Mysteries of the Mind

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             I went to the 24-hour gym to do my 9 miles at 10pm last night. To help my mind from melting into mush during the run I watched endless episodes of some unsolved mysteries on Amazon Prime.... the normally fearless Miriam left the gym at 1am absolutely terrified that I'd be the horrible victim of some crime, worse yet, an unsolved crime!!!..... it's funny now....but last night I was not in a good space parking and walking to my door...alone, in the dark. This is coming from a woman who use to run DC streets at 4am, in winter. This proves that we humans are very impressionable beings, we believe completely everything we put into our minds....the operative words here are, "we put in"....meaning, we all along we can control what we put in our thoughts......... NO MORE unsolved murder mysteries shows for me.... next time I will stick to comedy...

Gettin’ my arms back baby!

      Women hardly ever get to feel strong. I have been lifting weights for about 3 to 4 times a week for 2 months now and it shows, finally. I absolutely love going to the gym for weigths. Lately, due to scheduling issues I go mostly in the evenings and find that tons of 20-year-olds hang there at nightnot necesarily to work out either. It's a 24-hour gym and once there, it's nice to know there is no rush to finish,time is lost. I don't do free weights. I know how to use free weights; I'm selft-taught and many, many times in the past I've done free weights from home, but I prefer the machines for now. Plus, at the gym there are only two benches which are usually taken up for 10 minutes at a time, so, that would not be an option anyway. Something odd about looking at yourself in a mirror while working out around 20-30 people, I'm not there yet. Also, working out at home is never an option. Most moms would understand; who wants to relax in a place you are likely to be asked for a sandwich? 
        Weight are one thing, but I stopped doing my runs at the gym. I use to watch whole movies as I ran on that treadmill, I find that I can no longer do this...for now. I know during the fall and winter I was doing ALL my long runs, as long as 20 to 22 miles at the gym, but I am totally burned out on that option. I am very much enjoying doing my runs outdoors, super early, before the sun comes up or in the early evening, soon after the sun has gone down. 
         Come June, I need to start long and longer runs to get ready for MCM again. As much as I am looking forward to more formal training runs, I am also enjoying the off-season, so relaxing. I have to confess, I am not really pumped up for the MCM as I have been in the past. This will be my 4th MCM, after the 5th I can get in any year so this race is working towards that goal of 5 mcm's, yet, I am not looking forward to the hurried nature of a huge race anymore. I feel I am emotionally transitioning to loving the ultra community more and more and may need to start doing 50K's just to be able to do trail races. Something about those races that feels much more like my tribe. Being surrounded by amazing, yet, super humble and supportive people really makes me love life even more and there is nothing else like it. 
         Which brings me to my goal of getting faster to the forefront. I need to start getting a bit faster if I want to do some of these races. I need to start working on speed, even if it's only once every 2 weeks. I must confess I hate, hate, hate speed work, I even hate hills, and I despise making my workouts super structured, totally. not. my. style. I know I am a workout rebel so I will continue to train as I please, listening only to my body and not giving up, anything beyond that, I cannot make any promises. Running is between my head and my body and for right now speed runs are a huge NO, regardless of how much I need to be getting faster.......I may change my mind later, but that's the beauty of being your own master, you get to choose. 
            

Just getting it done, period

              This past weekend was a holiday weekend and I had 16 miles planned for yesterday, Sunday but my body said, "NO way". Now being 3 weeks away from marathon #9 I could not just NOT run! So I slept in, had a nice morning making myself new earrings, sipping coffee with my hubby and listening to him respond to every cool article he came across in the paper. The morning was glorious. After my kids sent off to bed I left the house and drove 5 minutes to the 24-hour gym I am a member of and ran for 4 hours until 1am. While running, I watched 3 or 4 episodes of Project Runway season 9 and then the newest episode of Walking Dead, which was heartbreaking and thank God it was hreathbreaking, cause it kept me awake and kept me from thinking how tired I was. I ran out of Gu  at home except for one yucky flavor and lost all my salt pills for some odd reason but had enough salt pills in a pill box I used for the last marathon, so I used those. So yes, I ran 4 hours and had 3 bottles of water, 4 salt pills total and only 1 yucky Gu. The gym has unlimited 10-minute hydro massage which I took full advantage of right after finishing and boy was it pure heaven....one can adjust the settings so I basically got a 10 minute bum massage, heaven!! 

                 I got home at 1:30am and made myself a quick and COLD burrito roll with cheese, chicken, and cream cheese, I know, disgusting. But it hit the spot. I took a hot, hot shower and was happy to learn that I had minimal chafing thanks to the KT take I had my 10-year old apply earlier in the night, she's a pro at applying this stuff, you'd think she's a PT. I put on a huge sweatshirt and placed a towel over my pillow and went to bed and slept with a huge smile on my face. I did it. By not making it such a huge thing in my head I managed to do something that if thought over too much would certainly seem crazy. By the end of the night I had burned 1,240 calories and I did not quite know how to put that into my MyFitnessPal app, a calorie/nutrition app I use to monitor what I eat. I chose to just give Sunday 3 hours and Monday 1 hour. The way MyFitnessPal works is that it gives back to you the calories you burned as allowance for more food. I felt this was a good solution for it only gave me 310 calories extra for the next day and the allowance for the Sunday I could not really use up seeing as all I wanted to do was go to bed. 

5 days to go....MCM #3

                     In five days I will attempt to run my third Marine Corps Marathon, my 8th official marathon. The MCM is a very emotional race for me. I cry like a baby during and even after the race and it's not about the patriotism, soldiers, flags and such, as one might assume. While running the MCM, above any other race, one experiences so many bittersweet emotions in those long hours. At any given moment one can catch themselves running besides mothers who have lost their child in war, injured vets with missing limbs, cancer survivors, elderly runners, disabled athletes, and the list goes on and on.  Yet, my tears are not, as some may think, tears of sadness, they are primarily tears of pure outpouring joy. The whole race is a celebration of so many things, yet, to each one of the 30,000 runners its significance uniquely individualized. To me, it's a celebration of humanity, peace, freedom and most importantly, life. Running any race, in its simplest form, is just a metaphor for every one of life's obstacles. In crossing that finish line one reaffirms that hard work, dedication, sacrifice and belief in one's dreams will always lead us in the right direction and what better race to run than one in which one can literally see humanity rising even after unimaginable loss and pain. It's going to be amazing. 

35 days to marathon #8

17 miles completed by 8:15am!!! What do you do when you're a mom and your son has a baseball tournament you cannot and do not want to miss in Fredericksburg at 11am BUT you also have to do a long run that day? You wake at 3am of course! #readyforsomebaseball 

hike- while recovering from an injury

In attempts to listen to my body more...I chose to hike for an hour instead of running.....and it felt wonderful to not be so tough on myself. I also know my body enough to know that this will not jeopardize my training....I am in pain and walking is the most I can do right now. 

Taking back the night

        After a few injuries and a kick ass gym membership I just stopped running outdoors. Time made me forget all about the beyond awesome feeling of being out in nature before everyone wakes and taking on the night.  I had a long run scheduled for this Sunday and I simply could not muster another treadmill long run. Last time I felt like I was in a time warp, three and half hours of the fan blowing and literally going nowhere was just beyond boring. So I planned to take on the night for this next run. Being a mom I do not want to be gone all day as if I were single, my kids need me around, therefore, making it back home around the time they wake is my BIG challenge. I am also a super slow runner which means I must always wake at an ungodly hour to make all this possible. 

     This is what the intersection near my home looks like. You'll see a few cars, zero people and an occasional fox streak across your path. I always imagine all this is mine, all mine. 

Gently rolling hills, unlike a treadmill, allow me to work different parts of my legs muscles. This prevents me from becoming injured. On a treadmill it's hard to change, adjust and play with one's gait. 

Mine, all mine still. Have seen 2 other runners at the 8 mile mark. 

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Halfway mark (mile 8)....Here's where the real work begins. Podcasts go off and music comes on. 

I LOOOOOVE slugs. Mostly because my mom, who is a garden goddess green thumb, hates them with a passion and would often sprinkle them with salt to "save" her garden. I spent many years trying to save them from this very horrific approach. So now when I see them I always grab a leaf and place them off the path, so they don't get stepped on. 

Nothing like feeling your legs carry you across miles and miles. There is a certain power that comes from knowing that your own body can do that.....without the use of a motor, or pedals, such a primal connection to the earth, our ancestry as humans, life, the planet.....oh, don't get me started. 

I am done!! showered and smiling....Now let's eat!!! This is a smile of a woman who is starving. 1500 calories burned in 4 hours of running.....where are the eggs...get out of my way. 

This shot was taken after a shorter morning run, the sun was just coming up and I felt amazing....nothing like a morning run before work. 

A new day arises behind the trees...Everyone is still in bed at home. 

Finally.....I catch my beautiful sunrise. Have a great day everyone. 

Back outdoors.....

          So fear, injury and complacency has basically kept me indoors in the gym for the past 6-8 months. So much so that I began to fear every aspect of running outdoors. Okay, maybe not fear, but certainly I dreaded every aspect of running outdoors. The "what ifs" got in my way and soon it became super easy just to watch movies on my iPad as I completes 5, 8, or even 15 miles. 

       But then, last week, I got this one stiff leg incident, a mix of pain, panic and fear on the treadmill, reminding me of the long and painful injury on that part of my leg and how I do not want to get injured now. I attribute the injury to running a very singular way that one treadmills do for you. When running outdoors it becomes easy to adjust one's gait, something next to impossible on a treadmill. The fear of not being able to run at all forced me outdoors. So, the night before I set up my clothes, charged my flashlight, and made the kids' lunches. 

When running outdoors I wear reflective-wear, and carry a flashlight, mace, a water bottle with clear front pocket and handles and earphones. 

Coffee!! I need to set my alarm enough time to drink coffee in peace and quiet in the mornings. 

I forgot how much I love running in the mornings.....I am so hooked again. 

Only saw one other runner the whole time. Some areas are clear like this, while some other areas have overgrown bushes which do make me take out my earphones and become super aware. 

Powerful beyond measure

                            On a newly minted 2017-2018 paper calendar, I penciled in all my required training miles for both my fall marathons and the ultra in March of next year. After completing the task, which took an hour or more, frankly, I am not sure about this. The back, to back, to back long runs are quite daunting to the mind and I am afraid of getting to those later months and feeling completely overwhelmed and not accomplishing the task I set out to do. But, after having lived this process in training for past marathons, I know that is only fear speaking, and sometimes fear is way too cautious, for fear can literally choke the life out of you. 

                             In trying to come up with ways to tackle this feeling of enormity and overwhelming sense of dread, I know, deep inside that all I need to do, on any given day, is attack that day, accomplish those day miles and continue to put my 'nose to the grind each and every day. The minute I add up the weekly miles in my head or think about the actual distance of a, say,  a 30 miler and a 15 back-to-back, I shudder. But that keeps me focused is that I want this! I want this so much. Deep inside I know that what will make this possible for me (or not) will be the way I think about it. In running long races, more than any other activity I know of, one needs to be really aware of the consequences, if you may, ones' thoughts. Yes, training is important, it's half the preparation. Yet, where my mind is at is JUST as important. My thinking could make this happen, or could make it unravel faster than I can run a mile. I know now that within me, and within the contents of my thoughts, lie all the strength I need to make this race happen. Like the famous Marianne Williamson quote says, "Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure."  

                            I AM powerful beyond measure. But it's not just me that is powerful, everyone I meet is powerful beyond measure. It saddens me when I meet someone and the first thing they tell me when they know I run far is, "I could never do that". Words are so incredibly powerful, that in that statement alone they instantly strip away their own power. In that instant they are totally right, they could never do that. But not because they can't, but because they believe they can't. Beliefs are powerful things. They can tie us down or liberate us. They can cause great suffering or heal. I know a woman who is in an abusive marriage for almost two decades now. Kids have grown and gone, she has a good job to be able to financially support herself, but still, she remains, tied to this horrible man. To all of us looking at her life from the outside we can clearly see that she could leave at any moment, but to her, she is solidly bound to this jerk and sees no way out. 

                          Clearly, I have a lot of work to do. Getting my mind to believe that this is possible is what I am working on right now. To get myself there I am reading lots of testimonials from first time 50 mile runners, listening to ultra running podcasts, and getting as much sleep, relaxation and rest as I can when I am not running. Once the miles begin piling up and I get stronger I will feel even more confident. In the meantime, one run at a time. 

                          

Longer and Longer runs....how to make it easier

                   You know training is going well when you begin thinking of a 4 or a 6-miler as "easy". Yesterday I did a 7-miler and my body adjusted beautifully, no stiffness, no pain, not even the day after. Also, I have been doing my best to stretch after every run and it has been helping to keep me pain free and flexible. What has been getting tough is making the runs mentally interesting. Because not all runs could be in a beautiful forest, which would be ideal, I often need to come up with ways to entertain myself over the 1-3 hours I am out there. Below are some ways I have found help. 

1. Audio books downloaded from your local library via your Overdrive app on your phone
2. Music
3. Podcasts. My favorite podcasts are Marathon Training Academy with trevor and Angie and The Ultrarunner Podcast. Either will always have interesting, almost hour-long shows. 
4. If in a forest or a trail, I don't need anything....Just the sounds of nature is enough to make the run fun. Plus, you need your ears to stay alert and not slip and fall and most likely you will run into turtles, bizarre birds and many other creature. Huge bonus. 
5. Music- New music based on a "radio" from a song you already have. On Spotify you can turn any song into a "radio" and the program selects music similar to this song. Great way to find great music you are likely to love. 
6. When really suffering I count, 1-20, then back again, 1-20. At the end of every 20 I fold down a finger and when I get to 100 I start again. This works best when in lots of discomfort from heat, or exertion but I know there's more in the tank. Helps to keep your mind from convincing you to stop.
7. A new route of any kind does the trick! This works best for really long runs. Find a beautiful, never explored route and explore it. Time will go by really fast. 
8. Some people find it easier to run with others. Not my thing. Long story. This is a tough one for slower runners like me....most often we get left behind and run on our own anyway, so its best to start alone anyway. Less confusion and less broken expectations. 
9. Run in the elements. Nothing makes you feel more like a badass than running in the elements. Whether it's in the rain, wind or in the snow, running in weather other than good weather can be quite entertaining. Especially, if you have the right gear. It would be no use running in 3 inches of snow if you did not have those nifty snow claws to wear over your shoes, same as it would be useless to run in the rain without a plastic bag in which to store your phone. 

               I have a 14-miler this Sunday and I am starting to think of where I could explore in Nassau County, Long Island, where I am for another week and a half. 

Week 6, day 1 Intermediate 1, Hal Higdon

            I am loving my training plan, for once. Usually training plans ask too much from me too fast and I abandon ship soon after starting. For most of my past races, aside from my first marathon, I have made up my own plan as I went, but not this time. I am on week 6, day 1 of Hal Higdon's intermediate 1 plan and it is progressing slowly enough that I feel strong and capable on most runs and unlike other years, it has not been a struggle keeping up. This weekend I completed a total of 18 miles and the only side affect was a bit of crankiness, and not even the usual soreness the next morning. 
              For my 2 days off during the week I am totally taking the day off completely, no guilt, no cheating, just rest 100%. Over the years I have grown to value of these days off as essential parts of all training plans. Only with proper rest in between intense training periods is one able to come back stronger each time. Most of my speed PR's we've earned on days I took 1-2 days off running. I tend to liken these days off to pauses in all songs, they are just as essential as the song, yet, any song would not sound right without these gaps of no song; song and no song, they each complement one another just as running days and non-running days; they each make up a part of a whole. 

              What plans do you use? 
               

week 4, day 3...feeling strong baby

             It's sad when I think about how most women rarely get to feel the way I feel after a run. It's tough to describe the feeling exactly, but after a run, I feel a combination of utterly invincible, imperfectly beautiful, powerful beyond belief and just so blessed and joyful all around. Everything is right with the world right after a run, and one can think and make decisions with crystal clear clarity for several hours after. When people ask me about running, which RARELY happens by the way, but in the rare, rare occasions when they do ask me about it I always make sure to add in there that running is my anti-depressant, not only that, but I think of it as the love of my life. In describing it this way I can successfully communicate (in mainstream "America-speak") the importance and the intensity of the relationship. So yes, when asked about running I almost always bring out the intense, romance-speak to make sure to communicate just how essential this activity is in my life. 

      On that note, I had a GREAT run today. Not one part of my body hurt and no breaks were needed. It was a straight 6 miles, with the last two being much faster than the first 4. What more can one ask? 

             

Week 3, Day 6

          I got to see the lake today.YES!!! That alone is enough to make me smile all day today. Here is where I stopped to stretch my legs a bit over some bench acing the lake. This was a relatively easy week of running. I have one more run tomorrow, a 6-miler. As much as I like the trails, I think I will do my 6-miler on pavement tomorrow, for my ankles are totally beat from navigating over all the loose rocks and mud from the rain on this particular trail. 

            My compression shorts ripped where my thighs meet mid-run and it made me think that for any long run, like a race, I would have to take with me a threaded needle for occasions such as these. To avoid getting chafed, I simply rotated my sweaty shorts pant leg around to the front of my tight a bit so that the hole did not meet my other leg, it worked. Although every runner coming towards me got to see a weird hole in the front of my shorts. Luckily, few people are on the trails early on a Saturday morning. I got home and sewed up the hole and the shorts are back in circulation. 

         Surprisingly, I ran without music for the second time this week, and in a long time. It seems almost wrong to go into a rich, lush forest and put on earphones to hear pop music, my heavy synthetic running tunes heavily clashes with the more natural feel of the forest. 

 

Dare to dream big, but work small

          When I crossed that 50K finish mark on October 11, 2013 lots of things changed for me, but primarily in the way I relate to my own body. All my life I have been like an entity, totally separate from my body, driving my body through all these potentially dangerous habits. First, the stupid diets from Atkins to the Soup diets, all the way down to the an eight-day lemonade fast, yes, I only drank lemonade with cayenne pepper for 8 days. Then came the smoking in my 20's, then the staying up ungodly late hours to party and dragging myself around for the next few days. All these are example of how my body is being treated as dispensable. But crossing that 50K finish line after 10 hours, 29 minutes, 45 seconds  made me see how much my body can give back if given the proper care and training. And please!!! know that in the running world this is not a fast time for a 50K, in fact I came in DEAD LAST, so know that by no means am I bragging....but I DID finished under the cutoff by 15 seconds, in other words....I finished and that was quite huge for ME.

         One might think there is no difference between "making" one's body train and run a 50K and "making" one's body run 7 miles on zero training, at first glance, both experiences ARE hard on the body. Well, there is a huge difference. For one, for the 50K that is, you are working with your body over a period of months to slowly scale up your training to be ready for what it's going to go through. It's a painstakingly long process that requires tons of planning, lots of learning and mistakes making.  As the training slowly increases your body takes time to heal during the schedules rest days and comes back stronger. On the other hand, the 7 miles on zero training is absolute suicide, even 3 miles on zero training is dangerous, but I hear about people doing this quite often these days. Just going out there and pounding their body mercilessly and never once checking in, never once realizing it's going to be a bitch tomorrow when I wake up.

         If there is one thing I have learned from long-distance running is all kinds of facts about my body, how it operates, what is bound to injure it. I know that on cold days I can cause my shin to spasm, especially if I try to pass a slightly faster runner on a hill, which sadly HAS happened (and caused me months of recovery). I have learned that insoles are overpriced pieces of shit that cause more damage than good, I have learned that the first 2 miles of any runs will make you hate life but once it goes away you will be so grateful that you're running, I have learned to recognize which morning aches go away by noon and which aches are more serious and may require a day off. I have learned that a good bra is worth every penny and that Vaseline under my arms is absolutely necessary if I am to run 8+ miles, I have learned that good socks, again, are worth every penny. I have learned that I can wear shorts and a t-shirt in weather as cold as 40 degrees, bundle up any more and I will be tying my extra top around my waist at mile 3. You see, all this knowledge comes from the training. The training is not just an annoying meaty center meant to be ignored. In so many ways, the training IS the race. Just like in life, the end result does not encompass the experience of the journey. The certificate, the graduation, the promotion ceremony all are just mere stamps on the enormous and lengthy path it took to get there.

          Perhaps that is why I have been so cheery these past few weeks. I started my training plan and once again I am on this journey, this long trudge to the top, every day focusing on that day only. I have always been a person who needs a purpose. There are two kinds of people in this world, the incidental types who let life happen to them and the hopefuls. The "hopefuls" need an idea, a dream to chew on and as long as they have that bone, they can go through all kinds of hell and all will be fine because like holding a map, the Way is clear. Therefore, following this plan is very much like having this dream that one day will be realized, but I am not concerned about that now, THE DAY, I have learned, comes soon enough, but to have it come you need not focus on it, just trudge along, day after day, step after step.

         So choose the right plan for your current fitness level and dare to dream big. Keep your nose to the grind and make each day count. Before you know it, you will be on top of the world and in a world where instant gratification is the only language, no one will know how you ever made it so far.

Week nine done!!

             Week nine is done!!! yes! I am finally showered and sitting in my comfy bed typing and the run is completed. I feel quite amazing thank you very much. I did not meet my time goal unfortunately, but I will chuck that up to 82% humidity at 5am. The minute I stepped out of my air-conditioned home the air felt heavy and I was sweating profusely for the entire run.

 

            Before every long run I always take a good look at my bare feet and jokingly ask them if they're ready. Getting up this morning was tough but from experience I know that if I wake for any reason at 4am and my alarm is set for 4:15, I am not going back to bed, so I got up and my feet got the question. "Nope, I am not ready", they answered me. 

I have this obsession with C9 undies from Target. They now made a much better version and I got two sets of three. They MUST say Seamless performance...you will not regret! They feel amazing!!

         I let go of my time goal from the very get go. I had a time goal last week and that was fine, but with the humidity I was not about to risk getting burned out too soon. I felt so happy being back on my dark streets with my trusty super-powerful flashlight in one hand and my pepper spray in the other. The minute the sun came up I put both away and enjoyed having nothing in my hands. The humidity level lowered around 7am to 46% and every once in a while there was a gust of wind. 

            No matter how slow I run, I love feeling my legs moving beneath me. 

               The image below was taken at mile 5. Just feeling so blessed the whole run. The lowered humidity helped me feel better and run faster. I listened to two shows on Marathon Training Academy podcast and the miles went by pretty fast. I normally don't put on music until the 2nd half of the run. 

Good-bye shadow from street lights, hello sun shadows. 

Mile 8....

My camera refused to focus on this huge spider and web that stood out on my run....I love spiders. 

And finally, the sun comes out in full dramatic fashion. I need to paint this...

Mile 11....finally on the trails. I was further slowed down by the pebbles that cover half the lake trails. The paved parts were heavenly but on pebbles my ankles were screaming. 

              These signs (below) were posted everywhere around Lake Accotink...once again, society is supposed to just blindly trust weapon holders. The "what ifs" are endless, but we are supposed to just believe that all hunters know what they're doing without a shadow of a doubt. Made me sad for I just witnessed a beautiful deer with her fawns a few days ago in this same park....will they be the innocent victims of some overzealous bow and arrow hunter?  Sorry, I just don't get it, never will.  

This image below is what I shared on my Instagram account. 

I got to my son's double header game at 9:37am....went into the ports-potty there and changed my bra and top and sat for 5 hours watching his games. The day was absolutely perfect!! Any day that ends with baseball is a wonderful day!

Epic 16 Miler Planned for tomorrow's long run...battling fears

            I am getting ready for an epic 16-miler run for tomorrow through the towns of North Springfield, Burke, and Annandale. I will be running on three nature trails, Lake Accotink, Wakefield Park and Mill Creek Park. I cannot wait!! Seeing as I am staring before sunrise, there is one thing that's always a part of my planning, safety. I am pretty sure safety, in terms of rapes and abductions, is not an aspect most men have to consider much when planning their epic 16-miler, while for most pre-sunrise solo running female, this is a HUGE part of our planning. 
               I was telling my hubby just today that for some reason I feel much more unsafe here in the suburbs that I ever did running in Washington, DC. Perhaps it's my own bias; I may have seen too many horror movies, and in most of them random killers come from way out in the the suburbs or even further away from rural areas where they could easily shack up in a family member's basement, pay no rent and do their evil deeds in the total privacy of their secluded location. In the city, on the other hand, I have always believed, and maybe falsely, that it's merely impossible to just live in the city without a job, and anyone with a job therefore is less likely to abduct or rape random runners in secluded areas. I know, I know, all this ridiculousness is a huge absurd list of assumptions and fear all rolled into one. But, logic is a very weak opponent once fear has taken hold. 

       No matter what my fears tell me I have long ago chosen not to be dominated by my fears. The familiar quiet streets I now run on and the quiet dance of extended shadows of my slow moving body which accompany me on each pre-sunrise run are part of what makes this MY run.  One naturally develops a deep familiarity with the streets one most often runs on and that helps one feel more at ease, out there in the dark. 

          

                 

Speed miles hoorah!!

      I have been super worried about the 14minute/mile restriction on the Marine Corps Marathon; I do not want to be pulled off the course and be unable to finish the race. The last ling run I did my average was pretty slow. I asked the runners on the Women's Running Network on Facebook and got several good suggestions, most of them had to do with doing either speed drills or hill work. Yesterday, when my lungs were all stuffed up, I sped walked uphill on the treadmill for 4 miles. Today, I ran 6 and the last two were finished in 18 minutes! Not sure how accurate the miles on a treadmill are, but I was smokin'.....it was one of those runs that felt absolutely effortless. 

I treated myself to a few figs after my run....only a few. They are way sweet....you can't really have too many. 

I have been experimenting with putting more greens in my juices.....this one has peppers, bok choi, celery....and for sweetness carrots and one beet. It was a bit too bitter so I blended the whole thing with one banana. 

      Not sure when I will have time to read now that school is starting up again....but I cannot wait to dig into it tonight. I wish I was one of those people who could read while running on the treadmill....since I cannot possibly pull that off without losing my balance, falling and breaking my neck, I choose to listen to comedians. Today I enjoyed Jim Norton.....anyone who can make me laugh through the drudgery of the first few miles is worth listening to....of course, for me to like him he's got to be super crude and boarding inappropriate.