Back at it

Another long run is in the books.  A real long run too, none of this 10 mile weenie crap.  Sorry, that was uncalled for, and after this marathon, 10 miles will go back to being a long run, so don't be offended.  I will regret that statement in due time, I'm sure of it.  Tonight we did 14, following a familiar route.  We started at Tides in Nahant, ran down the beach, through Swampscott, into Marblehead, and then turned around and looped back through Swampscott to Tides again.  Since we went at 5 pm we got to enjoy an awesome sunset over the ocean and a lot of cool air.  Fall running really must be the best.  The air is perfect, the weather is fantastic, and soon enough, there will be awesome Halloween decorations out everywhere.  Salem might be a bit too crowded for running, but it would be some great scenery.

Here's the route we ran tonight.  We had a great time without all the humidity, it was the 3rd fastest half marathon I've ever run.  The fastest still stands as the Run to Remember at 2:01.  All of my running buddies have big races next weekend, so I'm on my own for that I guess.  Two of them are running a half in Salem and the other two are doing the Spartan beast, which is just crazy. 

I don't have many runs planned before the marathon actually.  Just the Electric Run at Gillette Stadium the first weekend in October and the last few Lynn Woods Runs.  There is a 15K or 5K for the running club, but I don't really want to risk that so close to the marathon.  It's 2 weeks before, and with my luck, I'd break something running through the woods.  Plus, from the sound of it, the 15K is a bunch of loops through the woods, which sounds awful because that's a lot of hills.  Most likely, I'll stick to long run Sundays and boxing for endurance.  Then, after the marathon, I can go back to running for fun, which I am really looking forward too.

Oh, one more thing, I made it through Once Upon a Time season 2 (in record time) and I'm pumped for season 3.  And yes, I know the town was frozen for 28 years, but I still don't buy the Snow White, Prince Charming, Emma Swan family thing.  It just doesn't fit with me.  However, I do love Mr. Gold.  My worry is that they're going to turn Peter Pan into something awful and he's one of my FAVORITE story characters, so I really hope they don't.  Lastly, I feel like they could have held off on a spin-off for a few, but whatever.

Dr. Seuss day

Tomorrow is Dr. Seuss's birthday so of course we celebrated today in school.  We ate green eggs and ham, dressed in fancy t-shirts, and read/watched Dr. Seuss stories.  It was a fun day, as it always is.  I made t-shirts for myself and three other teachers, and I must admit, they came out pretty neat.
After work I went running on the beach.  I know that I'm going to get sick of the route soon, so I really hope they open up the other parking lot so I have somewhere else to start from.  Otherwise, I might go try a new beach, maybe Marblehead or Salem.  Anyways, I met a friend and we went for the 3 miles, using, of course, Zombies, run and Charity Miles.  As always, the running part itself was not so much fun, but the end result was awesome.  We did 3.05 miles in 28 minutes.  That's 3 minutes off my time lately.  Looks like I'll be all set for the race on Sunday.  Except for that hill.  I'm sure that will add another 5 minutes.  Hopefully it doesn't screw up my time too badly.
Finally, my charity miles app is, once again, being weird.  Usually at the end of the run, they email you a Google earth image of your route with the info.  You know, all those ones I post here.  Well lately, they've been a run behind.  Instead of sending me the run I did today, they sent me the one I did on Tuesday.  On Tuesday, they sent the run from Monday.  I'm not really sure what's going on with that, but hopefully that works itself out in the near future.  That's about all for today.  Here's a picture of the awesome shirts I made last night.  Enjoy.

Decisions, decisions

Today the weather tried to be tricky and pretend it wasn't the beginning of January.  Apparently the rest of the week is supposed to follow suit, being up in the high 40s/low 50s.  When the weather is this nice in January you just can't pass up running outside.  Of course, I can't pass it up ever, since I don't belong to a gym or own a treadmill, but for the sake of this post, let's pretend that's not true. It was definitely a tough decision trying to decide between the woods and the beach.  They both have their high and low points.  The woods are close so there's no traffic getting there, usually you don't see to many other people so you can run in peace, and generally it's pretty quiet there.  BUT, there are a lot of hills, people tend to have their dogs off leash, and the terrain can be rough with the snow melting.  On the other hand, the beach is fairly flat, a gorgeous view, and there's enough people around to feel safe.  BUT, there's usually a ton of traffic getting there, it can get boring running back down the same road you just ran up, and there are a lot of other people around so you can get self-conscious easily.  What it boils down to really though is the woods are a loop with hills and the beach is straight and flat.
It was a difficult decision mostly though because I can't take the dogs to either of those places and be able to focus on the run.  That means I have to go out and walk the dogs first, and then get psyched for the run.  After walking it comes down to how far I want to drive and if I want to run up hills or not.  Today I wasn't feeling it, so I ended up going with the beach. Most definitely the best choice, I think.  As I mentioned before, I use the Charity Miles app to keep track of my time/mileage, as well as help out different charities.  Unfortunately today, the app recorded my time, but for reasons unknown to me, did not record the mileage so it wouldn't send the info through! Basically, even though I ran 3.4 miles for Stand Up to Cancer, the charity doesn't get the money because the app. malfunctioned.  I was a little disappointed when I got back to my car and found that out.  On the plus side, my music was working the entire time, so I didn't have to listen to my own horrid breathing patterns halfway through the run.  Breathing is really something I need to work on, I've been trying, but it's pretty hard! Anyways, I have a ton of 1st/2nd grade math tests to score, so that's  all from me.

Catching my breath, letting it go

That song is so catchy I may just have to add it to my workout songs list.  I feel like I spend most of my time doing just that anyways. Moving right along though, that winter storm finally came through last night.  It must have turned to snow around 11 pm but luckily it wasn't too bad this morning, just a few inches at the most.
Now, usually Ryan walks the dogs every morning before work.  So when he's not home that responsibility falls to me, and I won't even pretend to like it. In fact, I hate it.  I know, I made the choice to have dogs so obviously I have to take care of them, and I do, I just hate getting up and having to walk first thing in the morning.  Luckily they aren't walking me up at 5 am like they do for him, so there's always that.  It's not that I don't like walking the dogs either, it's just that I don't particularly enjoy walking them together.  You know how sometimes you see someone walking down the street with two dogs and they're all walking the same pace and the dogs are sitting and walking nicely? That's not us.  When we walk, it's more like Nala running ahead and Stella dragging behind to sniff something or the reverse.  If we're all going the same pace, Stella's pulling left and Nala's pulling right and then suddenly without warning, one of them jets across you to the other side, crisscrossing the leashes.  In short, it's not the ideal walking situation.  Just to clarify, I'm not sure how they ended up like this.  Stella was fairly well-trained before Nala came along and I spent 3 months with Nala when we first got her, training her for walking.  But as she's gotten older, she's become stubborn and I think it's rubbing off on Stella.
Today though, I decided to walk the dogs separately.  Nala and I went around the neighborhood and Stella and I walked to get coffee.  Both were around 30 minute walks.  Then after that, of course, I had to shovel out.  As I said, since the snow wasn't too deep, it wasn't so bad.  Enough to sweat, not enough for a heart attack, to put it in perspective.  Originally I hadn't planned on running today.  I was going to walk, shovel, and dance.  But then I remembered that the next 5K is on Tuesday, so I figured I would go and get one more run in beforehand. If you're following dates, yes I did sign up for a 5K on New Years Day.  I thought it would be a good way to start off the year, plus you get a free hat!  For my run today I decided to hit the beach.  I knew that there wouldn't be much snow there and at the very least, I could run on the sand without worrying about ice and soaking wet shoes.  I also took Nala just to get her energy out.  Luckily there weren't too many other dogs on the beach and we were able to avoid them all.

Right before I made my decision to go running I happened to read an article about what to wear for winter running.  Check it out here.  I decided to try their tips out and layered out my shirts, starting with an Adidas wicking climalite shirt.  It's basically this one, but the back is a bit different.  I then layered that with a plain t-shirt and an Adidas zip-up fleece.  I love the zip-up fleece because it's long and has zipper pockets. So I can wear it with my running leggings and keep my keys safe.  It also zips up over the neck, straight to the chin, which I love. However, this particular fleece has a zipper pull on it that keeps flopping up and down in my face when running, so I always have to fold the collar down to prevent this annoyance.  It was driving me crazy that Adidas made a running jacket that would have such a flaw.  Until today, when I finally came to my senses and realized I can just unhook the zipper pull and resolve the issue.  I know, I'm wicked smart, what can I say.  So, without the zipper pull the fleece is fantastic because it keeps my neck warm AND holds all my other valuables safely. Of course, I threw on my climawarms as well.
 Enough about what I was wearing though.  The beach itself was freezing, as I assumed it would be.  On my run down towards Nahant I was having a grand old time.  There were some icy patches so I went down to the sand it was smooth sailing from there.  Nala was keeping up, my neck was warm, my music was going, and my feet were dry.  Things couldn't have been any better.  And then we turned around to go back to the car and BAM, there was the wind.  Suddenly it all made sense why running was so easy in the other direction. There was a strong wind and it was blowing the same way I was running.  Now suddenly we were running against the wind.  (Another great song, but not really run-mix worthy, sorry Bob.)  The run back to the car wasn't terrible, but we had to run on the pavement due to other dogs roaming the beach.  Luckily the snow had sort of iced over on top of the ice so it was just crunchy enough to lend traction without being slippery, but not soft enough to be soaking through my sneakers.  When we got back to the car I was quite happy with the time and the run, though I really could have done without the wind.  Remember a few posts ago how I said I liked the beauty of the beach?  Well today I managed to grab some pictures, so you can see for yourself.  You can also see the zip-up I was wearing, in case you're interested.  Enjoy! (Oh and there's two of the dogs enjoying the snow too!)

After the run.  Facing the wind...BRRR. Note the tangled head-phones. Can't wait for my zip-ups to come in!

See the waves crashing? 

Stella loves the snow

Nala just loves to run, snow or not.