Long Run

14 miles.  120 minutes.  8 1/2 min pace.

14 very warm miles along the busy Currituck highway at 6 AM.  Did it in 2 hours...that's 8 1/2 minutes per mile!  Officially too fast, but...I was having fun so just decided that as long as I didn't slow down at the end, I should keep up the pace.

Running away from home is always a good thing.  It either breathes some fresh life into my miles and gives me some awesome scenery or, as in this morning, makes me appreciate what I've got at home.  I love the beach and appreciate the time near the shore.  But my idea of a fun run really doesn't involve a mostly flat out and back along a two-lane road.  It makes me appreciate the area in Virginia where we live, where I can drive 10 minutes to a handful of different trails that zig zag around and up and down and back again.  If I had to choose today for the rest of my life, mountains or beach, I'd choose mountains.  I wouldn't need time to think.  (And if there was a lake near those mountains in which I could jump after a long run...consider me there.)

But it was hot and humid this morning.  Probably about 75-ish degrees and 90% humidity.  Yes, I wore sunscreen even though half of my run was done before the sun came up.  I was looking everywhere for a sprinkler that I could put my hat into and then put it back on my head; I love the refreshing feeling of a cold-water hat!  But every where I looked, it seemed that the too-manicured yards had just been watered.  And the too-expensive in-ground sprinkler system turned off just as I approached.  Humph.

Finally, as I neared the turn-around point (which was mapped out in my car a few days before) I saw a sprinkler that was ON.  Hoorah!  I took my hat off and, and a few feet from some watery relief, I slowed to a walk.  As I reached my hat out, the sprinkler turned off.  I laughed out loud!  But as the Sprinkler Gods laughed at me, I looked 'em in the eye and cursed them.  I didn't need any sprinklers to have a good run.  Take THAT!

Long Run

W&OD.  12 miles.  1:43, turns out to 8:40ish minute miles.

No iPod today--wanted to make sure my head was on straight and I could push through.  I think I was one of the only on the trail without some sort of electronic device.  I can't use one in the Marine Corps so I am trying not to use one every long run.  On the W&OD I'm tempted to use one but usually run too quickly when I'm listening to fun music.  So it's just me, my thoughts and my footsteps out there.

I had to take Wednesday off as well as Thursday this week to prepare myself for a fun medical procedure that required me to fast and then make myself pretty dehydrated.  The second part of Thursday was spent recovering, taking a blessedly sweet nap in the afternoon and drinking more water than I thought my body could handle. I did all the right stuff and ran really well.

Long Run

The best laid plans of mice and men... often go awry.

Well, I aimed to do 14 miles but life got in the way.  Hiked for 2 hours on the Pacific Heritage Trail while talking to dear ol' mom.  It was gorgeous and good to be out for that long...I think I ran for about 30 minutes at the end.

What can you do?

Long Run

8 miles, Seneca.  1:12.  That's 9 minute miles on the dot.  Damn!  Right on the mark.

The main trail that I do is four miles, out and back.  So I did it twice.  I meant to run the same time, or aim to be faster the second time, but my head was too full of thoughts and I forgot to check my watch.

Because of scheduling purposes (darn it when life gets in the way of my running and training) I couldn't do 14 miles today, so I switched it up and will run that next week.

It was supposed to be bloody hot (best said in an accent I don't actually have); heat index near 100 or something.  I like the heat--I am someone who is constantly cold, constantly wearing a sweatshirt around our too-cold, a/c-pumped-up-too-high house--and I love to run in just a jog bra and shorts.  I was going to do the W&OD today but because it's hardly shaded, I opted for the well-known Seneca.  It was about 85 when I ran, but didn't feel too bad.  I was drenched by the time I stopped, though, and shamelessly took off my soaked jog bra and threw a shirt on before taking off to my next destination, where I changed from sweaty runner to sundress-wearing lady.  But I was happy to be a sweaty runner underneath.

That night I went to a Legwarmers concert with some of my girlfriends.  I yelled the words out as if I knew them (I'm horrible at remembering lyrics) and broke out some dance moves that have gathered too much dust.  I drank way too much and danced like a crazy person with them.  The night ended way too soon!  At 1 AM.  :)

In case you don't know me, I'm the second from the left.

Long Run

12 miles.  C&O Canal (one of my top two favorite places to run...other is Potomac Heritage Trail).  1 hour, 45 minutes.  8:40 minute pace.  A little fast.  Oops.

Got lucky with the weather, again.  About 75 degrees, not too muggy...clouds overhead were ominous, but it never rained while I was out on the towpath.

Thoughts while running:

• Lots of guys out, especially boy-scout-looking groups biking.  About a dozen with a few fathers along for the ride (literally).  Was happy that they were getting out together, but...where were the girls?  What are the girl scouts doing today?  Please don't tell me going to a ballet or something lame and inactive like that.  Blech.  And then there were about four mother-son teams, running and walking.  Again: WHERE ARE THE GIRLS?!  
• So I'm a rule follower.  Can I be a free thinker, ever?  I'm good at following directions and realize that, at age 35, I should probably start thinking for myself sometime soon.  If I don't, I'll never do it and I'll be going with the current for the rest of my life.  Is that a good thing, or a bad thing?  How do I know if the current is good?  Is it possible to be both a rule follower (I totally blame my Catholic upbringing for this one) AND a free thinker, a I-walk-my-own-walk type of gal?  Hmmm...
• Working on a children's book in my head.  Stay tuned.  Must churn out rough draft this weekend.  Or I'm not sleeping on Sunday night until I do.  I can't just blog for the rest of my life...

I totally pulled a presto-chango at the end of the run.  I had fifteen minutes to change from a sweaty mess to a lady who lunches.  The added challenge?  I couldn't go home to do it--I needed to use the fairly icky C&O bathroom at the picnic area at Carderock.  Luckily it was cleaned while I was running, so the ickiness factor was lower than normal.  It's hard to stop sweating while in a non-ventilated, non-air conditioned outdoor bathroom, but I managed to wet down my washcloth, get it soapy, and do a little Ranger shower.  I pulled off my nasty-ass running clothes and put on my nice clean clothes, went a little crazy with perfume (Stella, just a sample) so you couldn't smell my sweat, and pulled my hair up and back in a bun.  Make-up would come later, after I gobbled down a pre-lunch apple and almond butter snack in the parking lot of the lunch spot.  Luckily the other lady who lunches and I are on hand-shaking terms, not hugging terms, so she wouldn't have to get too close...

On my way to the car it started to drizzle.  As I was thinking how lucky I am, a huge wasp zoomed and disappeared into my car.  Well...you win some, you lose some.

Long Run

10 warm miles in 1:27, from mile marker 17.5 to 22.5 on the W&OD.

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A tiny bit faster than I'm supposed to do (I'm running 8 minute miles in the marathon so I should be doing 9 minute miles for my long runs), but I was pretty happy with this since it's not that long a distance.  I have a tendency to zip a bit too much when I'm feeling good, and I was feeling pretty good.

Long runs are the few times I actually get to think, uninterrupted.  I am so unused to thinking, uninterrupted, that it takes me a few miles to focus.

Yesterday my father was inducted in the Ranger Hall of Fame in Fort Benning, Georgia.  I'm pretty proud of him, and wish I could have been there.  Today I was thinking of all the stuff I learned from him, and from him being a Ranger, and from Rangers in general.  Here's what I got, in no particular order:

• How to be tough.  One of my first Ranger-related memories is Ranger Day in Savannah.  They were playing..Ranger football?  I'm not really sure--I wasn't sure then, and I'm not sure now.  All I know is that most of the guys' shirts were ripped by the end, some were bloody, and there was am Ambulance parked alongside the field.  Ha!
• How to approach a tough thing with humor.  Maybe this is my father's doing (regardless of who gets credit, I'm grateful).  My father and his Ranger buddies would always laugh and joke about how tough something was, but had a somebody's-gotta-do-it mentality, and they knew that the buck stopped with them.
• How to define family.  Your brother was the guy fighting (or snoring, or cracking jokes) next to you.  Your sisters were the neighbors who brought your family dinners when your father was away and someone was sick.  Your family were those people who came to your Christmas dinner when you were too far from home to get home.
• How to push yourself.  People who know me think I'm nuts because I exercise as hard as I do.  "Your intensity is...too much" I hear.  Well, what the hell is the point?  I have seen people--usually guys--grunt with pain and know that if they can push through it, I can, too.
• How to have a few beers and kick back.  It's something I still enjoy, especially with my Peace Corps friends.  But there's nothing better than watching your straight-laced dad loosen up and laugh until he can't talk reminiscing about the crazy shit he and his friends got themselves into in Ranger School...
• That brawn is as important as brains sometimes.  Maybe I'm not talking about muscles here, but just the willingness to be part of a team, to be a follower, to do the stuff that needs to be done.  Especially when that job is related to public service, to protecting our freedom.  What can I say?  I'm more patriotic than my neighbors.
• That it sure seems that guys have more fun than girls.  In second grade, I realized the Girl Scouts sucked so my father happily volunteered to show my sister and I how to live off the land in grade school.  The list goes on, but... Most of the time it seems like this is still true.  Would I change my gender?  I guess not, because of the whole motherhood thing, but...jury's still out.

I turned around at mile marker 22.5 and the weather warmed up a bit--I was lucky to have it cloudy and almost drizzling for the first 5-6 miles.  To add to my Ranger-ish thoughts, I put on the album of cadences on my iPod and listened to the jodies that I listened to growing up.  Immediately I was brought back to West Point, to Savannah, to Fort Lewis.  Back to a happy spot in my life, a much simpler time.

I am proud of my dad, and I'm proud to be his daughter.