To run? Or not to run? That is the Question.

Issued by The National Weather Service
Sacramento, CA
3 pm PST, Thu., Dec. 16, 2010

... STORMY WEATHER HEADED OUR WAY TOMORROW MAY PERSIST INTO NEXT WEEK...

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I hear the words "RAIN STORM" and my first thought is "G D it. What about my long run on Saturday?!" Weather.com says that we've got a doozy of a storm a-comin' and now all I can think about is how I'm going to survive my 16 mile run on Saturday. I'm really starting to dread Saturday mornings now that my long runs are increasing in miles pretty quickly. By mid-January, I'll be at 20 miles....20 MILES!!! Now comes the part where I start to wonder why I decided to do this in the first place.

OH! Real quick: My friend Ryan recently ran a marathong in Hawaii a few days ago and did so awesome!! It was his first marathong and the totally AMAZING part of it all: HE DIDN'T EVEN TRAIN FOR IT. I hate people like that. What the hell is up with people just being BORN with the ability to do amazing things? It's like, all they have to do is EXIST, while us normies have to spend all this time training for stuff. Makes me totally neurotic, but I'm so proud and jealous of him! And Hawaii no less! Anyway, GO RYAN!

Okay, back to it: RAIN STORM!

I've got 16 miles to take care of on Saturday and my concerns are endless. What will I wear? (Not a fashionable, "OMG what will I wear!?", but a concerned thought, "Crap, what will I wear?"). Should I bring a change of socks? It's going to be a wet run and I totally developed this blister on my left ring toe from my Wednesday run. If my socks are wet the whole time, I might get more blisters. Should I even bother trying to bring my music player? Electronics in the rain are a bit sketchy and I don't want to ruin my device. So many questions!

I even thought of driving home home (the Yay Area) to see if I could run in a rainless part of town, but it's going to be raining there too. I totally wish I could teleport somewhere where it was completely dry...ugh. The rain just makes me dread running SO much.

I honestly don't even know where I'm going with this blog entry today. I'm just SO exhausted from this week's running already (I even skipped today's 3 miles). Because it gets so damn dark in the afternoon so quickly, I've resorted to running in the early morning. It's still just as dark in the morning, but at least I'm running with daylight coming instead of going. Anyway, I've been getting up around 4:45am every day just to suit up and get out the door by 5am. These runs wouldn't be so bad, but now that I'm about half way into my training schedule, I'm having to run a good amount during the work week. 

This Wednesday I woke up at 4:30am. It took a little longer to get ready because I had to prep to run 9 miles (pants, shirt, jacket, watch, shoes, water bottle, and headlamp...yes, a headlamp. I want to be seen out there!). Now, I know that 9 miles is only about a third of the marathong, but 9 miles on a work day...in the morning... that's a lot to ask of a person. By 6:30am, I had already been up for 2 hours, logged in 9 miles, and hadn't even gotten ready for work yet. It was like my day was already half over.

The run itself was pretty calm and quiet. I don't bring headphones with me when it's dark, because then I can't see possible attackers. And if I can't see them, I can't reach for the pepper spray in time. By the way, I've never had to use the pepper spray, but I HAVE reached for it. It turned out, the mysterious man driving slowly by me in a white pick up truck at 5am was only the paper boy tossing newspapers out his windows. Anyway, I decided to run to Sac State and back, which wasn't that bad, just quiet. 

So I ran 9 miles on a Wednesday, which I think is a pretty large feat for myself. Unfortunately, I'll be running 10 next Wednesday, and 12 the Wednesday after that. With all this running during the week, I have become SO FREAKIN' TIRED. My schedule has me running 6 days a week now, but I almost think that's excessive. Hell, what do I know? I've never done this before! But seriously, my legs and body are kind of aching and my feet are always on the verge of cramping. I have no clue how I'm going to handle running even longer distances in a couple weeks. Why did I want to do this again?? I think I need to see a shrink. 

It's only7:20pm right now, and I'm already brewing my Sleepytime tea. I seriously don't know how marathongers do this... How do marathongers have normal working jobs AND have time and energy to train? This is just so hard... I'm actually getting cranky about it... BUT I'm already half way there, I may as well just finish it out, right?

MEE HUNGRYYY

So, I think running has slowly produced a hallow abyss that is now known as my stomach. My appetite lately has been completely insatiable and I can't ever feel full!! I imagine with all the miles that I'm logging in, that I'm burning a lot of energy and calories and, of course, that's why I'm always hungry.

But seriously. I went on an avocado binge earlier this week. AVOCADOS. That is NOT normal.

I went to the grocery store thinking that these avo's would be a delicious addition to my turkey sandwiches with havarti cheese and dijon. Nope, I just decided to eat them whole (I took the pit out, though).

Today, I've eaten 4 tangerines, 2 bananas, about 3 cups of pasta with sauce, 1/4 cup of steak, about a cup EACH of steamed carrots, zuchinni, and yellow squash, a slice of havarti cheese, a bag of popcorn, a nutrigrain bar... and I'm always looking for something else to eat!!

Anyway, my main staple right now is pasta and steamed veggies, but I'm thinking I need to add some variety into my diet. I'm not huge on cooking, so I'm always looking for quick meals that I can do at home. So this entry today is mainly a request to any athlete out there for simple ideas for quick meals!

I'm looking for cheap, healthy, energy filled ideas. ANY SUGGESTIONS? WHAT GIVES YOU TONS OF ENERGY?? I need to go grocery shopping again soon too...

Fun Facts About T.Lee

SOME FUN FACTOIDS ABOUT ME AND RUNNING...ENJOY

Average Miles Per Week (right now): 41 miles

Pre-Run Routine: Ibuprofen, Banana, sometimes Oatmeal (peaches n cream)

Post-Run Routine: Ice, Water, Food

Song I could listen to forever on a run: Bass Head by Bassnectar (If you run, download it. If you work out, download it. If you drop Ecstasy and go to raves, download it.)

Running Shoe of Choice: Asics Nimbus (Yes, like Harry Potter's broomstick)

Quick Energy Fuel of Choice: Power Bar Gu - Latte

Assault Prevention Device of Choice: Police OC-17 Magnum Pepper Spray

Most Inspirational Runner: Shalane Flannagan (2008 Olympic Medalist and 2010 NYC Marathong top finisher...the NYC marathong was her FIRST marathong ever!)

Most Inspirational Athlete: Michael Jordan (because he failed so many times before succeeding)

Post Meal Food of Choice: ANYTHING carb-y

Weather Conditions of Choice: morning, 50 degrees, 0mph winds, overcast

Percentage of the day that I spend thinking (stressing) about running: 40%

Why I run: TO FINISH.


TELL ME YOUR OWN FUN FACTS! COPY, PASTE, AND POST YOUR OWN FACTOIDS! I'D REALLY LIKE TO KNOW WHAT WORKS FOR YOU!!

No...effing...way...

I have a bit of extra time before work, so I wanted to tell you guys....I FLIPPING TWEAKED MY ANKLE...A-FREAKIN'-GAIN.

I'm telling you... training for this marathong is getting me more and more frustrated and it's getting harder to stay motivated. It's a combination of crappy weather conditions (I will NEVER be training for another marathong in the winter...NEVER AGAIN), and injury, and it's sucking...hardcore. I'm lucky I haven't caught anyone's winter cold... yet (knock on wood).

So my story is basically, I went for a run while I was still in Colorado. This was 3 days after my horrible 12 miler and I figured, any run after THAT monstrosity of a run just had to be better. The temperature was a bit cooler, but I had my warm clothes, so no big deal. I decided to take the same route as I did on Friday (12 miler), and just go 2 miles out and 2 miles back.

WELL. Around the first mile and a half, I turn that corner and I see a bus approaching the bus stop, so I decided to kick it up a notch and pass the people waiting before they boarded the bus. I begin running just a tad faster and just as I'm passing the whole bus stop filled with people along with the actual BUS filled with people... MY ANKLE GIVES OUT. WTF.

At this point, the pain is all too familiar, and I just hobble off to to the side, hoping that not everyone would be staring at me. I couldn't look up out of sheer embarrassment. How does one run... in a straight and forward direction, in broad daylight, with nothing in the way, trip and hurt herself??! I was so frustrated that after the pain somewhat subsided, I turned around and went back to the house. F*%& THIS SH@#.

I wanted to amputate right then and there.

I was able to jog back and things are a little okay now. I logged in a 3 mile run today and the foot felt okay. I took some time off to let the ankle rest, and now I feel like my body is more out of shape from all the stoopy rest I've been doing. Everything just seems to be getting more and more frustrating...

BUT, the show must go on, the world must keep turning, and I must keep running. I have a 14 mile run to log in tomorrow, so we'll see how that goes.

HAPPY FRIDAY, HAPPY RUNNING!

Altitude+Wind+Cold+Dehydration = One AMAZING run

I just remembered that I was totally going to take a picture of myself running in the cold and snowy weather to post on my blog, but it didn't snow...This blog needs some spice!

I went to Colorado Springs this past weekend to visit a friend (SHOUT OUT), but of course, just because I'm on vacation doesn't mean I get to skip training for the marathong. The plan was, I would fly out Friday, and get my 12 mile long run over with ASAP so that I could just enjoy the rest of my stay without the stress of thinking about running. That was the plan...

I knew going into it that I was going to be a possibly tough run considering the elevation that I would be at. In California, the elevation is around 20 feet. That's what this one website said anyway (YES, I looked it up). And where I was going to run...6008 feet. Tahoe is 720 feet and people warn me about that place... Anyway, my mom (SHOUT OUT) even emails me to make sure I "use caution" when I work out there...whatever that means. I'm either going to be okay about it, or be stoopy about it and give up. So I get to the house, change into my running gear, fill up the water bottle, and head out the door.

Then, like an old school Batman & Robin episode.... WHABLAM! This gigantic gust of wind starts blowing up a storm and I'm thrown back a little. "Okay...a little wind didn't hurt anyone. Let's do this!" I should have taken that as an omen, because I was about to have the worst run of my entire life...

I start running, the wind is starting to really pick up. I lead forward a bit more to try and take this wind monster head on, but I still seem to stumble back a little. At about mile 3, I start cursing under my breath a little bit because I'm getting frustrated. I'm in a place I don't know, the wind is blowing, like, 80 mph (no joke, that's what weather.com said), I'm 5988 feet above Sacramento, and to top it all off, I'm a bit dehydrated. FML. I almost called my friend to say, "I can't do this, come pick me up". ALMOST.

I turned the corner around mile 2 and looked ahead: It was uphill. WTF! I'm barely going negative 3 mph and I still have so far to go!...OMGFMLWTFetc. I pushed against the wind as I continued to try and run, but to no avail, I was slowing down and my legs were hurting. "I can't...I just can't...these are the worst conditions ever!" I continued to complain to myself as I just kept pushing.

I kept trying to stay motivated by telling myself that after this run, I won't have to do another long run for another week. Of course, I could just skip the whole thing, but then I'd feel horrible about not finishing the stoopy run and feel just as worse as I did at that moment in time. Might as well just trudge along...or quit...or keeping running...or quit...or keep running...

The wind died down a little bit towards the end of my run, but not by much. I ended up having to walk a few times because I was expending twice as much energy trying to run against the wind, but traveling at the same speed. Overall, this run was the BALLS. And to add some frosting to this cupcake, I forgot to start my Nike+ watch a few times during the run, so I didn't actually log in a full 12 miles. I RAN 12, but it only looks like I ran a bit over 10. BALLS I TELL YOU.

The one good thing to come out of it, though, is that I finished. 12 miles...less than half of the marathong I plan on running in February, but still. I finished. Under the worst of circumstances (and they WERE the worst), I was still able to continue running and not give up. To me, that will give me just another mental edge in the marathong. With every run I log in, I'm not only preparing my legs and lungs, but I'm also preparing my mind for one of the hardest mental challenges that anyone chooses to face. I'm really happy I finished, and I'm really proud that I didn't let mother nature bring me down....because good lord, she was kicking my ASK (Not a typo, read my other posts...you'll get it)!

To all you runners and goal getters out there (and that should be everyone): Set your mind on something and just get it. Even if it's just ONE run. No matter how small the goal is,  if you want it bad enough, nothing should stop you. The road might suck, but the finish line is great :)

Nike+ Makes You Feel Totally Crazy AWESOME

IT'S OFFICIAL: I've logged in 200 (200.91 to be exact) miles since my last race in May 2010!!

I use the Nike+ system to log my miles, and I'm so happy it does! This marathong isn't until February so it's nice to have a little bit of good feeling between now and then. For my ABA homies: This is some pretty awesome intrinsic intermittent reinforcement.

BOOM.

What to Wear this Winter

Writing daily will NOT be my thing, I'm just super excited about my new gloves and this new website I found...

So my boss (SHOUT OUT) took me to Costco today because I needed these gloves for running (I don't have a membership...she does. She's not, like, my chaperone or anything). Lately, the circulation in my hands (or should I say LACK of circulation in my hands) sucks. The temps and the wind right now really make my bones hurt...seriously. Anyway, if you plan on running this winter, check out the gloves. They were only $10.

ALSO: My cousin (SHOUT OUT) works for Running Warehouse and they've got some totally sick gear for any type of runner. If you're looking for awesome gear, brand names, and good prices...check it. I just bought some awesome new kicks (Nike Lunar Swifts), some spandee pants, and a sick looking Asics jacket. LOVE IT.

Okay, so on another note.... I just found this AWESOME website for you runners.

Do you ever go on a run, then totally regret wearing what you decided to wear because it turned out to be way too hot or way too cold? Happens to me all the time. I like to be pretty warm and comfortable when I run so I tend to pack on the layers like an onion. I'm talking, tank top, short sleeve, long sleeve, jacket, etc. Oh, and pants too. Don't worry, I wear pants.

So anyway, this website lets you choose what the weather conditions are like. You enter the temp, whether the sun is out, if it's windy, and you also select how you like to feel when you run. Press the magical button, and VOILA! You've got your outfit... check it out, TIS AWESOMENESS.

WHAT TO WEAR

HAPPY RUNNING AND HAPPY GOAL-GETTING