I'll do the same. Here's a good/bad recap of the year in roughly chronological order.

1. I got to run a half-marathon with my much-missed Meg
2. I PhinisheD my PhD! And had a great big party. My West Virginians came and everything. 
3. With the Team, I ran my first trail race the morning of my son's second birthday....and had an emergency appendectomy that night. And an open house the next day. 
4. We sold said house. (well, sort of. It's complicated, but is occupied by people other than us)
5. My parents came to help finish packing, moving, and painting the new place. I drove over our mailbox with a 24' Uhaul truck. We had movers pack the truck, but still needed help at the end. Some of our good friends came to our rescue and helped us get the job done. Then I drove all our worldly belongings to our new house in a new city and state. 
6. The Beastie and her husband came to visit. Saying goodbye was really hard, knowing that they were moving many states away. We'd lived nine of the last eleven years within a few miles of each other. Thank goodness for Skype.  
7. Mr. Joanna and I started new jobs, the kiddo started a new daycare.
8. I endured the hottest long run in history (let's assume no one's ever actually run Badwater). 
9. I tripped and ate massive quantities of asphalt while running...twice. Consequently gave up wearing statement tees, such as one that might have said "Kick Asphalt" that I might have been wearing the second time I fell. 
10. RunningFirst came down to run L&C with me, my second marathon. I set a new PR by 27 minutes, which I'm still pretty proud of. 
11. I got to see some of my college girls, meet some of their other friends, tour San Francisco and run a half-marathon there, including going over the Golden Gate bridge! Not my fastest race, but fun. And I got to run it with Frank (and her "passenger"!).
12. Two trips to Detroit, one for the baptism of my newborn niece and the other for Christmas. 
13. After months of repairs and breakdowns, Mr. Joanna finally got a new car that includes such luxuries as a radio and working windows. Then wrecked mine. (I got glared at for that last part, but it's true. Although it was a minor fender bender and it's been fixed). 
14. I met my running goals for the year and did it injury free!!

I hope I'm not forgetting anything. I probably am. There were so many big moments, not just in our lives but in the lives of our friends.  

In conclusion for 2010, here is the monthly mileage report from runningahead. I'm really grateful that RunningFirst introduced me to this site this year. It's been great for helping me track everything. It's no surprise that June was my lowest mileage month, given the appy and the move. What this graph also tells me is that I clearly need to be doing more tempo and interval work. I also know from my incredible (and historically unprecedented) inflexibility that I have to do more cross-training (read: I need to do some, any cross training).  I'm on it. In the next few days I'm going to start putting together, with help from RunningFirst (aka, Coach Mike) my training plan for spring. Here's to high hopes for my spring races!!

Rule 104.3B

I hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas. Personally, I ate my way through the entire Detroit region and had a great time doing it. I even ran one day on the hotel treadmill--oh yeah! My family did a vaguely-white elephantish-stocking stuffer exchange, where we all bought three random items less than $5/each and traded them amongst ourselves (kids' stocking stuffers were chosen much more intentionally). Among my items, I took a pair of red and white women's knee-high socks with white faux fur around the top. I was really hoping my Dad would get them, but no such luck. But that was actually my third gift exchange of the season. One was with my boys (and MJ & family by phone) before we left, and one was before that, with The Beastie.

I love her to pieces. I really do. We were young enough when we met that we exchanged Christmas and birthday gifts. We have continued this tradition and we always have fun with it. Our birthdays are only 4 days apart, so it's sort of a semi-annual party tradition. Anyway, this year, since we live far apart, we mailed the gifts then had a Skype gift exchange. Complete with this photo of us in front of her Christmas tree. Silly? Maybe. Fabulous? Absolutely.

What do you do to keep in touch with far-away friends?

So, Blogger Rule 104.3B, as invoked by TnT Coach Ken: if you blog it, you must follow through. Yeah, yeah, guys, I know. I'm ridiculous for obsessing over the difference between 720 and 730 miles. I get it. But do you know how much it would bother me to run 727 miles and know I was *this close* to what I said I was going to do? Have you ever read my self-description on this blog? Compulsive over-achiever. Stick with me until the end of the week--let's see how close I can come. Right now I'm at 713.6. Hellooooooo treadmill!

And....race announcement coming later this week! Stay tuned.