Today’s diet:

Bowl of Frosted Mini-Wheats                          230 cals
1 individually wrapped serving of string chese        80 cals
1 organic apple cinnamon toaster pastry              210 cals
1 Hershey bar with almonds (almonds = good for you!) 448 cals
1 root small root bear float                         180 cals
Total cals                                          ~920
Total nutrition                                negligible 

Really – this has to stop.

I’m going for a bike ride.

Every Blog needs its schtick and I’ve decided that mine will be Hump Day Miscellany in which I try to aggregate a bunch of stuff that has bounced through the hallowed (or is that hollow) chambers of my brain in the last week).
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I have some serious guilty indulgences, chief amongst them a serious Jell-O habit. I’m not talking about sugar-free Jell-O or seaweed Jell-O or any such nonsense. I’m talking about pure, sugar loaded, fake dye enhanced J-E-L-L-Ooooooo! I love the stuff. I love orange and cherry and raspberry the best. I love grape, too. I can eat it any time and I try not to care that 1/4 of a small batch is 19g of sugar. I should care, I really should but I love the fruity, jiggly goodness in my mouth. I love the cool and slippery way it glides to the back of my tongue and down my throat. I love the way it makes me feel like a kid. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm Jell-O. How do I love thee? Fortunately when it comes to Jell-O I’m like a periodic binge drinker. I go through short intense Jell-O binges and then I go cold turkey for months.

I swam this morning and then dove into guilty indulgence Number Two – Frosted Mini-Wheats. I only let myself have them after swimming which is daft because a bowl of Frosted Mini Wheats pretty much destroys any value I got from being in the pool but boy does it make me feel great. Really great. I love the sweet, powdered sugar crunchiness swimming in milk. I ate a small bowl this morning – and then I ate another one. The swim was great, though – my legs are almost all better.

In other news – I got my iPod Nano! It came almost overnight from Amazon with no shipping costs. Sadly enough I also ordered a plastic case with lanyard to use while running and although the case only cost $2.99 they are robbing me on the shipping charges. $8.45 and it hasn’t even come yet. Dirty dogs. It’s one of Amazon’s partners but they do this thing where they pair a good deal from Amazon with some partner merchandise and then don’t extend the free shipping to the extra doo-dad because they aren’t shipping it – the partner is. I’m going to write Amazon a little note and tell them that this arrangement makes a mockery of their very fine service. Love my Nano, though! So teeny, so sleek, so functional. When listening to an audio book I can skip from one chapter to the next as well as fast forwarding and rewinding. I can play music and then come back to the book and it is right where I left it. I can put photos on it. The shuffle offered none of those features and constantly left me running along with my thumb pressed tightly on the fastforward button trying to find where I left off on my previous run. The iPod Nano is technology at its finest.

Here’s to reaching the short side of the work week!

Thank you all for being so supportive. When it comes to the line between “I did it!” and “I failed to do it the way I wanted to” I am still closer to the latter than the former but as of this morning there is a new twist. A twist that told me loud and clear ‘it could have been worse’.

I got up at 4:00, got a cup of coffee, grabbed the BodyGlide and started greasing up everything that would have an elastic band around it. Then I greased up my left foot and just as I was pulling my sock on decided I needed to trim and file my toenails. Have you ever needed to get across the room when your foot has been slathered in BodyGlide? I have – several times but I just never seem to learn. I hopped across the room, got the goods, fixed up my toenails and reapplied the BodyGlide. Then I did my right foot. Grabbed my Garmin (evil beast!), pinned on my bib, put my chip on, brushed my teeth, and headed out the door – anxious. So anxious.

I drove into the city, parked (after almost steering a bunch of followers into a shipping bay and then having to back up out of there and down 1/2 a block) and walked over to the marathon area to find Waddler26.2. She wasn’t quite there yet so I headed for a porta-potty but the line was really long so I went back and found her. We met and then headed over to the starting line together. I was in panic because I couldn’t find the sweat check but then I found it and all was well.

I lined up in a wave ahead of mine (bad, bad, bad) and waited to go. I bid Waddler adieu and I was off. The pack ran past the water and up the hill and it went like buttah. “Ahhhh”, I thought, “that hill training really paid off”. Of course it was a short hill but still I was feeling good. Sort of. I still felt not warmed up but I was happy with my ability to manage the hill. Across Crissy field where the sprinklers were going and getting us wet. It was kind of funny. Along the water and up, up to the bridge (much bigger hill but still okay). I love this part of the race because they close 1/2 the bridge to traffic and let the runners run right on the bridge. I just think that’s cool. I ran down to the far end then turned around and came back and 2 things happened that made me glad I was still running.

First I saw a woman on the side of the bridge who had fallen or something and it looked like she had broken her nose. There was blood all down her front and a cop was putting a bandaid on her knee. I guess they moved the runners still coming onto the bridge on the sidewalk and sent an ambulance for her. Her race was over.

Then a cop car was clearing the traffic lane closest to the runners lane. I thought that was odd and wondered why he was there when all of a sudden a wheelchair runner came screaming along at a really fast pace and then BAM! I think his front tire blew. What a bummer for him – he was really hauling until that happened. An SUV started to pull up so I hoped that was his support crew and they could get him going again. Anyhow – I was still running and quite glad of it.

Off the bridge, up the big nasty hill and to a water station. I took my 2nd or 3rd little cup of Cytomax. Such a big mistake. I motored on. At this point I was just looking to hit the half before 2:30 and I made it – yippee!! But as I said, I started feeling queasy and icky and not happy at all. Honestly – for the rest of the race I was struggling and trying to make myself run instead of walk. I just couldn’t force myself much, though.

Some good hearted people had set up speakers in the park and they were playing music and I realized that the music really helped so I took my iPod out of my pocket and started listening to my music and it did help. I even had a sub 12 minute mile in there.

When I got out of the park and in to the Haight I realized that I wanted water when I wanted it and I wanted it to be cold so I stopped into Happy Donuts and bought a bottle of water (I always keep a couple of bucks in my shoe pocket for just such emergencies). I almost bought a donut hole just to get something solid and high fat in my stomach but I couldn’t fathom the act of eating anything so I nixed that idea. Not too long after that I encountered a woman passing out tortilla chips to runners so I took a couple. I took a bite and worked really hard to chew and swallow but it was like eating dust – I had no moisture in my mouth. I did manage to force down 2 whole chips with the help of my water and I started running again – it was downhill – whee!

My big mistake was going past the Hashers and not taking a beer. I’ll bet a beer would have helped. I just couldn’t manage it, though. I was also a little afraid I’d get drunk on 2 sips and say “F#ck It !” and call a cab. On I went. Finally I could see the ball park in the distance and that made me really happy because once you get around the back of the ballpark you are almost there (note to people on the sidelines who start with the “almost there!” at mile 20. No we’re not – we still have 6.2 miles to go. Cut it out!)

I had been sticking to a group doing the run for the AIDS Foundation for pretty much the entire run and they started to get away and I started to think about sticking with them. Then a horrible thing happened. The 5:00 hour pace group blew past me. At that point I decided that the 5 hour ship had sailed and all I could do was try to keep the 5:30 pace group from passing me. They never did but they probably started 10 or 15 minutes behind me – but I digress. I watched that 5 hour group go by and wondered to myself “Why didn’t you just line up with those guys to begin with” Arggghhh!!

On I went, around the ballpark and along the promenade and there I saw a woman not 1 mile from the finish, sitting on a bench having her blood pressure taken. And then I heard an ambulance. She was so close but she bonked and would DNF and I was glad to be running/walking still.

Finally I could see it – FINISH! And then I found my sweet Pookie holding up a big orange sign that said, “My Mom Is a Stud!” It warmed my heart. I slowed just long enough for her to get a picture. I look far better than I feel – trust me. I yelled out “Meet you on the other side!” and took off for the timing pads.

So what turned me around this morning? I opened the paper to read about a guy who died in the last 2 miles of that race. He was trained. He was healthy. He was only 43 years old and he died – just like that. He was William Goggins, a former deputy editor of Wired Magazine, a hip guy with a hip life full of people who adored him. He died of a heart attack. It’s so incredibly sad. I didn’t die – I made it. Not as fast I would have liked but I made it and I’m still here to tell the tale and I feel some obligation to appreciate that reality and so I do. I’m not probably ever going to celebrate it because I had a goal and I failed to meet my goal but I did cover 26.2 miles and I did it feeling lousy and I didn’t quit. I finished. And that’s good.

Marathon Training Tips (or – what I should have done but didn’t)

1). Listen to your training. The fact that my long runs all got so hard at the end should have been a clue that I was running too fast. I had every intention of running my 2nd 20 miler slower than the first but did I do it? No. I just repeated the same hell I experienced the first time and lo and behold – my marathon went south on me. Listen to your body.

2). Train with what you will race with. That means figure out what sports nutrition works for you. If you get nauseated on one thing try another and keep trying stuff until you find something that keeps you going without making you sick. Then pack it along on your marathon. I scoffed at the people with the fuel belts and the 22 packs of Gu flopping up and down in their shorts with the back pockets but I’ll bet they didn’t get sick.

3). Watch it with the Garmin – I would have done well to (as I had intended) wear it on my upper arm while training so I got the data but didn’t burden myself trying to hold a pace that wasn’t comfortable. I didn’t do myself any favors with that.

4). Avoid comparison shopping for validation or prediction. By that I mean don’t go plugging numbers from training runs into predictors and expect it to work. There is no reason to think you can suddenly outperform yourself on race day. If you can’t handle 20 miles at the race pace you need to make your time then you will not likely be able to handle 26.2 at that pace. I don’t know who decided you could run a long race faster than you trained for it but I think it’s daft. That might work for a 10K or even a 1/2 but a whole marathon is long, long way. Train at your race pace and live with whatever that is. If you have something left in the tank for the last 10K go for it.

What’s Next?

Aug 20 I have a metric century on the bike. How I am going to train for that is beyond me. I have no time expectations and it isn’t a race so I’ll just do what I do and you can rest assured I’ll be happy just to make it.

Sept 30 – See Jane Run is having a teeny-tri. 500 yd. swim, 11 mile bike and 3.1 mile run. Sounds like a blast.

Oct 22 – possible for the Nike Women’s 1/2. This involves serious fundraising so I’m not totally committed yet. I want the bling, though and I’d like to have a meet up with Juls and company.

Nov 26 – Run to the Far Side 10K. I’d like to do this in an hour.

Train Smart!

lap splits:
first 1/2 – 10:29, 10:30, 11:12, 10:46, 11:02, 12:07, 10:24, 11:09, 10:55, 11:40, 10:14, 12:33, 11:40

second 1/2 – 10:55, 14:39 (bathroom break), 13:41, 14:35, (I’m toast), 11:47 (thank you iPod), 14:56, 16:23 (water purchase), 14:15, 11:53, 14:13, 14:26, 13:37, 13:43, 11:91 pace to finish.

The best laid plans don’t always come to fruition – things happen. Sometimes you don’t even know what they are – only that they have impacted you.

I rocked the first half of this marathon, crossing the line at 2:28 – right on target. I never felt all that great while I was running it, though and not too long after that the wheels came off my little wagon in a big way. I felt horrible. Remember how I said Cytomax makes me sick? Well, my little 1 run test drive to see if I could handle it for the race was apparently a case of insufficient data. I got quite ill on this race. I just felt lousy.

A couple of friends came out to Golden Gate Park to cheer me and I looked up at them and said, “I am struggling! I’m really struggling!”. I talked to them for a few minutes and then took off again. Then I felt a little better so that when they went to the other side of the loop we were running and cheered for me again I looked good – I was running. But honestly, I did a lot of walking in the middle. I bargained and cajoled and really tried to pick it up but I just couldn’t do it.

I came in at 5:37 which is my worst time ever. I finished, though and I give myself a lot of credit for that because I really, really, really wanted to borrow someone’s cell phone and just call a cab.

I’ll post more later. Thanks again for you support.

Today was Expo day for the SF Marathon. This included packet pickup and free stuff. Sadly, they set the ‘packet pickup’ to require you to traverse not 1 but 2 entire expo rooms full of vendors to get your stuff. First you had to crawl through an expo tent with vendors on either side of the very crowded isle to get your bib number. Then you had to go over and get your chip. Then you had to walk past all the vendors on the other side, out of the tent, across the street and through an entire other expo to get your t-shirt. It was a bit much. Furthermore they did NOT give away hats this year – just the t-shirt. I was a little bummed about the hat but I do like the shirt. Here is the front and here is the back. The blue strip is mesh and the rest of the fabric is nice, technical dri-wick stuff.

I got lots a free stuff. Several packs of Jelly Belly Sports Beans, a couple of bags of chips (blue corn and black bean), some eco-friendly dishwashing and clothes washing detergent, some energy bars and some free food samples. I saw Bold’s buddies at Tanita who had the good graces to give me a great keychain presumably to soften the blow of telling me that I have 28.6% body fat. I could have gone the rest of my life without that bit of information. On the plus side, I am physiologically only 33 – woo hoo! (please don’t ask me if I actually believe that).

After I got out of there I met up with Waddler26.2 who is running the half marathon but completely forgot to take a picture – argh! . She is very nice and I met her very nice daughter, too.

Then I went to find the host of the Marathon, my main man Dean Karnazes a.k.a. UltraMarathon Man. This is the guy I wrote about here who has run over 300 miles in one shot. This year’s trick will be to run 50 marathons in 50 cities in 50 days. My goal was to ask him to run me in on this marathon. Apparently that was a novel idea because he said, “sure – come find me and I’ll do that” I had to explain that I’ll be running and that he’ll have to come find me. He said he would so I told him I would be coming in between 10:30 and 11:00 and then held my bib up – #1030! Whoa – get it? 10:30 is the number, people. If I come in at 10:30 it will be quite the miracle because I’m not supposed to take off until 6. So it’s not bloody likely but it does give me something to focus on. The prospect of Dean showing up to run me in is also something to look forward to – we’ll see. I can’t imagine how he’ll remember any of that but a girl can dream.

I bought another copy of his book which I had autographed and will raffle off for The Nike Women’s Half if I decide to run that with TNT. I’m still thinking about it. I also bought another SF Marathon Hat, signed by the man himself, from Organs R Us.

So that’s it. I’m drinking enough water to drown an oil tanker, Waddler and our girls and I had pizza for lunch, I’m going to a dinner thingie and then going to bed early and tomorrow I’m off to the races! If you want to see how I’m doing you can go to this site and enter my bib number. Please don’t steal my thunder, though. I know it’s silly but I’d like to be the first to post my results – for better or for worse.

Thanks for all the well wishes over lo these long hard weeks of training – it means everything to me!

Jeanne and Bold figured out my problem. Jeanne suggested long links but I was too busy to figure out if I had any. Bold found the offending link and I fixed it. Now I just have to apologize to Elle for changing the name of her blog from ‘Worn Out Shoe” to “Elle – tells it like it is” because she does and that appeals to me – deeply.

I’m trying to eat well and hydrate. The heat wave here has broken. My blog is fixed. My friend is having a dinner in my honor tonight (pasta and pizza!) because I already had an engagement for Saturday night. I’m pooped from a long hard week but life is good.

to the first person who can tell me why my sidebar won’t render next to my posts. I didn’t post a wide picture and I didn’t update the template.

Thanks!

I know some of you will be there – Waddler26 and Steve, for example.

I have a couple of pre-marathon social engagements Saturday night but I think it would be fun to have a packet pickup rendezvous. I can come in any time as long as I can leave by about 4 PM. If you are interested please send email to 21stCenturyMom@gmail.com and we can swap contact info.

I did my 30 minutes run this morning (really 31:37). I don’t think it really counts as easy as my splits were 9:22, 10:18 and 11:22. I didn’t know what 5x60s were so I ran fast for 60 seconds 3 times. That was making my legs tired, though so I just did the 3 which is probably why that last mile was slow. That and the uphillness of it.

Anyhow, I test drove my marathon outfit and it worked great! I decided to wear black shorts and after reading Bold’s post today I’m glad I did. If you haven’t read that whole post yet get on over there and suck it up. It’s a great story with a great message.

Bring it on, baby!

A couple of readers have commented that they are psyched about my marathon. I can’t tell you how much that warms my heart – it’s good to have fans! Shout outs to Stephanie, Elle, and Stillwater Heron, for specifically saying they are excited about MY race and to everyone else for the well wishes and encouragement. You know who you are!

I am psyched, too. This morning when I left the house at 6 AM to head for a client I was a little sad that I didn’t have time to run because it was cool and peaceful. It was probably only 70 degrees out and it felt nice. I was only sad because I thought I had to leave at 6 AM again tomorrow and I just don’t have it in me to run in the dark at 4:30 and then get all gussied up for a client but as it turns out I got a reprieve. No meeting tomorrow so I can go on my 30 minute easy run with 5 x60s – whatever those are. I have to find out.

I’ve been thinking about the training and the ups and downs; about the days when we lose all confidence and think we are out of our minds to attempt whatever it is we are doing and the days when we feel strong and healthy; the days when we feel selfish and guilty for taking the time to train and the days when we are angry at the world for not letting us do what we need to do. It goes up it goes down but in the end it comes to this pre-event taper and the ensuing happy anticipation of finally, finally lacing that chip through our shoes and lining up at the start.

I’m psyched people and I’m happy you are out there with me. Let’s all give ourselves a standing ovation for doing what we do – we deserve it!

A couple of readers have commented that they are psyched about my marathon. I can’t tell you how much that warms my heart – it’s good to have fans! Shout outs to Stephanie, Elle, and Stillwater Heron, for specifically saying they are excited about MY race and to everyone else for the well wishes and encouragement. You know who you are!

I am psyched, too. This morning when I left the house at 6 AM to head for a client I was a little sad that I didn’t have time to run because it was cool and peaceful. It was probably only 70 degrees out and it felt nice. I was only sad because I thought I had to leave at 6 AM again tomorrow and I just don’t have it in me to run in the dark at 4:30 and then get all gussied up for a client but as it turns out I got a reprieve. No meeting tomorrow so I can go on my 30 minute easy run with 5 x60s – whatever those are. I have to find out.

I’ve been thinking about the training and the ups and downs; about the days when we lose all confidence and think we are out of our minds to attempt whatever it is we are doing and the days when we feel strong and healthy; the days when we feel selfish and guilty for taking the time to train and the days when we are angry at the world for not letting us do what we need to do. It goes up it goes down but in the end it comes to this pre-event taper and the ensuing happy anticipation of finally, finally lacing that chip through our shoes and lining up at the start.

I’m psyched people and I’m happy you are out there with me. Let’s all give ourselves a standing ovation for doing what we do – we deserve it!