Yesterday I got up early and did a 2.5 mile trail run. Unlike last year, I didn’t see anyone I knew, not even the coworker who had e-mailed me the day before to say she was doing the 2.5 mile walk (she e-mailed me again this morning to say she decided at the last minute […]

Yesterday, I did my first race since last November’s disappointing 4K. I really wished I’d refreshed my memory on that one before I ran this latest race because the experiences were very similar: lack of preparation and insufficient warm-up leads to pain, lots of walk breaks, and a slow time. Here’s hoping I’ll remember these […]

I believe I might be part sled dog. It was 20 degrees (F) this morning when I left for my run, and the only part of me that got cold was my butt. My hands and feet and head were hot, even. Since the start of winter weather around here, my running’s been going better. […]

Yesterday I learned that a week of walking around Walt Disney World, even at 23 or 24 thousand steps a day, is not a good substitute for working out regularly, especially if one cuts way back on running the week before the trip for fear of re-injuring one’s ITB and only gets two workouts in […]

Yesterday I revisited the scene of my first race ever to once again tackle the 2.5 mile trail run. I’d intended to do this last year, returning in triumph with improved speed and stamina, but then I hurt my ITB and did PT and slacked off for entirely too long, so my triumph had to […]

As is probably clear from my post-race smile over there, the 5K went well once I showed up on the right day for it. The weather was cool, grey, and raining, which suited me fine, as that meant I was in no danger of melting in the sun as I might have been on Saturday. […]

I had a mostly excellent weekend, with a nice balance between getting stuff done and having fun. There were even a few surprises along the way, like the cemetery I came across Saturday afternoon when I decided to take the scenic route to the Title 9 Blowout Sale which was in town for the weekend […]

Yesterday was race day, my second time doing the For Women Only 5K. The day before yesterday I learned an important lesson in race preparation: don’t wear new shoes until after the event. I admit this is a rather obvious lesson, and feel dumb for not making a better choice of footwear Saturday morning, but […]

I’ve got that 5K race coming up a week from tomorrow, so I decided today would be a good time to try doing that distance in order to set reasonable expectations for myself, since the last time I did a workout longer than 3 miles was last June. I’ve been doing two and a half […]

Today I went for a run for the first time in way too long, and it felt surprisingly good. I didn’t go too far, and I didn’t go too fast, but I did go, and that’s a start. After that I got on our newest fitness toy, the Fitter, which is supposed to help with […]

It’s snowing. I look up from my monitor and see the fat flakes drifting down onto the bushes outside. (The view out my office window these days is 80% bushes; I might have to trim them myself since the people who take care of the lawn and flowerbeds have been ignoring the bushes this year.) […]

I felt a bit melancholy this weekend because I did not return in triumph to the course where I ran my first race last fall. I didn’t return at all. I had a handy excuse in that we spent the afternoon and evening before the race socializing with family in mid-Michigan and didn’t get back […]

I tried on my wetsuit last night, the one I haven’t worn since I stopped kayaking some years back. Since I’m more than a few pounds heavier than I was when I bought it, I didn’t think it would fit, but curiosity and the outside chance I’ll be in a situation this weekend when wearing […]

Last Wednesday marked one year since I started running. Not only didn’t I celebrate this anniversary in any way, I didn’t even remember it. I’ve been taking a break for the last couple of weeks. First it was wicked hot and humid, then we were getting ready to go away, and went away, and had […]

I had high hopes for my workout this morning since this week has been the best week of running I’ve had in a long time. Both Monday and Wednesday I was able to get a good chunk of running in before I stopped to walk; that I can now do nine or ten minutes with […]

Monday, and I haven’t posted here in a week. I meant to, but never quite managed to translate my good intentions into any complete entries. This happens so often that my hard drive is cluttered with files named things like “00eh.doc”–two lines about how Hudson’s became Marshall Field’s became Macy’s which now spark no recollection […]

I did a race this morning that I’ve been looking forward to for months, mostly because it takes place close to my house. An 8:15 a.m. start is lots easier to take when it’s a five-minute drive to the start rather than forty-five minutes to an hour. For the first time, I picked up my […]

It’s been a week since I started physical therapy. (Maybe I should call it personal training, since it’s mostly just me exercising with supervision, and Rylie has certifications in both physical therapy and personal training, but since the abbreviation PT works in either case I’m putting off deciding.) Since that first session, I’ve been working […]

This morning I went in for my first real session with the physical therapist I saw before Memorial Day. I had the idea that this session, billed as a “biomechanical assessment”, would be a longer, more in-depth version of the initial consultation. At first it was. The therapist/trainer, Rylie, had me assume various positions on […]

I took Friday off and started my holiday weekend by going to see the physical therapist one of my running friends at work recommended, the therapist I’ve been dithering about seeing for weeks now. I figured it was worth a try. Even if the therapist said, as I feared she might, “Ma’m, you’re too old […]

So this morning I did that 5K I’ve been mentioning in almost every entry this month. For this race, I had a different plan than any other I’ve done. Instead of running for a long as I could from the start before taking my first walk break, I was going to do more regular intervals–5 […]

Remember the last time I wrote about running and I was all cheerful about my 5K personal best and vowing to keep at it? Well, I’m not so cheerful anymore. That 5K was the last good run I had. The day after the race, I walked for an hour and that was dandy. My first […]

Who did a 5K today? That would be me. Someday I’d like to do one and run the whole thing, but that day was not today. Today I ran about the first 2K and then walked and ran and walked and ran, etc. and when I was done, I had a personal best. Best out […]

When I last posted about my running, I was a bit discouraged. I was slow; it was hard, wah, wah, wah. A couple days after I wrote that entry, I went for my next run, and I was still slow and it was still hard. I had to break out the Powersong and still only […]

I went for a run last night for the first time in two weeks, and it was hard. I managed only a 12:19 average per mile versus the 11:51 I’d done the workout before vacation (and let’s not even think about the 11:28 the time before that). Still, I went, and that’s better than not […]

I am not “like a real runner” as I wrote two weeks ago; I am a runner, for real. I may also be a little bit nuts. This photo is of me coming in from my workout last night. It was about 15 degrees (F) and snowing, but out I went. Note the fashionable headlamp, […]

  I’m feeling more and more like a real runner. See—my shoes are dirty from going out in the rain. That proves I’m serious, right? If I were just pretending, surely I’d stay in when it’s dark and raining or when there’s a winter weather advisory. But out I go, preparing first by carefully threading […]

Something amazing happened last night: I ran (well, jogged) for a little over 25 minutes, in a row, without stopping. Per the Nike+ chip, I averaged 11:43 a mile over 3.53 miles. That’s faster than I ran my 5K three weeks ago. Nothing I’d done up to this point had given me any reason to […]

The race results are up online from the 5K I did on Saturday. Hoo boy, there’s a lot to be discouraged about there if I choose to see it that way. The top female finisher took only 17 minutes and 37 seconds, a 5:40 pace. Five forty! I can’t even imagine. I doubt I ever […]

Here I am smiling before my first 5K, which I did this morning. Mr. Karen came to watch even thought it meant getting up early on a weekend, which neither of us are very keen to do. We had an hour’s drive to get there, too. I didn’t end up having quite as much time […]

I reached a significant milestone in my running career last night—it was below freezing and there was snow on the ground and I still went out and did a workout. I know other people do stuff like that all the time, but those people are dedicated, those people are athletes. I don’t see myself as […]

I know it’s only been a week since I last wrote about running, but it’s top of mind again because yesterday I declared myself done with the Walking & Jogging Program that I chose to start my running career. I’m rather amazed and proud of myself that I’ve stuck with it. I didn’t run three […]

I’d hoped to get an entry up yesterday but ended up going to the doctor instead. The swelling from my bite got worse and worse, to the point where not only did I have a sausage finger but the whole back of my hand was inflated and starting to look and feel like I’d gotten […]

To reward myself for sticking with running, I got an iPod a few weeks ago, an apple green nano. I’ve named it kPod, and we’re in love. Our relationship got off to a bit of a rocky start, though. Getting going with iTunes and loading songs was easy; there’s plenty of help online but the […]

So now that I’ve come down from my post-race high and had a chance to study the results online, I am somewhat chagrined to admit that it appears there were only 8 women in my age group, so finishing 7th there is maybe not as much of a success as all that. When I look […]

Yeah, that says post-race up there. I did it–completed the 2.5 miles I signed up for. I didn’t turn an ankle or fall down or at any point want to give up. Based on what I’ve been doing in my training sessions, I set myself a goal to finish in 45 minutes or less–an 18 […]

These are my new new running shoes, which I used for the first time last night. The Asics Gel-Tempo IIs that I started with are not bad shoes, but the intermittent pains in my right leg and both knees led to me think there might be better shoes for me, so off I went to […]

When I last reported on my training program, I was struggling with the increased jogging time in week two. I’m happy to report that I eventually managed to complete those five intervals of two minutes each. I’d be happier if I’d managed to do it without having to repeat week two but that didn’t happen. […]

This is me last night, after my fourth session on the 5K Walking & Jogging Program. That’s after my cooldown, even, and my face is still that red. I can’t even imagine what I’ll look like should I ever manage to do any real running. I still remember the instructor of the kayak class I […]

These are my new running shoes. They arrived yesterday, which coincidently was the day I’d targeted to start the 5K Walking & Jogging Program, also known as the first phase of my marathon training. (My marathon training. That cracks me up.) I know it might seem premature to have bought new shoes before I actually […]

Yesterday a colleague told me that she and another woman who works in the building are training for a marathon. Good for them, I thought. Then she asked if I’d like to join them. It’s a race for women over 40, she said. In New York City, she said, wouldn’t it be fun to go […]

While I was updating the exercise log for this weekend, I realized I’d put down the wrong tape name for the last two workouts. I’d said we’d done Volume 5 twice, but really it was Volume 6. If I hadn’t done the real Volume 5 on Saturday and seen the three identical entries there when […]