Training for a May Marathon - Alone

Received an e-mail this week from our trainer. She's starting a new marathon training program January 13th to prepare us for a spring marathon. I plan on running the United Healthcare Marathon on May 2nd.  But I don't think I'm going to particpate in the training.

I've been turning it over in my mind. I LOVE training with a group and the idea of everyone training without me already has me feeling sad and left behind. But here's the deal:

• Weekly runs are on Tues/Thurs nights. Tues is probably at the track but Thursday is likely on the roads, in the dark. Even with a headlamp, not my favorite type of running.
• Long runs are scheduled for Saturdays at 9 AM. I'm a morning runner. Having to wait around until 9 am to run not only trashes my entire morning, but a large chunk of my afternoon, especially when drive time home is factored in.
• Blair and I are traveling to Egypt in the Spring and will be taking Thursday night courses, so I can't attend at least half of the Thursday night runs anyway.
• And finally--I'm worried about burn-out. I run the May 2nd marathon b/c it's fun to run a local race. This is a hilly course (and probably hillier this year than last as the venue is being moved from GSO to High Point) so I don't run it with a time-goal in mind. I want to train hard for my fall marathon, and am concerned if I push myself to do full all-out training this spring AND summer, I'll just be sick of running by the time the fall marathon rolls around and not in a good mental state for it.

Last year we had a small group that self-trained for the May marathon. We did long runs together and ran hills once a week. We started training late, near the end of February, and still managed to be in decent shape for the race. So as much as I'd prefer to train with my group, I think I'm going to sit this one out. I'll need to push myself to run hills at least once a week, then I can do long runs either with the Blueliners (a group that meets every Saturday morning at 7:30 am and runs 8-12 miles) or call around and see who I can find. There's got to be some local runners training for this marathon who will need to get some long runs in. Or if I bring my own supplies, maybe the training group will let me sneak in with them for a couple of the longer runs. God forbid, I can try to run them by myelf, but that's a last ditch option. 18 miles all alone is not pretty.

Meanwhile, for anyone keeping score (Oh wait, that would be me) here are a couple of 2008 stats:

Total miles run in 2008: 1294.5

Total # of Yoga classes attended: 118

Wish I could push myself to pull out another 5.5 miles today for an even 1300 miles run, but it's not going to happen. Lots to do and I'm doing a 9 mile run tomorrow with the Blueliners to kick off the New Year. "9 at 9 (am) at the Blue line."

Wishing all of you a glorious end to 2008 and much happiness in 2009.

Dena

New Year Resolutions

I live for the New Year. Fresh start... new goals... a world of possibility where--yes!--I can be perfect from the word go . In years past, I have made lists and charted my "perfect" day to the point where I all but account for my bowel movements. But this year is different. This year I'm not feeling so concerned about setting goals. Life is pretty good, as is. There are some areas to be fine-tuned for sure, but I am simultaneously impressed/concerned with my lack of stated, specific goals for 2009.

Here's what I've got so far:

• Run 2 marathons
• Unplug the TV in January
• Work out with weights at least 2x/week
• Write a novel

These are remarkably different goals from prior years in that they lack specifics. However, I've come to think of specifics as something to be wary of. Yes, I know I'm supposed to set SMART goals such as "I will run the Richmond Marathon in November in under 4 hours." But this backfires for me. For better or worse, I'm the sort of person that if you tell me I HAVE to do something, that is immediately the last thing in the world I want/care about doing. I resent being "forced" into a corner, even if I'm the one doing the forcing.

However, if you tell me, "You know what--anything you can offer is great. If you could just write a page for us, you know, whenever you feel like it--no pressure--that would be wonderful," then guess what? I am all in. I will slam out not only what you asked me for but 20 extra pages of research, collated, and tied with a bow. As long as I have an exit strategy, I am head-first, totally committed to a goal or project. I can fight it, but that's the way I am so I may as well learn to work with it.

Going back to the goals, if I tell myself I have to complete a novel by March and have it sold by November, I won't touch the project. But if the goal is just to complete a novel... just to see if I can do it, no worries about publishing, I'll do it.

How about you, dear readers? Any goals or resolutions you'd like to share for the New Year?

Chicken: Your Go-To Cat for a Watermelon Eating Contest

Nom, nom, nom!Today's blog photo comes courtesy of Blair's cousin, Ken. He sent me some hilarious and oh-so-cute photos of some of he and wife's 8 CATS (my envy knows no bounds). This cat is named Chicken. Chicken's favorite food in the world is watermelon. Who knew?! Sadly, Chicken had a congenital heart defect and passed away on his first birthday on New Years Eve, three years ago.

I LOVE cat photos so if you'd like to send me some of yours to share on the blog, please feel free!

And Just Like That... I'm Done With Christmas

Since tying the knot almost 15 years ago, Blair and I have had an ongoing day-after-Christmas discussion that goes something like this:

DENA: "It's December 26th. Let's take the tree down."

BLAIR: "My family left the tree up until January 1st. That way we could enjoy it longer."

DENA: (Collecting Boxes) "Let's take the tree down."

BLAIR: "But leaving it up makes the holidays last that much longer."

DENA: "DOWN! DOWN! DOWN!"

I'm ready to have my house back after the holidays. Everything back in place so I'm ready for a fresh start to the New Year. Leaving the tree up makes me feel like I'm behind, as if the two hours spent on January 1st putting away ornaments will somehow taint the river of potential accomplishment that comes with the New Year.

This year was different. Normally tired of the Christmas blur by the day after Thanksgiving, this year I listened non-stop to the radio stations playing holiday music 24/7. My mood perked up each morning when I plugged in the tree and I gave a small sigh of disappointment each night when I had to unplug it. It had finally happened. I was a Christmas person. And as such, I was ready to make the leap.

I approached Blair this morning: "I'm okay with leaving the tree up this year."

"It's okay," he said. "We can take it down."

"No, no. You don't understand. I want to leave it up."

So this morning I plugged in the tree and admired the colored lights from outside the house as I left to drive to Greensboro for a long run. But then... disaster. I punched the car radio to the all holiday station and--what the hell--they were playing normal music! I quickly switched to the other all holiday station. Bryan Adams crooned that "Everything I do, I do it for you." Lovely Brian, but wtf is my Christmas music?!?

I walked in the door from running, showered, and hauled out the ornament boxes.

"What's going on?" asked Blair, coming downstairs. "I thought we were leaving the tree up."

"Chrismtas music is through. I'm done," I replied. "Here, wrap up this reindeer."

And so once again, Christmas has left the Harris house. All is put away and the house is back together. And I breath a sigh of relief.

Now I can get started on those New Year plans.