Hello! I'm excited to contribute my first blog entry. First a little background. I've just celebrated my first year of residency in Arlington after moving here after college. I'm originally from Eastern Pennsylvania (right on the Delaware River) in a small rural town (pop 850). I love being in Arlington and near DC with everything accessible without a car. I've been a recreational runner since high school, and rowed crew for a few years in college. I've completed two 10 milers but this will be my first marathon. I'm hoping to use the training and mileage as a way to discover new areas in Arlington and DC that I wouldn't normally see running my typical biweekly 3 mile loops. Obstacles that I foresee and am already experiencing are scheduling my workouts around work, tutoring, friends, and summer vacations. My new couch has also not been very supportive of my goals but we're working it out.
After being in the training for a little over two weeks I'm already starting to see the beginning stages of wear and tear on my body and the first thing to go is the toe nails. After getting up to 10 miles last weekend (the farthest I've ever run!) my second toenails on both feet have gone black and blue. I've always liked running as a form of exercise and a sport because it doesn't require much commitment in the way of expensive equipment. Walking into a bike shop makes me want to cry with the amount of money that is potentially involved with each feature of the bike. Despite this, I think it may be time for a trip to the running store for some new shoes or some dark colored nail polish.
I started with Arlington Road Runners three weekends ago and first ran the Custis trail. I'm living in Ballston so this is my typical home run and I got a little overeager with my pace and ended up needing to walk towards the end. The monotony of running the longer distances is much harder especially after being used to running the same trails at a faster pace. The next weekend we went through the city along the monuments and I kept my beginning pace much slower and was able to increase my pace throughout and finish strong. The people in the running group are interesting to talk to and the conversation forces you to stay at a reasonable pace.
Monday, June 30, 2008
group runs assessment
Wow, I'm really enjoying reading everyone's posts here in this blog. It's so wonderful to be part of a group and have the common goal of running strong. We all come from different backgrounds and abilities, but I know that we will all do great come race day. Now here's a bit about my running:
Two Saturdays ago, I joined up the run from the Pacers store at 6:30am. It was such a small crowd and I was thinking, "This is the entire Pacers Racers crowd??" I and another woman ran together, about 12 miles. The terrible part is always running up the Custis trail from Key Bridge through Rosslyn. Oh man, that hill is long and steep!
Anyways, I realized that it was actually the Sunday run that's the main group run. So I showed up yesterday at Roosevelt Island. I don't really like that we start at 7:30am, because it's already scorching by then, but I have to remember that most lazy people are still asleep at that time! There was a "fast group" that was way too fast for me, and a "slow group" that was way too slow for me, so I was the oddball in the middle, haha. I think I ran about 11-12 miles, and even with the blazing sun and heat, I didn't walk at all.
Just like last Saturday's run, this run was along the C&O canal. Parts of it are nice and shady, but I hope we run on some other trails as well in the upcoming weeks, because I like variety! Tomorrow evening I'm planning to join the group for a track workout at Washington-Lee HS. First of all, I always perform sub-par in evening workouts and second of all, I am terrible at track/speed workouts. But that's the point of all this, right? For me to improve!
Two Saturdays ago, I joined up the run from the Pacers store at 6:30am. It was such a small crowd and I was thinking, "This is the entire Pacers Racers crowd??" I and another woman ran together, about 12 miles. The terrible part is always running up the Custis trail from Key Bridge through Rosslyn. Oh man, that hill is long and steep!
Anyways, I realized that it was actually the Sunday run that's the main group run. So I showed up yesterday at Roosevelt Island. I don't really like that we start at 7:30am, because it's already scorching by then, but I have to remember that most lazy people are still asleep at that time! There was a "fast group" that was way too fast for me, and a "slow group" that was way too slow for me, so I was the oddball in the middle, haha. I think I ran about 11-12 miles, and even with the blazing sun and heat, I didn't walk at all.
Just like last Saturday's run, this run was along the C&O canal. Parts of it are nice and shady, but I hope we run on some other trails as well in the upcoming weeks, because I like variety! Tomorrow evening I'm planning to join the group for a track workout at Washington-Lee HS. First of all, I always perform sub-par in evening workouts and second of all, I am terrible at track/speed workouts. But that's the point of all this, right? For me to improve!
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Doubts and Excuses
The Saturday run today was 7 miles along my favorite C&O Canal, but before getting myself out of bed and getting there by 6 a.m. I made all kinds of excuses why I could not run this morning.
I was up with bad dreams during the night.
I was worried about news about a family member.
My hip hurt.
My leg hurt.
It was going to be too hot.
After tossing and turning all this over in my head I decided that staying in bed would not solve the problem with my family member's medical condition, nor could I do anything about anything at 6 in the morning, and I remembered that although my leg hurt while I was in bed, it didn't hurt while when I ran last weekend, so perhaps it will not hurt today. As far as the temperature, well... it is only going to get hotter, isn't it?
So I got up and got out and met the Road Runners at Gateway Park and had a wonderful run along the beautiful C&O canal. It was hot, but not too hot on the lower path which is all in shade. My leg didn't hurt and I was back at home before 8 a.m. and feeling kind of proud of myself for not giving up and not giving in to negative thoughts. Plenty of time left in the day to deal with other issues.
I was up with bad dreams during the night.
I was worried about news about a family member.
My hip hurt.
My leg hurt.
It was going to be too hot.
After tossing and turning all this over in my head I decided that staying in bed would not solve the problem with my family member's medical condition, nor could I do anything about anything at 6 in the morning, and I remembered that although my leg hurt while I was in bed, it didn't hurt while when I ran last weekend, so perhaps it will not hurt today. As far as the temperature, well... it is only going to get hotter, isn't it?
So I got up and got out and met the Road Runners at Gateway Park and had a wonderful run along the beautiful C&O canal. It was hot, but not too hot on the lower path which is all in shade. My leg didn't hurt and I was back at home before 8 a.m. and feeling kind of proud of myself for not giving up and not giving in to negative thoughts. Plenty of time left in the day to deal with other issues.
Friday, June 27, 2008
Starting from scratch
Wow, there are a lot of seasoned long-distance runners in our group. I'm at the other end of the spectrum; I'm out of shape and have not been exercising regularly. I will be training for the Marine Corps 10K, a more realistic goal for me.
A long, long time ago I was on the high school varsity cross-country team -- before you get any ideas about how fast I was, let me tell you that a) there was room for five girls on varsity, and b) there were five girls on the entire team. I was the slowest runner on the team, but I liked running, so I trained as hard as anyone else and I tried to be a good teammate.
But in college I stopped running, and for the last 10 or 12 years I've exercised sporadically. Nothing sticks for more than a few months at a time.
Since the birth of my son 1 1/2 years ago, things have been even more challenging. Despite daily walks to the playground, I remain 15-20 pounds overweight and out of shape. And taking care of a toddler means I have less time to focus on my own fitness.
Last year when my husband, son and I moved to Arlington, a 5-minute walk away from Thomas Jefferson Community Center, I vowed to take advantage and get back in shape. I started going to the aerobics and spinning classes, 2-3 times a week if I could. It worked for a while, but ultimately I found that -- as primary caregiver to a toddler and with a husband who travels frequently for work -- my schedule is no longer my own. After a month or more of regular workouts I'll miss a week or two, and I'm practically back to square one.
I decided I needed to find a way to stay fit that I could do while taking care of my son and working around his schedule. So, after a long hiatus, I've returned to running. I've put in a few miles over the past two weeks with the jogging stroller, and I'm up to 1.5 miles now, with only a little bit of walking. Let me be your inspiration as I move from 0 to 10K in 4 months!
A long, long time ago I was on the high school varsity cross-country team -- before you get any ideas about how fast I was, let me tell you that a) there was room for five girls on varsity, and b) there were five girls on the entire team. I was the slowest runner on the team, but I liked running, so I trained as hard as anyone else and I tried to be a good teammate.
But in college I stopped running, and for the last 10 or 12 years I've exercised sporadically. Nothing sticks for more than a few months at a time.
Since the birth of my son 1 1/2 years ago, things have been even more challenging. Despite daily walks to the playground, I remain 15-20 pounds overweight and out of shape. And taking care of a toddler means I have less time to focus on my own fitness.
Last year when my husband, son and I moved to Arlington, a 5-minute walk away from Thomas Jefferson Community Center, I vowed to take advantage and get back in shape. I started going to the aerobics and spinning classes, 2-3 times a week if I could. It worked for a while, but ultimately I found that -- as primary caregiver to a toddler and with a husband who travels frequently for work -- my schedule is no longer my own. After a month or more of regular workouts I'll miss a week or two, and I'm practically back to square one.
I decided I needed to find a way to stay fit that I could do while taking care of my son and working around his schedule. So, after a long hiatus, I've returned to running. I've put in a few miles over the past two weeks with the jogging stroller, and I'm up to 1.5 miles now, with only a little bit of walking. Let me be your inspiration as I move from 0 to 10K in 4 months!
Age is no excuse to give up!
I am very grateful for the FitArlington program. We are all quite fortunate to live in a county that gives us so many opportunities to stay active, both physically and mentally. I have taken advantage of classes at Madison, Langston and Lee Centers. Arlington has so many lovely parks and paths where we can get away from the noise and distractions to enjoy nature in our own neighborhoods. I just love the C&O canal where we can see the blue heron, the turtles sunning themselves on the logs and the ducks and geese with their little babies gliding along in the water. Arlington is such a great place to live. We can actually walk from one end of the county to another without really having to go into traffic, thanks to all the bike trails. The new bike lanes and the small ART buses that go through the neighborhoods help us feel safer when we do take to walking in the streets.
Many years ago I realized that a big part of enjoying life is feeling well and exercise has been so beneficial in keeping my spirit and energy up even though the years keep ticking by. The first marathon I ever ran was the Marine Corps Marathon 10 years ago. I was facing my 50th birthday and I set that goal to run a marathon as a distraction. I had to concentrate on training and running a race which left little time to worry about getting old. Sounds silly, but it worked and I went on to run 2 more marathons after that. Now, with the support of FitArlington and the Arlington Road Runners Club to help me get back to running, after several non-running years.
I don't think that one has to run to stay fit. I don't think we have to be fast or run marathons, but we do need to use our bodies if we want them to stay strong so that we can contribute, rather than be a burden to our families and so that we can enjoy all the great opportunities that are available in our lives. I encourage all my fellow "seniors" to get up and do something. Find something that you enjoy, enroll in recreation class, dance, do yoga, swim, go for an early morning walk, or walk to the grocery store and leave the car at home. Don't give up on your body and you will be surprised at the benefits to you and to others in your life.
This first entry was a bit of a pep talk, but in future entries I will admit to the pain and doubts that sometimes arise when I have to get out there and keep putting one foot in front of the other. I try to remember what my water aerobics teacher said to me at 6:00 a.m., " it never enters her mind not to show up." That frame of mind is my new goal.
Many years ago I realized that a big part of enjoying life is feeling well and exercise has been so beneficial in keeping my spirit and energy up even though the years keep ticking by. The first marathon I ever ran was the Marine Corps Marathon 10 years ago. I was facing my 50th birthday and I set that goal to run a marathon as a distraction. I had to concentrate on training and running a race which left little time to worry about getting old. Sounds silly, but it worked and I went on to run 2 more marathons after that. Now, with the support of FitArlington and the Arlington Road Runners Club to help me get back to running, after several non-running years.
I don't think that one has to run to stay fit. I don't think we have to be fast or run marathons, but we do need to use our bodies if we want them to stay strong so that we can contribute, rather than be a burden to our families and so that we can enjoy all the great opportunities that are available in our lives. I encourage all my fellow "seniors" to get up and do something. Find something that you enjoy, enroll in recreation class, dance, do yoga, swim, go for an early morning walk, or walk to the grocery store and leave the car at home. Don't give up on your body and you will be surprised at the benefits to you and to others in your life.
This first entry was a bit of a pep talk, but in future entries I will admit to the pain and doubts that sometimes arise when I have to get out there and keep putting one foot in front of the other. I try to remember what my water aerobics teacher said to me at 6:00 a.m., " it never enters her mind not to show up." That frame of mind is my new goal.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Chasing something, though I'm not sure what
I'm honored to be one of 10 Arlingtonians sponsored by the FitArlington program to run the Marine Corp Marathon in October. I have done marathons before, but 2 years ago I made some major lifestyle and eating changes and lost 45 lbs. [This is me in before-and-after photos]. I ran the Richmond marathon as part of the transition and shaved more than 45 mi
nutes off my first marathon time. My younger brother then challenged me to cut another 15 minutes to try to qualify for the Boston Marathon. This is something I never thought possible being a last-one-picked-on-the-playground kid growing up. So here I am. I'm mixing long runs on Saturdays with intervals and up-tempo runs during the week. Low-mileage, high-intensity, with cross training in between. Wish me luck. I'll need some of that, too, to run a sub-3:20. At age 44, some might question my pursuit of speed. Why not just be happy to be able to go the distance? Am I having some midlife crisis? I don't think so. But even if I am, I know I can't afford a Porsche, so I keep running.
nutes off my first marathon time. My younger brother then challenged me to cut another 15 minutes to try to qualify for the Boston Marathon. This is something I never thought possible being a last-one-picked-on-the-playground kid growing up. So here I am. I'm mixing long runs on Saturdays with intervals and up-tempo runs during the week. Low-mileage, high-intensity, with cross training in between. Wish me luck. I'll need some of that, too, to run a sub-3:20. At age 44, some might question my pursuit of speed. Why not just be happy to be able to go the distance? Am I having some midlife crisis? I don't think so. But even if I am, I know I can't afford a Porsche, so I keep running.
The idea for me is to get in shape and finish the Marine Corps in a decent time. I ran it once before in 1989 when I had a year at the War College and plenty of time to put in miles, as well as plenty of encouragement. Since then I've never had that kind of time and I don't expect to have it again. So training by a schedule is a must. I can do 3-5 miles every morning and the longer run on the weekend, but when we get up to the really long mileage I'm not sure how that will work out. Deal with that when it comes.
At the moment I'm last week's long-run behind but with a good excuse from just having finished a bike vacation (with Bike Virginia). Undoubtedly biking grows the wrong muscles, but it is good for the lungs and should be good for endurance. I was out four to six hours each day, but also developed the habit of eating every 90 minutes or so. No one comes back from Bike Virginia tours any thinner.
Running along the canal path, on 4 Mile Run between Bluemont and Colombia Pike Park, and on a little back trail that follows the Metro tracks between Arlington Memorial Cemetary and the Pentagon Parking lot are some of my favorites routes. I also have a longer loop from my house (on N. Danville Street) to a path along the Arlington Blvd siding road to where it crosses 4 Mile Run, the through the park to the W&OD, then back on the Custis Trail. That runs 8-10 miles depending on whether I loop through Lyon Village or go further down on the W&OD.
I'll be with the Orange Group again this Saturday. If I keep up I'll be happy with that. See you then.
Brad
At the moment I'm last week's long-run behind but with a good excuse from just having finished a bike vacation (with Bike Virginia). Undoubtedly biking grows the wrong muscles, but it is good for the lungs and should be good for endurance. I was out four to six hours each day, but also developed the habit of eating every 90 minutes or so. No one comes back from Bike Virginia tours any thinner.
Running along the canal path, on 4 Mile Run between Bluemont and Colombia Pike Park, and on a little back trail that follows the Metro tracks between Arlington Memorial Cemetary and the Pentagon Parking lot are some of my favorites routes. I also have a longer loop from my house (on N. Danville Street) to a path along the Arlington Blvd siding road to where it crosses 4 Mile Run, the through the park to the W&OD, then back on the Custis Trail. That runs 8-10 miles depending on whether I loop through Lyon Village or go further down on the W&OD.
I'll be with the Orange Group again this Saturday. If I keep up I'll be happy with that. See you then.
Brad
running to improve
I'm very glad to be a part of FitArlington and hope that through my blog entries and marathon training, I can be an inspiration for others to take up running.
I have been running marathons for eight years and I am currently training for my third Marine Corps Marathon. It was also the first marathon I ran in October 2000. I technically am still training for triathlon that's in 3 1/2 weeks, but it's only a sprint, so I'm doing some marathon training simultaneously. In terms of finishing times, I haven't seen a vast improvement in the past few years, but my recovery time has gone from weeks to days to only 1 1/2 days.
I'm hoping to re-qualify for the Boston Marathon, something I just barely did 2 1/2 years ago. A funny note- my qualifying standard is 3:40:59, and the time I got was 3:40:58. Yeah, I literally had ONE second to spare. I haven't been able to run that fast since, so I'm hoping some formal training will help. And I'd also like to meet other runners. Before this entry gets too long, I'll end it here. I have lots more to write, though!
I have been running marathons for eight years and I am currently training for my third Marine Corps Marathon. It was also the first marathon I ran in October 2000. I technically am still training for triathlon that's in 3 1/2 weeks, but it's only a sprint, so I'm doing some marathon training simultaneously. In terms of finishing times, I haven't seen a vast improvement in the past few years, but my recovery time has gone from weeks to days to only 1 1/2 days.
I'm hoping to re-qualify for the Boston Marathon, something I just barely did 2 1/2 years ago. A funny note- my qualifying standard is 3:40:59, and the time I got was 3:40:58. Yeah, I literally had ONE second to spare. I haven't been able to run that fast since, so I'm hoping some formal training will help. And I'd also like to meet other runners. Before this entry gets too long, I'll end it here. I have lots more to write, though!
Running in honor of my son Mason
My son Mason lost his battle to brain cancer 8 months ago. He was 5. My sister Noel, a childhood cancer survivor,will also run the race with me and raise funds for Mason's Fund at Children's National Medical Center. We will post more details about our efforts here. You can read his story at www.masonleach.blogspot.com.
Sometimes the best way to stay motivated is to have a cause to run for.
Sometimes the best way to stay motivated is to have a cause to run for.
Getting Started
Ah the joys of running after so much time off. I just got back to running about a month ago and prepping for the race. You realize how much you lose in fitness when you stop for awhile. But the race looms ahead and the extra weight I am carrying is a good motivator.
Every step I take is a step twoards a better, fitter life. I have also tried to mix it up by playing tennis with my son, water running, and walking so I get moving in different ways.
I think the toughest part right now is just getting out the door and doing it in this heat. I have to wake up with the chickens or go later in the evening. I have to remember that even if this takes time away from my family, this means I will be around longer when I am healthier.
Every step I take is a step twoards a better, fitter life. I have also tried to mix it up by playing tennis with my son, water running, and walking so I get moving in different ways.
I think the toughest part right now is just getting out the door and doing it in this heat. I have to wake up with the chickens or go later in the evening. I have to remember that even if this takes time away from my family, this means I will be around longer when I am healthier.
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