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Sunday, November 22, 2009

Boston Marathon

I was one of the lucky people that had that inner voice yelling at me, "Register for the Boston Marathon before it fills up!" I researched when it filled up last year and it wasn't until January, but for some reason, something told me not to wait. So I quickly registered and am verified for the 2010 race. Scheri quickly followed, and is now confirmed as well. Just a few days after Scheri registered, registration filled up and closed.

I am excited to go. I have qualified before but never felt it worth the trip to go. Now I have a few people that won't let me get away with missing out on it again. Since the race takes place on a Monday, I will have to take time off of work, and that didn't seem feasible for the past few years. Well, this is the year and I am all set. Training begins in just a few weeks, and I have to say i am ready to be back in a running routine. Halee, my 13 year old, is seriously contemplating running a half in spring. I will run with her on Saturdays, and then go do my long run on Sunday. That will be perfect considering I am also doing another 50M this year. A much easier one this time, Collegiate Peaks. Just a short one for today, off for a run in Palmer Park with the ladies.

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Seasons

In Colorado we have crossed over quickly from summer to fall. I find it interesting that many aspects of our lives has seasons as well. My teaching year follows a seasonal pattern that is quite opposite from the traditional seasons: the beginning of the year is most like spring and the end of the year is like fall. Let me explain. My students are fresh and new, like baby chicks when they enter my class at the beginning of the year. It is my job to grow them, take care of them, and prepare them for middle school. Finally, when they leave, the are ripe and ready to move onto their next adventure in life.

I also find that my running has seasons. Sometimes I am training very seriously, for a very intentional goal. Other times I am resting and running whenever and wherever, and that is the season I am in right now. I took 2 weeks off after San Fransisco, and was so busy with school activities that I wouldn't have had the time anyways. I decided I am a much better teacher when I run, so I met up with my girls group for a fairly difficult trail run last Sunday. Now classified as one of the worst training runs of my life, I am not sure how great the complete rest was for my body. So I decided I better do a short, interval run this last week. It seemed to work, oh ya, including the oatmeal for breakfast, bottle of fluid I brought, shorts I wore (opposite of all of the things I did wrong last week) because I had a perfect run today. So I will keep my running to a minimum, but try to keep it for the next few weeks.

In the meantime, I have tried a family fitness class - which was mostly plyometrics, lots of spin classes, got back to yoga, have tried new cardio machines, and tested out some p90x. It is nice to be without a schedule so I can try new things and see what I like, and what works. For now, I experiment. Training will start officially again in January, for Boston.