Running Update

Meh. My updates on here remain sporadic, but I am trying. Sadly, I wish my running has been as frequent as my blog posts...

The heat wave in Chicagoland persists, and training for a marathon has become downright miserable. Unfortunately, that means that I have been lazy relaxed when it comes to my milage. After slogging through a very uncomfortable 12 miler last weekend, I let a whole week lapse between my long run and the half marathon I ran Saturday. Additionally, last week, I completely, horribly, unbelievably fell off the healthy eating train and indulged in my inner fat kid. We are talking entire bags of chips, double-stuff oreos, and all the cheeseburgers and fries my tummy could handle.

Although, in my defense, the chips and oreos came about on Friday when I decided that I was going to use the half marathon on Saturday as the "re-set" button to my diet. I also seem to have tweaked my IT band a bit during my race, so I really need to get back to running and cross-training appropriately along with paying attention to my diet.

Today will be the wrong day for all of this new "resolve" as I already skipped out on running in the AM and I am going to Monthly Dinner Club with the girls at a place known for their hamburgers.... eeeep! Let's see how tomorrow goes.

xoxo,
E

Fail.

Well, so far I seem to be doing quite well at making updates to this blog. However, meeting my running goals has been significantly less successful. In my defense, I was under the weather this past Sunday and I decided that a 12 mile run was the last thing my already over taxed system needed.

That doesn't quite explain away why I am not rushing home from work to go for a run today, but oh well....Instead of the hills workout I had planned/was dreading, I am heading up to Evanston to grab dinner with a good friend.

Tomorrow, I will be up with the sunrise to amble up one of the approximately two hills in all of Chicago proper. If you see a half-asleep girl, running up hill and cursing something about Zombies, well then you are probably watching me make up my Monday workout...

In other news, I am happily starting to notice funny things I would like to record in my blog. This task is more than aided by my iPhone. During my am commute I spotted Sonic the Hedgehog! Of course, I crossed my fingers that we would be stopped at a red-light together long enough to snap a photo. Here is my nominee for BEST. BIKE. RIDING. HAIR. EVER.

xoxo,
E

91 Days and Counting

According to www.chicagomarathon.com I have 91 days, 12 hours and change left before my second marathon.

I guess it is time to get serious! Here are my goals for the coming week:

Sunday: 12 Mile (LSD) Ed. Note: Normally my long runs are on Saturday but as this week we were under extreme heat warnings, I decided to be flexible.
Monday: 50 Min. AM run w/8-10 hills. (I loathe hills.)
Tuesday: Swim for an hour before work - I have dinner plans!
Wednesday: 6 Mile AM run (3 miles at RP)
Thursday: Spin class
Friday: 4 Mile AM run
Saturday: 13 Mile (LSD)

Oh man.

xoxo,
E

Day One: Why Hello Again!

I am once again trying to force myself to keep some form of chronicle of the random and silly things I do, say, and think throughout my day. I am atrociously bad at keeping any form of journal or log unless it involves logging my daily running milage, so I am hoping to start a new habit (read - obsession). I hope that by beginning this blog as a log of my miles I will transform that practice into a somewhat regular occurrence.

I will probably still log my miles in the nifty little Runner's Calendar I bought for myself this year, but I figure here I can elaborate on how I felt, how my diet was that day, and of course, detail all the wonky things I see as I run along Chicago's lake shore.

This year has been decent for running. Well, decent compared to my lofty goals. Compared to me running every year in the past, I have been a bit of a rockstar this year. Two of my main goals for 2012 were to try and hit 1000 miles and to run one race per month. As of today, July 7, I have made significant progress on at least one of my goals - running one race per month. As for running 1000 miles in 2012? That goal is still attainable, but I will really have to get my butt in gear in order to make that happen.

Luckily for me, a summer of training for the Chicago Marathon (Version 2.0) awaits, so I might still hit that target. Unfortunately however, this summer has been one of the hottest in recent memory. For example, I ran once this past week...that does not bode well for October 7th. But I am hopeful that I can turn this around.

So far this year I have run 382 miles. That's nearly a trip to the farm in Kentucky!!!

To help inspire me to run more this week, I am going to shake things up a bit. First, I am going to outline exactly what I plan/hope to run right here on this shiny new blog. Next, I am going to introduce ZOMBIES into my running routine. Nope, you read that right, Zombies! I have been reading about a new iPhone game/app called "Zombies! Run." Apparently, as you run, you are sent on missions to save your city from the Zombies. At times, the Zombies start to chase you and it turns into an all out dash to stay away from them and stay alive! This could either be entirely too much fun or could lead to me running in front of a CTA bus... I will keep you posted!

Anyway, time to head out for "date night."

xoxo,
E