Embracing the Climb Part I

Remember a couple weekends ago when I had a realization about hills? I've decided to keep embracing the hills rather than avoid them. Team in Training had a group practice on Saturday morning. I wasn't assigned to coach but we have a large group of walkers this season so I wanted to help out the walk trainer who was leading for the day. I also wanted to get a few miles in and "embrace the climb."

Training was at Sharon Woods. As wonderful as the trail is at that park, there are some hills. In the past, if I didn't have to be there, I would tend to go do my miles somewhere else. Lame, I know. But yesterday, I showed up. My plan was to walk one lap (approximately 3.8 miles) with the walkers and then once there were done, I'd make one more lap but I would run. I somehow stuck to the plan but once I finished with 7.57 miles, I was sort of thinking I should have stopped after one lap.

I felt completely hungover when I woke up, despite not having any adult beverages the night before. I stayed up way too late, then had trouble falling asleep. With that going against me, I also fueled up with pizza and a cupcake. Fail! I managed to drag myself out of bed and get to training on time. I felt decent on the first lap. I walked a pace close to my 1/2 marathon race pace for the first mile and a half but then slowed down and finished the lap with one of the current participants. I was headed back out when Lisa offered to go out with me. I don't think she intended to another 3.8 miles but she's a rock star and went with me anyways. Never mind the fact that she has a 1/2 marathon in a week and she's supposed to be tapering. Today is her 50th birthday so she must have had an extra spring in her step and dragged me through another lap.
Tiaras are totally acceptable when you are turning 50 and about to run the Princess 1/2 marathon at Disney World! She had to test out her new gear....because as we always tell our athletes, nothing new on race day!

About 1/2 way through the second lap, I hit a wall. Hard. Lack of sleep, poor fuel and the hills did me in. I was exhausted. Even a walk break didn't seem to help. If Lisa wouldn't have been with me, I would have certainly walked.....sloooowly the entire way back to the car. Instead we managed a run/walk and made it back. It's been awhile since I've bonked like that during a training and was definitely a reminder that you can't abuse your body and expect it to perform well. In the end, I got in a decent workout though. It's better than staying in bed and not doing anything (what I really wanted to do). And hopefully burned off that cupcake and at least one slice of pizza.

Virtual Run for Sherry

On January 7, the same day I was racing my way to a new 1/2 marathon PR, Sherry Arnold went out for a morning run in Sidney, Montana. She didn't come home. Days went by and all they could find was one of her running shoes. Not much information was released to the public but after several days, two suspects were in custody and one confessed to killing her. Her body still hasn't been found.

I've been following her story through the Shut Up and Run blog. Sherry was SUAR's cousin. SUAR's blogs have been heart breaking to read as she shared information about Sherry's death. It is scary to think that you could go out to do something you love, something that is healthy and good for you but bad things can still happen. Runners and walkers certainly aren't invincible.

I've always been a very cautious athlete. If I have to train alone, someone always know when I left, which direction I'm heading and when I'm expected to be home. When The Pilot isn't home, I call my mom or a friend. Someone always knows. And if it's dark, I just don't go. I refuse to go alone in the dark. This is the ONLY reason I have a gym membership. With the long winter nights, there just isn't enough sunlight to get in an outside workout during the week. Still, Sherry was killed on a Saturday morning in a sleepy town in Montana. If it can happen there, it can happen anywhere.

Today, people from all over the world ran and walked to remember Sherry. A Virtual Run for Sherry was organized. 500 people showed up for the run in Sherry's hometown today. A large group gathered in Boulder, SUAR's home base. Bloggers across the country ran for Sherry. The Runners World Facebook page was blowing up with people running for Sherry. And while I'm stuck in a hotel for work, I was sure to carve out 30 minutes to run on the treadmill for Sherry. It wasn't a great run (turns out a day of bad eating and a glass of wine at a business dinner doesn't provide the fuel for a good work out. Go figure.) but that wasn't the point. I stopped from my crazy day and thought of Sherry and her friends and her family.

Sure, running/walking can't bring her back. It may not comfort to her family. It doesn't change that there are sick, crazy people out in the world. But this is one of those senseless acts in which no one really knows what to say or do. So runners and walkers do what we do best. We pound out our feelings on the pavement or on the treadmill. It's how we process the tricky stuff in life. It's how we cope with emotions.

It does show the public that while runners and walkers come in all shapes and sizes and paces, different ethnic and religious backgrounds, male and female, we are one tight knit community. When something happens to one of our own, we don't just stand there. We band together and we make some noise. Whether it does anything or not, it's what we do.

Something that won't happen though, is no one will forget Sherry.

Hills!

I hate hills. I hate walking up them. I hate running up them even more. I don't even like walking or running down them. Both directions are painful. Sure, I love the speed I pick up on the way down but I'm so slow on the way up that the fast downhill doesn't do me much good.

Because of this hatred of hills, I don't do them. I avoid them at all costs during training. Naturally this bites me in the a$$ when I'm faced with a hill during a race but after 8 years of endurance racing, I still haven't sucked it up and tackled hill training.

On Saturday we had a group practice with Team in Training. It wasn't my day to coach but I still came to get some miles in and to get to know the new participants. We met at Highbanks Metro Park which has a nasty hill. It's hard to get much distance in at this park without going onto the trails (we avoid taking the large teams on the trails because it can be hard to keep track of everyone and us coaches hate when we lose someone, especially in the woods). That leaves one nasty hill to climb and often times we have to climb it more than once.

I only intended to make one trip up the hill and back plus a loop around the bottom of the park for a total of 4 miles with my walkers. I made it back and was just hanging around chatting when my buddy Lisa came running by. It was one of her last long runs before she starts tapering for a 1/2 marathon and she had 12 miles for the day. The Team was all finished up but she still had several miles left and didn't want to do it alone. She trucked along beside me (at a much slower pace than her own) for months so the least I could do was run with her. I told her I'd do a loop with her (1 mile, I'm a lame friend). She gave me "that look" and I got suckered into climbing the hill again and adding 3 additional miles to my morning. But hey, what are friends for?!
Now for those of you who don't avoid hills or live in a more hilly region (it's pretty darn flat here in Central Ohio), this probably doesn't seem like much but for me, this is hard work. The first trip up was fine because I was walking. The second trip however was running. I warned Lisa before I started up with her that I had never actually run up the Highbanks hill before and I might not make it all the way. I made it but my heart rate was jacked up!

Later that afternoon I noticed that my lower back was sore. I was annoyed that I was sore and I came to the realization that I need to stop avoiding hills. I need to accept that the reason I hate them so much is because I suck at climbing. I suck at climbing because I avoid hills. Maybe if I ran/walked up hills more often, I wouldn't suck and then I might not hate them so much. Genius.

With that still fresh in my mind, I incorporated some "hills" during my treadmill workout tonight. Short on time and with a growling stomach, I planned on 3 miles. To make it "interesting," I slowly kept increasing the incline and then picked up the pace. I ran until my heart rate was jacked up (technical term) and then I started to decrease the incline but kept the pace the same. When I got back to a fat surface, I decreased the pace a little to let my heart calm down. I repeated 3 times. I didn't feel any worse for the wear afterwards so that's good. It really wasn't so bad....but then again, I had control over the steepness and the length of the "hill." You can't exactly do that outside. Oh well, this is just one step towards my journey to incline acceptance.

And for my next trick....

So it took me a little time to come up with my next challenge. It's been a busy 12 months and I was thinking maybe I just needed some time to chill out (remember my New Year post?) but I quickly realized that this type A woman cannot chill out. I need a challenge. If I'm going to keep myself from turning into a chunky monkey again or if I'm going to continue my weight loss journey, I have to keep moving. In order to keep moving, I need a goal to work towards. Working towards the generic and vague "I'm going to lose x pounds" just doesn't keep me motivated. But a race sure will!

And for my next trick...

I will be competing in the Wendy's triathlon with The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Team in Training. As I head into my 8th year as a volunteer and my 6th year as a coach, I figured I might as well sign up for another event....my 6th fundraising event with the organization. And I'm so excited about it! This is another sprint triathlon but it's a different location the my last two triathlons (2010 recap and 2011 recap).

On June 10 I will swim 750 meters (about 1/2 mile), I will bike 17 miles and then I will finish it up with a 10k (6.2 mile) run. In addition to that fun, I am going to raise money to help fund cancer research and patient aid in addition to improving the quality of life of cancer patients and their families. The only way to do that is to ask for your help. Skip that fancy cup of coffee for a couple mornings and make a donation. Every single donation helps get us closer to a cure.

DONATE HERE

So while I solicit your help in reaching my fundraising goal, I'll be putting in the work during training. And it started this morning with the first official group practice. We had a swim clinic and it kicked my butt....and it was great. My coach pointed out that I have a lucky fin just like Nemo. I get a little lazy with my left arm stoke....and I completely wore myself out trying to correct the problem. But that's all part of the experience!

With some of my team mates after our hour long swim.
Exhausted but smiling and no one drown!

Thank you in advance for your support as I start out on another endurance adventure. Stay tuned for all of my training shenanigans. It's going to be a great season!

Weekend workouts

I realize that it probably seems like I haven't worked out since my race. I promise that I'm not sitting around getting lazy. OK, I might have done that for at least a full week after the race but I'm back into the swing of things. Up until this weekend though, my workouts were a little willy nilly and random. Redundant much?

On Saturday I went out for my first actual RUN since the race. I went out for what I assumed would be a tough 3 miles. I honestly expected my first post-race run to be stiff and awkward. Instead I surprised myself by running my fastest 3 miles since August! I actually think it was faster because I had to stop for traffic twice and I forgot to pause the Garmin. I ran a Virtual 3 miler last year at 35:07. Saturday's 3 miler was 35:18 but that included two stops. Hello 11:46 pace! (Remember my 1/2 marathon goal was to hang out around 12:45.) This run definitely got my wheels turning but that's another post.
It was snowing lightly when I left the house for my run so I decided to leave the iPod at home. I love how quiet the snow makes everything. It's like everything is on mute. By the time I actually got to the trail, it felt like I was running inside a snow globe. The snow was coming down pretty hard. It wasn't so bad on the way out but coming back, the snow was blowing right in my face. As for the snow making everything quiet? Not so much on Saturday. There are some high voltage power lines that run parallel to the trail....and with the snow hitting them, they were BUZZING. I was wishing I had my iPod to drown out the buzzing but oh well. It occupied my brain as I was always wondering if I was going to get electrocuted. Fun times!
Next up was a TNT group practice. Our spring/summer teams just got started and this was our 3rd official practice. I love seeing all the new faces but also the alumni who have come back for more! I'm coaching the race walkers for the 6th year in a row and I love it. It's fun seeing the nervous and excited faces at these first couple of trainings. Soon enough those faces will turn to determination and sometimes angst as they look at me, their coach, with daggers, wondering why on earth they are putting their bodies through this. But then on race day, I get to see faces of sheer joy when they cross the finish line of something they never thought possible!

After doings lots of small circles to try to spend a little time with each walker (all at different paces), I ended my morning just shy of 4 miles. The Garmin recorded 3.48 but it might have helped if I had remembered to start my watch when we actually got started. Oh well. The Garmin pace graph amused me. You can tell when I would run ahead to catch a faster person or stop to drop back from someone slower. The result is this crazy looking thing:
I had bargained with myself before the group training that if I didn't get my heart rate up for at least 30 consecutive minutes, then I would need to get in another workout. As you can tell by the stops and starts above. I didn't get in my 30 minute elevated heart rate. My heart rate just doesn't get up there when I'm walking a 25 minute mile.

So it was off the pool in the evening. Normally the pool is pretty dead on Sunday evening with the exception of a little kid swim lesson but all of the lanes were full when I got there just before 6 pm. I stalked stood at the end of the lane and waited. It became apparent that no one was leaving anytime soon and I didn't want to hang out at the pool all night. Darn it, I would have to get friendly. I finally asked someone if I could share his lane. He was very nice and split the lane with me. He was mostly doing a slow breast stroke though, which just takes up more space. I told myself that it was good for me to get use to having someone in my space. It's good triathlon practice to not be disturbed by other people up in your grill.

I did a ladder work out (50, 100, 150, 200, 150, 100, 50) with a 100 warm up and 100 cool down. 1000 yards in roughly 35 minutes. I tried to keep my rests to 30 seconds in between each set. Sometimes I succeeded, sometimes I didn't.

Sometimes I raced the guy in the lane with me. Sometimes I didn't. I'm a slower swimmer (nothing new there) so when you are as slow as me and find yourself able to pass someone else, it's exciting. I do have some competitiveness buried in me pretty deep and I know I pushed myself on a couple of those sets just so I could lap the guy (once I realized he had switched to freestyle). Those competitive sets were when I needed a little more than 30 seconds to recover. Go figure.

So that was my weekend workout round up. What were you up to this weekend?

Pilot Wife Guilt

There is a certain amount of isolation that comes with being a pilot wife. Sure there is the time spent fending for ourselves but that's not what I'm referring to. I'm pretty independent anyways so I get by just fine with The Pilot is away. The isolation I'm referring to is that being an aviation family is completely unique. My husband doesn't work a 9-5 desk job. Many people don't but he works 3-4 days at a time and with weird hours that don't always mesh with my own work hours. Example: Recently we didn't get to talk one day because either he was flying or I was at work. And then his overnight was in Canada (too expensive to call) and he was going to bed when I was finishing up my dinner. We try to at least talk once a day but that doesn't always work.

And then there is the "unique" feeling of stirring in the middle of the night and waking up slightly only to find a body in the bed that wasn't there when you feel asleep. Yes, this is sometimes startling when you are in a 1/2 asleep state. As was the case the other night when I woke up with a start to find my husband sleeping next to me. "Wait....you weren't there when I went to bed. I sure hope this body is my husband because if not, I just snuggled up with a stranger. Weird."

The only other people that understand what this all feels like are other aviation families. I follow several other pilot wife blogs and I often find comfort in that I'm "not alone." I have some of the greatest friends in the world and they all have their own unique career situations but for the most part, their spouses come home every night so they "just don't understand." They probably don't have a fear that someone will put in an offer on your house and their spouse isn't available to consult with and you will just have to make a decision(yes, I'm talking about my own fears). My non-aviation friends certainly don't have a fear that their husbands could possibly miss the birth of a child because they are in the air nowhere near home. (No, I don't have a reason to be worried about this yet - ie: not preggo, but it's a genuine fear).

See what I mean about this being a unique lifestyle? See how that can sort of feel isolating? Sure, we adapt (I adapt) but every once in awhile, I sort of realize that our life isn't the "norm." And sometimes I have trouble with that....like days where I've had a rough day at work and I just want a comforting face and hug to come home to and he's only one day into a 4-day trip. No hugs for another 3 days. I did mention that I have great friends so its not like I can't call one of them or meet up for dinner or a workout with one of them (which is often what I do to fill the time when he's not home) but it's not the same.

And then there is the guilt. I sort of feel guilty for even feeling the need to whine about the lifestyle from time to time. I feel guilty because when I'm bummed out and missing him, imagine how he could be feeling. He could be having a rough day and wants a hug but he's stuck in some weird airport hotel with a crew he may or may not like all that much. He could want some comfort and he's only one day into a 4-day trip. At least I have some comfort in coming HOME. At least I can sleep in my own bed or relax with the fur-kids. I can call up a friend to go for a run.

And speaking of a run, there is more guilt there... I feel guilty when I have a workout scheduled when The Pilot is home. Especially if it's a workout he can't join in on (We only have one gym membership for me and there are some workouts that I need to do at my own pace). I try to schedule my workouts for when he's not home but those long trainings must be done on the weekends and if he's home, I can't skip them. He fully supports my training craziness and knows its better that I workout than having a fat, cranky wife on his hands. Despite his support though, there is still some guilt there.

I was recently chatting another pilot wife that we know. She's in an even more unique situation. She is a pilot wife (her hubby works for a regional airline like my hubby does) but she's also a pilot herself. How bad a$$ is that? I'm going to refer to her as PBA from now on...you know, Pilot Bad A$$. She flies corporate which is a completely different can of worms. The time she spends with her hubby is probably even more limited than my time with my hubby. She mentioned that she feels guilty that she waits for him to get home and then jumps all over him when he walks in the door. I know the feeling. You want hugs and kisses. You want to tell him all the things you haven't had the chance to say in the last 3, 4 or however many days. More guilt. You feel guilty jumping all over the poor guy right when get gets home from work. That's often that last thing I want to do when I get home from work. She mentioned she tries so hard to give him some space but it doesn't always work.

PBA also mentioned that she tries to schedule her trips to the gym or time with friends around his schedule so that when they are both in the same city, they can spend all the time together. I do the same thing and well, that just doesn't work. Other people and activities put demands on your time. He can't very well have his own social life if all of his time is spent with you when he's home. It's not like he can have dinner with a friend while he's away on a trip like us wives can. She said they are still working to find that balance. I felt relieved when she said that because it make me feel "normal" and I told her as much. Just knowing that we're not the only couple with these challenges made me feel better.

And another source of guilt for me is sometimes I'm just ready for him to leave. The Pilot was just home for 6 days. I was ready for him to leave. I needed a little time for myself. I feel incredibly guilty for thinking that and even for putting it on the blog for him to read. But then you want to know the kicker of it all? Within about 12 hours of his departure, I miss him like crazy and want him to come back. PBA must have been reading my mind when she stated that she learned to be independent when her husband is away and it starts to feel normal. Then, when the hubby returns, there is a different "normal" and your independent normal is all out of whack. I'm not even sure if that even makes sense to a non-pilot spouse. PBA said it perfectly that it's all about balance. And she's so right. Her and her hubby's marriage has a couple months on us and she felt she was just starting to manage that balance better. She reassured me that sometimes it's difficult but eventually you do find that balance.

Sure, there is some guilt associated with being a pilot wife. There is some isolation because others don't get "it." But that's what we signed up for. If you married a pilot not knowing that was part of the gig, then that is unfortunate. I certainly knew what I was getting into. It doesn't make some aspects any easier, but I haven't encountered much in married life that I didn't already know about.

So I knew all of that going in but I still married the guy because there is a great perk of being married to a pilot (no, I'm not talking about travel benefits). One of my favorite parts of being a pilot wife is that I miss him. Every couple of days, I get to miss him like crazy. That means that when he comes home, I am super excited. I literally feel giddy all day when I know he's on his way home. Sometimes I even get nervous. Almost like I'm waiting on that first kiss at the end of a date. I know we are still in that honeymoon phase but PBA told me that it still hadn't worn off for her and her hubby. Though they are still newlyweds too (they haven't been married a year yet), they have been together longer than The Pilot and I have. She said she feels that way every time she gets to see her hubby. I also think that if that feeling wears off, then there is a problem. I'm not completely naive and I know life (the stress of work, kids, house, whatever) will try to get in the way but in order to keep this strange married life afloat is to make the time to be excited and giddy when the husband is about to come home.

So, The Pilot will come home tonight and will most likely scare the crap out of me when he climbs into bed after I'm asleep but I've been super excited all day. :)

How about you guys? Do your significant others have weird schedules with quirks that you have learned to live with? What makes it worth it?

Fit Bit

I don't think I've mentioned it but I have fallen in love all over again. With this little gadget:
It's a FitBit. I received this last spring as a gift from the bridal shower my co-workers hosted for me. Sure, it's not a traditional "couple" gift but I view it as more incentive to keep from "letting myself go" as the honeymoon phase wears off. ;)

It's like a gussied up pedometer really. I started wearing it everyday sometime back in August (once the wedding madness died down and I had time to set it up). It easily clips onto your pants (on a pocket or the waistband). The instructions show woman can attach it to their bra but I like to keep mine visible so I can obsessively check my step count throughout the day. It tracks step count, distance, calories burned and your activity level which is illustrated with a flower that grows the more you move.

Something else this fancy thing does is track your sleep. You can put it on sleep mode and wear it in a little pouch that wraps around your wrist. I'm not exactly sure how it works but the results were interesting. I wore it every night for about two weeks. I guess I have a 98% sleep efficiency. Go me! I could see (in a pretty graph!) that I take forever to fall asleep but once I'm asleep, I don't tend to make up much during the night. It was funny to look at the results and see the nights when The Pilot came home late from work. I would wake up for a couple minutes (from being startled from a strange man climbing into my bed in the middle of the night) and then would fall right back to sleep. I could even see my SNOOZE habit in the results...wake up...fall back asleep for 5 minutes, wake up....repeat.

You can then upload all of your data to the FitBit web site to track your fitness project. It has a food and activity log that you can update (I don't but probably should) but it graphs all of your data. I love the visuals! I can quickly see the days were I was chained to my desk....or the days that I completely rocked it with my activity level (i.e. my longs runs for my 1/2 marathon training).

Speaking of the 1/2 marathon, I wore my FitBit on race day and was shocked at my distance covered that day. The race was only 13.1 miles but over the entire day, I covered more than 20 MILES! And if you have ever been to Disney or any theme park, by the end of the day it feels like you have walked miles and miles. Well, you probably have. The day after my race, The Pilot and I were super spectators for the full marathon and then hit up the theme parks in the afternoon. We walked more than 12 MILES that day!

Here is the snapshot of the 1/2 marathon day:
So anyways, I fell in love with my FitBit. Seeing my steps (or lack of) would motivate me to move more to see how many steps I could get in before it was time for bed. The Pilot even learned to not think much of it if he saw me doing laps in the bedroom right before I took it off for the night. I might was well try to end on an even number, right?

Then the unthinkable happened.

I was admittedly distracted one evening after work while doing a load of post-vacation laundry. I was pulling clothes out of the dryer when I heard a clank in the dryer. I looked in and there it was. My FitBit had gone through not just the washer but the dryer too. I wanted to cry. I immediately tried to pull up the display. Nothing. I dropped the laundry, ran up to the computer and logged onto the FitBit web site. One of the first questions in their FAQ was "I washed my FitBit." They suggested a bowl of white rice overnight and if that didn't work, email their support department. I raced to the kitchen...we only had brown rice. Then it occurred to me that if people were really trying to get fit, they probably shouldn't have white rice in their house, but that wasn't the point. After 24 hours in the brown rice, I plugged the FitBit into my computer. It came up with a error display but I never could get it to reset or stay powered up when not plugged in. :(

But then the wonderful happened.

I emailed their support department and explained exactly what happened. They asked a few questions about where it came from and once I responded, they said they would send me a new one. That was it! It was my own dang fault yet they sent me a brand new FitBit. Talk about some customer service. The only other occasion I have experienced (indirectly) was when Bose complete rehabbed The Pilot's aviation headset....at no charge. Obviously you get what you pay for (or what you get when someone cares enough to give you a rock star gift like in my case).

And then it got wonderfuller. (It's my blog, I can make up words if I want to). They sent me the latest FitBit. Which is called the FitBit Ultra. It's even more gussied up. This one counts stairs climbed as well. What? Another thing for me to obsess over. Awesome!

This weekend has been my first chance to start day wearing my brand new FitBit and I feel like I've been reunited with a family member. OK, so that's a little dramatic but I'm already digging my counts. I spend a lot of time at my desk during the week so my poor FitBit just sits there on my wasitband like a puppy wanting some exercise. When I see that my step count is somewhere in the 2000-2500 range, I am more motivated to squeeze in a work out that day. I often times make up for my low step counts by doing A LOT of steps over the weekend. It's only 3:00 pm on Sunday afternoon and I'm already at 10,296 steps. I did 4 miles with my team this morning...then took a nap. So you can see the bulk of my steps came from training this morning. I have another workout still scheduled for the day so my activity levels still have some room to grow but you can see how easy it is to wrack up some numbers.
It took me some time to figure out the floors climbed. It doesn't actually count the stairs climbed, it somehow figures out elevation changes and tracks them in 10 foot increments. So I have climbed 19 floors so far today, or 190 feet. This could be from actually climbing stairs or elevation changes during my walk this morning with my team.

So I've been reunited with a new love and it's wonderful and wonderfuller. If you are a nerd like me or just need some extra motivation to move more, I highly recommend this little guy. If you need a gift idea of an active person, then here you go!