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Nice to meet you, 2010.

Nice to meet you, 2010.

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New Year’s (day) ranks in my top 3 favorite holidays, which also includes Thanksgiving and Día de los Muertos/Day of the Dead.  Part of the reason I like New Year’s so much is because I’m a total nerd and dig things like goal-setting… which, conveniently enough, is a very good thing for a runner to dig!

I finished off 2009 in the Dominican Republic with C – a very belated but lovely honeymoon – and I was determined to finish off 2009 by hitting 1,300 miles since I was so close (fewer than 20 miles away) to accomplishing it.  Being on vacation and all, where it was 90+ degrees each day in seemingly 110% humidity, this meant the nasty (cue evil nightmarish music here) ::treadmill:: , the likes of which I hadn’t run on in a year.  After getting used to the awful calibration (let’s just say that those were some FAST 9-minute+ miles!), it wasn’t so bad.  And, to boot, by the time 2010 came around, I had hit that coveted 1,300 miles… and had already signed up for a spring half marathon (the Hillstriders’ March Madness Race in Cary, IL).

I ran a bit less in 2009 than I did in 2008 (1,500+ miles), but I attribute it to being in Kenya for nearly three weeks, being ill a couple times in 2009, and struggling with bouts of near-overtraining in the summer.  It’s probably better that I ran less in 2009, going through what I did.  I’m telling myself that if the pros can take time off from running, that it was okay for me to, too, for the first time in 2ish years of marathon training and running.

Back to reality, in frigid Chicago, school will soon begin (the final throes of grad school – hooray!), and I went back to work yesterday.  To finish off a good day, I ran home – a nice ~3.4 mile stroll around 5pm on N. Michigan and Inner LSD.  The cold wasn’t so bad, thanks to the two pairs of tights + 3 tops + gloves + hat + jacket I was wearing, and man… it was damn near liberating to get off the “dreadmill”!

I plan to participate in Fleet Feet Chicago’s Boston-Bound 2010 program, and we have a kick-off meeting and run on Saturday morning.  I’m looking forward to it.  Until Saturday, my runs remain playful and nothing too serious — just a near-daily reminder of my own mortality. 🙂

What will 2010 bring?  Here are my running-related goals, written in vague-ish form so I can alter them later, as necessary:

  1. Maintain, if not improve, my health – make good choices regarding nutrition, hydration, sleep, stress and time management, and the like
  2. Better my marathon (3:37) and/or half marathon (1:40) PRs
  3. This is the one I’m really scared about – *perhaps* run my first ultra, a 50k!
  4. And, of course, to keep running fun and enjoyable and everything that I love it for … because the magic and beauty and challenge of this sport is its simplicity.

Here’s to a lovely 2010 for all of you, as well.

Running’s brutal honesty

Running’s brutal honesty

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“If you’re not cheating, you’re not trying.”

–my youth pastor (!) when I was in middle school

As bizarre or comical as that quote may be, it seems that that’s the mantra for many athletes, professional or amateur, who try to cut corners in their training or performance days and claim that they’re the cat’s pajamas at their sport.  Running, luckily, doesn’t really permit that to happen.  We put one foot in front of the other.  If we lie and say that we took two steps, instead of 1, it’s obvious.  If we say we can run faster than we really can, it shows.  Our sport’s brutal honesty humbles us and, perhaps more importantly, keeps us grounded.

This week is my last pre-Akron Marathon “peak” week, since school starts on 9/9 and the race is on 9/26.  I had a pleasant run home on Tuesday, a speed work-out with an old coach and his new training group last night (800m repeats), and this morning, ran to work along the lakefront amidst a fresh sunset.  Most of my speed this summer has consisted of running fartleks during an otherwise relaxed run or doing end-of-run strides or pick-ups, so I thought I’d vary it this week and aim to do a fast mile in the middle of my relaxed runs.  Tuesday afternoon that meant running a 7:30 mile; this morning, a 7:29 mile.  It was liberating.

Though I haven’t cut corners in this summer’s training, I definitely scaled back substantially from my winter/spring training, when I was training to run my first Boston.  Post-Boston, I did simple maintenance work to prepare myself for Rockford — this meant long, slow runs and relaxed mid-week runs, but not much in the way of formal speedwork — and I quickly bounced back from my 3:47 in Boston to a 3:39 in Rockford (placing me in the top 10 women finishers– 8th, I think–and earning me 3rd place age-group honors, booyah!).  In the days leading up to Rockford, I continually doubted myself, thinking that I hadn’t trained enough for that specific race (even though I had come off the heels of my Boston training), and at times, I seriously considered not running it.  I’m so glad I decided otherwise.

I’m looking forward to running Akron in 23 days, and my primary goal is to improve last year’s 3:55 performance, when I made some stupid mistakes and caused myself to bonk.  I’m not having it this year.  I plan to run with the 3:40s and hang on for as long as I can.  It’d be wonderful to BQ on the home course, but if it doesn’t happen, I’ll just shoot for it a month later, when I run the MCM.

Perhaps what I love, more than anything, about running is that I’m responsible for my performance.  I can’t blame anyone else for how I do on race day but myself.  I choose my clothes, I handle my nutrition, I’m the one putting one foot in front of the other… and in a way, on bad days, knowing that I’m the sole agent responsible for my performance can be irritating.  Most days, though, it’s exhilarating, especially when I’m in the throes of a good run or, even better, long-term-goal planning.  Make your experience that which you want.  Lying about it doesn’t help anyone… especially not you!

I’ll be venturing back to NE OH this Labor Day weekend to shack-up with my sister and her 6-week-old son.  I’m stoked.  🙂  I’ll also be running 20 miles of the Akron course, which also gives me something else to look forward to.  And the weather looks promising, too.  A mink can’t complain.

Run on, and run happy.