Mondays in Love: A Blah Run

There's tension here at JoannaRuns. I had a crappy "long" run this weekend, but it's a beautiful thing anyway.

The thing I am desperately in love with is, in fact, the same thing that totally FUBARed my "long" run yesterday: the growing baby in my belly. Allegedly the kid is going through a growth spurt right now. No freaking kidding!! This weekend was an epic saga of eat-sleep-repeat (read: conserve energy) while cramming in as much work/family/cleaning the house time as possible. The run just was not going to happen on Saturday. And when it did happen yesterday, it was slow, tired, and not a lot of fun.

No runner likes to see a run go awry. But, I am so helplessly in love with this tiny person I don't know yet. I want to shout this from the rooftop: I felt the first kicks last Thursday, and it's beyond magical. Right now while I type this I can feel my baby squirming around, just a little. I can't wait to get to know this baby. The next ultrasound--and gender reveal--is in two weeks. I feel like a little kid at Christmas, just almost incapacitated by the desire for the big day to be here already. I so badly want a peek!

This weekend was the first real reminder that sometimes I'm going to have to let things go when it comes to running while pregnant. While I can and will continue to run long into the pregnancy (maybe even up until delivery, if I'm lucky--my doctor and I are both hoping for this), there will be times that I need to cut myself some slack in even the reduced mileage/speed that I've been doing the last few months. I have to remember that the bar is different now, and that my finish line is the healthy delivery of my child (God willing) and not a PR under a huge digital clock. (Although, incidentally, a "labor PR" would be welcomed. Seriously. I was in labor for over 22 hours last time. And the image of a huge digital clock over a hospital bed is hilarious.)

Those of you who know me well know that I totally suck at letting things go. But, I've been through this once before, I get it. And I'm just so, so thankful.

Hoarders, Running Data Edition

Let me start by saying that I am absolutely not a hoarder. If anything, I'm a little trigger happy on disposing of things. Over-crammed closets, cabinets, and rooms stress me out. So imagine my surprise when I realized that I have become a hoarder of running data. It all started so innocently.

At first I kept data only intermittently or not at all. Then I kept it on runningahead.com, then on Garmin Desktop Training Center. Then, well, things got out of hand. 

See, because I work around the clock and my employer prefers to keep it that way, my laptop belongs to my employer. Last week they updated it, and in doing so backed up everything except my Garmin Training Center data. *%^&!! I lost my data, at least in Garmin-ese anyway.  

My response may have been overkill. I decided to start backing up to Garmin Connect. And...I've decided to start using dailymile (find me! I have like 4 friends on there right now. It's kinda sad and I feel like a noob), although that one was just for fun.

That means I'm now storing running data on Garmin desktop and online, runningahead, and dailymile. That's right, in FOUR places. Not counting the record keeping for HBBC and POTM (see badge to the right). 

Am I alone here in my insanity? How many sites/places do you store your data? Have you ever lost massive quantities of it? This is out of control.

Only a runner

Pregnant woman tend to remember more of their dreams and have more vivid dreams than the rest of the population. I knew this was true for me, but didn't realize how common it was until I got an article from babycenter.com. You can read all about it here (and probably learn more than you want to know about the approximate size and composition of buns in the oven at 17 weeks). The short version goes, we wake up to pee frequently, thus interrupting REM sleep and allowing us to remember more of our dreams.

The other night I had a dream where I had amnesia (true story: I just had to ask my husband what the word is for when you can't remember anything). In this dream, I could not for the life of me remember who I was. It wasn't like it was on the tip of my tongue and I just couldn't spit it out, it was like the information genuinely was not stored in my brain any more. In the dream, I solved this problem by happening upon a picture of me taken during a race, then used the bib number in the picture to look up the race results and figure out what my name was. 

The weirdest part? The Redhead was helping me look up the bib number. We've met in real life on multiple occasions. Had this been real, she could have just told me who I was. But I think we've established that this is the ludicrous production of a pregnant runner's brain. 

No one other than a runner would have this dream. Ever. This makes me cherish it. And laugh at myself. Do you ever have crazy runner dreams? What's the craziest of them?

Mondays in Love: Rocktober

Ok ok, yes, I kind of hate mashed up words. Teddy bears that say "I love you beary much" make me throw up in my mouth a little. But seriously, October rocked. I said it weeks ago--I love all things about October + Running. This year did not disappoint.

First I caught you up on the ins & outs of first trimester running

Then I salivated over spectated from afar the Chicago and Detroit Marathons and thought back with love on spectating Chicago '07.

Then I celebrated my 300th blog post with a giveaway and met a handful of you through that (signs are finished and will be in tomorrow's mail!). Then I volunteered at Rock & Roll St. Louis and had a blast. 

Then last week I surpassed my 2010 total mileage. And after all that, there was still some awesome October running to go. FIRST, last Friday I had my fastest run since I found out I was pregnant (4.03 miles at 9:18/mile, if you must know--not any Earth-shattering record, but I'll take it as a "pregnant pace run"!). SECOND, last week I had my highest mileage week since, unbelievably, the Cleveland Marathon (seriously, I triple checked the training log). THIRD, with today's run, October became my highest mileage month since May. Crazy, huh?

And today is Halloween! Which means I get to go Trick or Treating with my little boy, who will be the awesomest Batman you've ever seen. I'm honestly not sure which of us is more excited about it. 

I love October running. I'm sad to see it go, but looking forward to seeing what kind of mileage I can post before the end of the year and what hijinks y'all are going to get into!

Faster in the dark?

Lately I've needed to move my morning runs up about 30 minutes and it's been staying dark later. Together, this has meant that I've found myself running pre-dawn. A funny thing has happened. At first I thought it was just a freak thing and would pass, but it didn't. It feels like I'm flying and I'm not. I'm keeping about the same pace I always do.

I wondered if this was normal. As it turns out, at least one guy with a PhD in Psychology has written on this subject and why it happens (read it here). The weird thing is that most people (who left comments on his post, anyway) remember this phenomenon from childhood and notice it much less or not at all as an adult. So, am I the weirdo? Wait, don't answer that.

Maybe it's because I'm pregnant. Or a lefty. Or unaccustomed to running in the dark. Or on a path toward world domination.

Thoughts?

As it turns out, I love this running-before-dawn business. I can easily adjust my route to run along the street, in the street lights, until it starts to lighten. Logistics: check. And I'd forgotten how much I absolutely love greeting the day and seeing the sky lighten with the sun. And it's just pretty in the park--getting to see the street lights still lit against a vaguely dark sky. Life is good.

Another big milestone!

I am thrilled to report that yesterday I surpassed my 2010 total mileage! Last year was my highest mileage year to date (read the 2010 recap here), and this year is bigger already with 2+ months to go, and I've spent almost 4 of these months pregnant.

Last year I covered 730 miles. I'm sure I can reasonably hit 800-825 this year. Go me! I'm really proud of this!

Mondays in Love: Arm Sleeves

*Don't forget to leave a comment on this post to enter my giveaway!! Handmade runner goodness!


I mentioned in my Rock & Roll St. Louis post that I'd picked up some arm sleeves/warmers and a new headband while volunteering at the race expo on Saturday. With temps in the mid-50s this morning, it was a perfect chance to try out the arm warmers. And guess what--I am in love.

As you can tell from the picture, my baby belly is starting to round out a bit. Because of this, my running shorts/pants move themselves to the bottom of my bump, making virtually all of my shirts too short. I have one short-sleeved shirt (the one shown here) and a tank top that are longer, but too skimpy for cool weather. Until the arm sleeves happened.

The deets:
They are Purple Plaid Arm Sleeves from Running Skirts (available here). At $39 a pair, they are not particularly cheap, but they are letting me delay the purchase of a maternity top and get more wear out of summer tops.

The good

• Purple.Plaid. 
• I got the small size, and they stay put. 
• Thumb holes! 
• Pockets on the backs of both hands and at the top of one.
• I didn't realize that I minded the bulkiness of long sleeved tech shirts until I wore these. I've heard other runners say this, but didn't really get it until now. 

I really don't have much negative to say about them. They do leave an imprint on the crease of your arm. If they are tight enough to stay up, apparently they are tight enough to leave imprints along their folds. But this is not a big deal. My only real critique would be that I wouldn't have hated another half inch in length, BUT, I'm 5'8". I have a bit of a bigger wingspan than your average runner chick. So I can't really fault them for this either. 

If you're considering some new fall/early winter running gear, I definitely recommend checking out some arm sleeves. They are freeing, fun, and make your running gear much more versatile. If anyone has recommendations of other brands/types to check out, please pass them along!