Courage

Courage is the ladder on which all the other virtues mount. -Clare Booth Luce

Courage is being scared to death - but saddling up anyway. -John Wayne

Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear. -Mark Twain

A hero is no braver than an ordinary man,
but he is braver five minutes longer. -Ralph Waldo Emerson

Fortune favors the brave. -Virgil

It's when you know you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. -Harper Lee

I don't have the words or experience to adequately expound on what courage means, so I draw upon the wise words of those better than I.

This post is dedicated to everyone that may happen upon this post, and especially to Carrie.

Hello, Lover

As Carrie Bradshaw would say in Sex and the City to her Jimmy Choo high heels, so I say to my new Nike Air 360s. More money than I have ever spent on running shoes before, but worth every penny.


They carried me through my 15 miler today. I had the usual aches that go along with running 15 miles, but the shoes were great. It was a risky move, wearing new shoes for a long run, but I am happy to say that the risk paid off.
Here's what the run looked liked today:
6 miles: 58:19
rest: 6:49 to stop at house, hydrate, and change jackets
4.5 miles: 47:46 (ran to the lake)
rest: 9:23 (gel, water, stretch, and picture taking to share w/you)
4.5 miles: 41:59

Overall, I had about 16 minutes of non-running time, and 2:30 of running time, for a total of 15 miles.

And here are some pictures of Lake Erie. Isn't it beautiful? Only a few more months, and I'll be swimming in it! These are pictures of Huntington Beach, the site of a really great sprint tri that I do in August. That's downtown Cleveland off in the distance.



--------------------------------------------
And on a side note, Rob has a recent post about a couple of things he would like to accomplish at some point in his life, one of which is skydiving. I commented on his blog that it is an amazing experience, and one he should definitely do, if he is so inclined.

I did it back in 1999, when my then-boyfriend, now-husband took me for my birthday. It was one of the best experiences of my life. Bar none. Although I do not consider myself deeply religious, a word that I think aptly describes the experience is "spiritual."



It was a tandem jump, so I jumped with an instructor who was strapped to my back. We had a short training session beforehand, and then jumped. I highly recommend it. If there are any NEOhioans interested, we did it through Aerohio.

I hope everyone had a great weekend, filled with great training, great food, and great friends. Have a good week!

TGIFriday!

Happy Friday, everyone!

Ahhh, the weekend is finally here, and we can all look forward to our long runs, rides, swims, and/or bricks!!

I did some quick figuring, and my Nikes have 342.4 miles on them, so I am thinking of swinging by my trusty running shoe/athletic apparel shop, Second Sole to see what new and exciting shoewear is out there. I would like to sample some Pearl Izumis if possible. I'll keep you posted on any new purchases.

Tomorrow is my last spinning class for the month (sniff). Does this mean that once it gets warmer, I have to take my bike out of the basement, and into the light of day!?

Have a great day!

Parental Advisory: Stop Video If You Don't Like Limp Bizkit

The lyrics are harsh, but I have to admit that "Break Stuff" is a great song to listen to when you are in a rebellious mood.

I'm not feeling rebellious with respect to my training. Training is going pretty well. I ran 5 yesterday, and 3 this evening. Was supposed to swim tonight, but didn't make it, and I feel okay about it. I am just plugging away, waiting for the warm weather to come.

I am feeling rebellious at work. I've been at my current position almost 3 years (it'll be 3 years on May 14.) It is the proverbial "overworked and underpaid." But I can handle the underpaid part. I can handle the overworked part. What I have trouble managing is the fact that Boss #1 and "wanna-be Boss #2" are incompetent, incapable of time management, cannot prioritize, and do not understand what their job responsibilities are. It makes me want to "break stuff."

It's time to start looking for a new job. How do people stay in positions for 10, 15, 20 years? It's a mystery to me.

And thank goodness for sports! I can't imagine how people who don't work out regularly deal with their stress! I would go mad if I couldn't go run or dive in a pool and leave all the madness behind!

Inspiration Found.

I was able to replenish the well, in part because of reading your blogs. By becoming a part of this community, I am able to share in your accomplishments, be it victory in meeting a goal, or victory delayed. I say delayed, because even when a race isn't finished, or a time isn't beaten, I have not read about an athlete out there admitting defeat. It is not defeat; it is victory delayed.

So thank you to all you athletes out there; driving, pushing, striving. You reminded me that the peaks and valleys are inevitable, and that you just keep moving forward.

Hum Drum

That about says it all. I have been lurking around others' blogs, but not really concentrating on my own, because I am feeling hum drum. I have been working out, and trying to keep to my marathon training schedule, but it feels mechanized, or robotic. I haven't necessarily felt inspired lately, and I am the type of athlete that really needs to feel inspired in order to push myself harder.

Case in point: I did twelve miles (2 hours, 9 minutes) yesterday in the warm weather I have been yearning for since last October, but it was a struggle. I felt tired and achy at the end, and wondered whether I am just getting too old for this nonsense. Maybe I should just concentrate on halfs (which is a distance that I love), and sprint/olympic tris. Maybe this was just a bad long run -- but it was only twelve! What will I do come 15, 18, 20?

Right now, I am going to chalk it up as a lackluster training run, and see how it goes. I am on track, and just need to stay there. Hopefully, I can increase my motivation back up to normal levels, and get mentally psyched up for the marathon in May.

How do you get inspired, and stay that way?

Congratulations, Ladies

Swimmin' Women take second.

Correction

Thanks for all the great comments, folks! I appreciate the sentiments.

I have a correction to make. The official race results are up, and it appears that even though race official's bestowed a "First in Division" award to me upon crossing the finish, I was actually third in my age group!! What the @#$%!
First place was 1:11, second was 1:22, and I was third with 1:23. Oh well. At least I was "first" for a day, right?

Catching the Leprechan

It took me a bit to get to updating the blog today. The race went pretty well, although I didn't PR. I felt like I pushed it today, and I paid for it once I got home. (Some intestinal issues. I never had them before, but as I get older, I am finding that I don't feel so well after tough races.) Anyhoo...

The weather was pretty nice today. Cold, but sunny. I forgot my camera this morning, which was okay, because I never did see TriEric and his wife today! I was so bummed! The other thing I forgot to do today was get all my splits. It was mile 5 before I realized it, and started getting the splits. So here are the ones I got:
Mile 5-45:50
Mile 6-8:37
Mile 7-8:35
Mile 9-17:56
Watch Time-1:23:31.

Slower than my 15K in September, and slower than my 10 miler in August of 2004 (1:20). I am attributing it to the cold. When I finished, I got a small trophy because I got first in my age group. I hope it shows up on the website, though, because they made a mistake on my age group category. I'll have to check the results when they post them. (Hopefully, I wasn't the only one in my age group, either!)

My husband did well. I can't remember his exact time for the 30K, but I think it was like 2:28. There were some really fast men in his age group.

I had forgotten what "race pace" feels like. But my legs are remembering today. I think tomorrow will be a day off.

I forgot to add that I actually did my extra 3 miles, too! I think it was more like 2.5, because the mile markers weren't exact, but I am calling it three, because I raced the previous nine!

I hope everyone had a great weekend, and hope that everyone's races went super! Have a great week!

Friday Night Was A Bust

Welp, despite my good intentions, I was a complete slug Friday night, and never made it to the pool. Didn't really accomplish a darn thing, but I guess you'll have that.

I tried to make up for it this morning, though, by going to spinning class at 8 a.m., and then hitting the pool. My first brick of the year! In reverse order, I know but class was a 8, and the gym didn't open until 8, so I had to go in reverse order.

Spinning was really good. I thought I was doing well at pacing myself for a good workout, keeping my heartrate up and the resistance at a good setting, but I must have been overdoing it, because about 3/4s of the way through class, the instructor actually got off her bike, and started coming over to me asking me if I was ok! How embarrassing. Hasn't she ever seen someone sweating like a pig in a spinning class before? And if that doesn't beat all, after class, I was in the hallway eating a PowerBar, and she asked me again if I was ok. Good grief!

After I stopped sweating, I changed into my suit and hit the water:
W/U: 150
Set1: 1250 (1 length hard,1 easy, 2 easy, 2 hard, 3 easy, 3 hard, 4,4,5,5,4,4,3,3,2,2,1,1)
Set2: 400 pull
IM:100 (fly,bk,fr,fr)
100 (bk,br,fr,fly)
100 (br,fr,fly,bk)
100 (free,fly,bk,br)
C/D: 300
Total:2500yds

Tomorrow is my 15K race. TriEric will be there, and his wife will be running. Hopefully we'll get to meet up, I'll make sure to bring my camera to post pictures.
As for goal time, my last 15K was in September, and the time was 1:21:51. It was warmer then, though. Depending on how I feel, I should come in right around that time. (I have to do a 3 mile cool down after the race, though, cause HH prescribes a 12 miler for me this weekend.)

For All You Trivia Buffs Out There

Check out this website - you can find out which stars were passed up for different movies. You can search by actor or movie. Lots of fun.

Not starring.

TGIF

I love leaving work early, and leaving virtually undetected. I am sitting in bed, in my p.j.s, with laptop, t.v. on, eating Cheez-its and drinking Coke from the can. Does it get any better than that?

I am supposed to swim tonight, although I now seem to have a slight stomachache - could it be from the half box of Cheez-its I ate in less than 15 minutes? Hopefully by 7 p.m. the stomach issues will have subsided enough to get in a good workout, and then grab dinner at McDonalds. (I'm not kidding. You would not want me to start keeping a food log.)

I'll let you know how the swim goes...