It is has been a busy couple of weeks. I have been running but really dealing with the tired issue in a big way. I had to throw in a three day streak of headaches because I'm an overachiever like that. Can't just have things be easy. lol
Work is busy. The end of the school year can be exceptionally busy and super fun. I'm trying to get through all the stuff we need to cover in a very limited amount of time while I keep thinking "What the heck! Didn't school just start?" The fun part is that the students have a lot of the higher level thinking skills down really well and that makes it so we can tackle activities without all the explaining what I'm looking for. They just hit the ground running. It's fun to watch. They don't realize how far they have come.
I have had some really good runs the last two weeks and I have had some really crappy runs. I have to say that the good runs are outweighing the crappy runs so I'm not complaining too much. (Only a little.)
My average pace is getting consistently in the low 13 minute range and I'm getting more and more 12 minute miles with an occasional 11 minute mile thrown in. I still get frustrated because I'm sure that if I was losing weight more consistently then I would be even faster. I have longer runs this year at the Cascade Lakes Relay and I REALLY want to rock them. I don't just want to do better than last year. I want to kick last year's ass!
But first I have to kick ass at the Eugene Half Marathon which is this coming Sunday. I am getting my butterflies in my stomach already. I hate that. I am not trying to win or be in the Olympics. I really have no reason to be nervous but I always am. No one is putting pressure on me, just myself and I really am my own worst critic.
The weather has been fantastic this week, in the 70's all week long. I usually run after work and it has been glorious. However, with spring in Oregon comes allergies. On Wednesday I just had to run 3 miles. My nose was running the whole time and I had a terrible time breathing. I think I'm going to have to start taking an allergy medicine daily and using my inhaler for all my runs in the spring. Otherwise the snot and lung factor is going to be a problem. And believe me, having a snot problem while running is not fun. Not breathing well isn't a party either, I'm just saying.
I had the funniest thing happen on my run on Monday. I was running my four mile loop that goes out into the country a bit. Toward the end of the second mile there are fields on either side of the road. Every time I run there I see a lot of these little birds, I think they are plovers or killdeer. They must nest in the ditches or the edge of the field. They fly in and out of the ditches and the grass as I'm running. Often they will do this funny chirping sound as I go by so I think I must be near their nests. Occasionally they will run along the road for a bit before flying away. Monday there was one of these plovers on the road and it started running down the road in front of me about 10 feet. Usually they take off after just a little bit but this one didn't. It just kept running down the road in front of me. Every once in awhile it would turn and look at me and then take off running again. It was my little Plover Pacer. If I sped up, so did it. If I slowed down, so did it. It ran in front of me for almost a quarter of a mile. A car came by and scared it off. I wonder how far it would have gone if the car hadn't come. I don't know why but I really got a kick out of this silly little bird running down the road with me.
We got a new Sports Authority in Corvallis so we went the other night and checked it out. I needed something that I could wear to carry my inhaler on longer runs since none of my running pants or skirts have pockets. I found a nice, light belt that I can fit my inhaler and my Shot Bloks into during my long runs. I also found a super cute hat to wear. I always wear a hat when I run. I can stick my hair out the back in a pony tail which is good because I have a lot of thick hair and it makes me hot if I wear it down. I also got a pair of capri running pants and a tank top.
The good thing was that I could actually get into both. The bad thing was they are tight and form fitting so they show off every pudge and bulge I have. Unfortunately, I still have a lot of pudges and bulges. They were both XL and the largest size the store had. I was a little disappointed but didn't feel completely bummed. I managed to keep focused on the fact that I could wear them if I wanted (but only if I wanted people to cry in fear when they saw me running down the street) and just a few months ago I probably wouldn't have even been able to get them on. Weight loss is still only at about 18 pounds total since Christmas but clothes are fitting better so that's a plus. Last night we went to Costco and they had some running Capri's and tank tops. We dug through the pile looking for XL and found some. I brought it home and they fit much better then the ones we had gotten earlier. I know that many women wouldn't think twice about wearing tight clothes but I'm really self-conscious of my "rolls" so I don't like things to be too tight. This is rather difficult in the running clothes area because I think they are meant to be on the tighter side. I like to hide my heavy, not flaunt it.
Work is busy. The end of the school year can be exceptionally busy and super fun. I'm trying to get through all the stuff we need to cover in a very limited amount of time while I keep thinking "What the heck! Didn't school just start?" The fun part is that the students have a lot of the higher level thinking skills down really well and that makes it so we can tackle activities without all the explaining what I'm looking for. They just hit the ground running. It's fun to watch. They don't realize how far they have come.
I have had some really good runs the last two weeks and I have had some really crappy runs. I have to say that the good runs are outweighing the crappy runs so I'm not complaining too much. (Only a little.)
My average pace is getting consistently in the low 13 minute range and I'm getting more and more 12 minute miles with an occasional 11 minute mile thrown in. I still get frustrated because I'm sure that if I was losing weight more consistently then I would be even faster. I have longer runs this year at the Cascade Lakes Relay and I REALLY want to rock them. I don't just want to do better than last year. I want to kick last year's ass!
But first I have to kick ass at the Eugene Half Marathon which is this coming Sunday. I am getting my butterflies in my stomach already. I hate that. I am not trying to win or be in the Olympics. I really have no reason to be nervous but I always am. No one is putting pressure on me, just myself and I really am my own worst critic.
The weather has been fantastic this week, in the 70's all week long. I usually run after work and it has been glorious. However, with spring in Oregon comes allergies. On Wednesday I just had to run 3 miles. My nose was running the whole time and I had a terrible time breathing. I think I'm going to have to start taking an allergy medicine daily and using my inhaler for all my runs in the spring. Otherwise the snot and lung factor is going to be a problem. And believe me, having a snot problem while running is not fun. Not breathing well isn't a party either, I'm just saying.
I had the funniest thing happen on my run on Monday. I was running my four mile loop that goes out into the country a bit. Toward the end of the second mile there are fields on either side of the road. Every time I run there I see a lot of these little birds, I think they are plovers or killdeer. They must nest in the ditches or the edge of the field. They fly in and out of the ditches and the grass as I'm running. Often they will do this funny chirping sound as I go by so I think I must be near their nests. Occasionally they will run along the road for a bit before flying away. Monday there was one of these plovers on the road and it started running down the road in front of me about 10 feet. Usually they take off after just a little bit but this one didn't. It just kept running down the road in front of me. Every once in awhile it would turn and look at me and then take off running again. It was my little Plover Pacer. If I sped up, so did it. If I slowed down, so did it. It ran in front of me for almost a quarter of a mile. A car came by and scared it off. I wonder how far it would have gone if the car hadn't come. I don't know why but I really got a kick out of this silly little bird running down the road with me.
 |
| Plover Pacer |
The good thing was that I could actually get into both. The bad thing was they are tight and form fitting so they show off every pudge and bulge I have. Unfortunately, I still have a lot of pudges and bulges. They were both XL and the largest size the store had. I was a little disappointed but didn't feel completely bummed. I managed to keep focused on the fact that I could wear them if I wanted (but only if I wanted people to cry in fear when they saw me running down the street) and just a few months ago I probably wouldn't have even been able to get them on. Weight loss is still only at about 18 pounds total since Christmas but clothes are fitting better so that's a plus. Last night we went to Costco and they had some running Capri's and tank tops. We dug through the pile looking for XL and found some. I brought it home and they fit much better then the ones we had gotten earlier. I know that many women wouldn't think twice about wearing tight clothes but I'm really self-conscious of my "rolls" so I don't like things to be too tight. This is rather difficult in the running clothes area because I think they are meant to be on the tighter side. I like to hide my heavy, not flaunt it.
I have a short run tomorrow and then Sunday is the Eugene Half. The race that started me on all this long distant stuff three years ago. At that time I was losing weight and getting faster. It was a few months later that the tired issues and the weight gain started happening. I thought at the time I would be a skinnier, healthier me by this time. At this point it has been an entire year that I have been going to the doctor and seeing various specialists and having repeated blood tests to find out what's going on. So far no definite problem has been found which makes fixing the problem a bit problematic. :-)
Hopefully my next blog will be about having another great race. If not, I will be whining about all that went wrong.
Check back next time for the continuing story....(I had the Pigs in Space announcer voice from the Muppet Show going in my head while I typed that. lol)
Keep Running!
Hopefully my next blog will be about having another great race. If not, I will be whining about all that went wrong.
Check back next time for the continuing story....(I had the Pigs in Space announcer voice from the Muppet Show going in my head while I typed that. lol)
Keep Running!
No comments:
Post a Comment