The Race That Wasn’t

March 18, 2017March 18, 2017 / Amy / 2 Comments

As you may not know, since I apparently haven’t blogged much about running on my running blog, I had a race on the schedule for this weekend¹. A five miler that I originally hoped could be a PR race. I say “originally hoped” because I have not done one iota of training that would make me any faster. I even hesitate to use the term “training” at all. I’ve been running, but it’s been sporadic and disordered. No purpose or structure to any of my runs. I HAVE run the distance, so I have that going for me, but that’s about it.

I haven’t been running outside. While I’m a firm believer that you can train for even a hilly race on a treadmill, I’ve been leaving the incline at zero, which leaves me with no question that hills would be an issue. (Not that I even bothered to figure out if this is a hilly course). I also question whether I am physically prepared for running in current temperatures. When I signed up, I envisioned March 18^th being a nice spring day. I’ve lived in the same climate my whole life, so who knows where that silly idea came from.

Training run

So, this week I’ve been going into the race with thoughts like, “Hmm..March 18^th, already, huh?” and “Gee..looks like it’ll be a cold one?”, and as of Thursday afternoon I hadn’t even figured out the time or start location yet. Then I got a text that the race was cancelled. And then the official email. I’m left feeling pretty ambivalent about the whole thing. A little bummed because races are always fun, but I don’t really feel like I have any skin in the game. (My entry fee was paid through work, even). I DO feel quite bad for all the runners who have made this their goal race (there is also a half), particularly because it’s not the time of year where it’ll be easy to find a “replacement” race.

The interesting part about the whole thing, to me at least, is that in lieu of a refund or even an entry for next year, they are deferring everyone’s entries to a race in October. A race that is a half marathon, without a 5 mile option. I emailed the race director to ask if that deferral included the 5 mile racers, and was confirmed that it does. SO, GUESS I’M SIGNED UP FOR A HALF!

I’ve got quite a while before that race rolls around, so it’s not really on my radar right now, but in terms of what’s next, I’m thinking I’ll find a training plan (not sure what distance) and start following it. I think I could use a little structure, even if there’s not a race at the end. Also, I’m signed up for a virtual 10K through the Hogwarts Running Club that I’ll be doing in the next week or two. My training for that has been, “Well, If I can run 5 miles, I’m sure I can run 6.2”. I should probably be a coach.

I used to make crazy schedules like this.

I think I can safely say that I’ve gotten back into running. Now, it’s time to step up my game a little.

¹Technically I’m scheduled to run a race this morning since this post will go up Saturday even though I’m writing it on Friday — Does this bother anyone else? I hate the thought that my posts are inexact when I write “today”, “tomorrow”, or “yesterday”. How do you handle it when writing in advance? Do you just ignore it or do you correct it so it sounds like it was written the day it was posted?

In like a Lion…

March 16, 2017March 15, 2017 / Amy / 2 Comments

I decided this morning that I am going to start using my lunch hour to write blog posts. At least some lunch hours. I haven’t been terribly successful at blogging in the evenings; most likely due to my intense desire to do basically nothing after Mr. Baby goes to bed, so I need a better time for the writing. (Currently, I attempt to use my lunch hour to study, so that’s a small hiccup in my plan, but let’s not worry about that just yet. ) So, in any case, here I am in Collaboration Room 3, eating my chili mac, and trying to figure out how to transition from this unimportant and unexciting announcement to whatever this blog post is actually going to be about. Which I think is going to be me whining about how snow days aren’t fun anymore.

snowday314
Sadly, it’s true. The magic and fun of snow days is officially gone. (Spoiler Alert: I have a plan to bring it back, so stay tuned). Yesterday was particularly unmagical because the task I was doing was not well suited to remote work. I had to open up 4 files for each month going back to January 2016 and paste data from each of those file (56 files, I think. Whatever 4 times 14 is) into a new file I was creating. And over the remote connection it took way longer to open each of them than it should have. And then excel kept crashing, and it was just really frustrating, and hard to get anything done. At one point I had finally made a good amount of progress and excel crashed and I hadn’t saved in over 45 minutes, so that was really disappointing.

“But wait!” you say, “At least you could work in your PJs! From the couch! Maybe even watch a little TV!” And you have a point. But realistically, I was mainly sitting on the floor, near the couch, “throwing” toys at Mr. Baby to keep him occupied while my computer took an eternity to open my files. Add that all up and I end up feeling like I didn’t get anything done (although in the end I did finish gathering data, it just took forever) while also feeling like I ignored Mr. Baby all day (which is also ridiculous and untrue).

Really, the day was not by any means a failure. And the way I feel about how it went is way more dramatic and harsh than reality calls for. It’s just. Well, I just wish snow days could be more fun. More like they used to be. I never even got to go outside in the snow, what the heck?!

So, now what?

Well, I am apparently a drama queen who throws even the slightest wrinkle in my plans why out of proportion. And I am also a bit of a whiny child who wants my snow days to be actual days OFF. BUT I am not the kind of person who just complains and doesn’t try to come up with a solution for next time. So even though it’s March and it’s unlikely (though not impossible) that another snow day will come my way before next December, I have a PLAN! And here it is–

OPTION 1: Have a schedule – Jeff and I split our time taking care of Mr. Baby, but not by a schedule. I think I would have benefit from knowing exactly what times I could expect to be productive (work wise).

OPTION 2: TAKE THE DAY OFF. Make it an actual snow day. Yes, this won’t always work, but yesterday I probably could have taken at least a portion of the day off. So, next time, I need to consider that option.

OPTION 3: Drink a glass of wine and eat a HUGE bowl of ice-cream after Mr. Baby goes to bed. I enacted this part of the plan last night, and it really turned things around.

wine

So, next time. I will be better. My snow day will be better. I am an eternal optimist.

Now, back to work!

My Popcorn Thoughts

March 1, 2017March 3, 2017 / Amy / 8 Comments

When I was in high school I had a live journal, I called it “My Popcorn Thoughts” because I used to think of my thoughts as popcorn. Lots of random things just popping into my head out of seemingly no where. I don’t know what happened to that live journal, but I still sometimes think of my thoughts in this way when I’m having trouble concentrating on what I’m supposed to be focused on. Or when I’ve had coffee and my brain is zipping about. Today is turning out to be one of the first kind of days. I’m supposed to be studying (and I am), but I keep thinking about blogging and running and doing chores around the house instead. And it’s hard to keep my butt in my seat and my mind on practice problems.

Studies

I’ve given myself a goal to get through 8 videos and work on 5 sets of practice problems. The 8 videos is realistic, the practice problems may be a stretch. And I’m hoping to bribe myself with breaks for blogging and other activities. (I’ve already got some laundry going, and am dying for a run). So here are some popcorn thoughts for you as I make my way through my day:

February has gone by in a blur…and I’m not entirely sad to see it go. We’ve been on this seemingly never ending carousel of sickness over here where Mr. Baby gets sick then passes it along to Jeff, and then the process repeats. I have (with lots of luck and excessive amounts of airborne) made it out unscathed, but the whole thing has been stressful and exhausting nonetheless. It seems like we may finally be on the upswing, fingers crossed. I’m ready to put this experience behind us.
After taking a year long hiatus on my blog, I have like zero followers now, and it’s bumming me out. Even though I didn’t start the blog to get followers/likes/comments, I liked the little community that was built up. And I miss it. I’m working on getting back into it, but it’s tough sometimes when it feels like I ruined it for good.
I bought new running sneakers!! My current pair is from March 2015 (I had to take a look in the way back machine to figure that out), so it’s been nearly 2 years! I have no idea how many miles I have on them, but recently my feet hurt when I run and that’s usually a sign it’s time for new kicks.

Old friends.
One of my best friends recently started teaching me yoga via Skype, and it’s AMAZING. The only time I’ve ever enjoyed yoga. Even better, though, the last two weeks we’ve just chatted instead. This week, I had a glass of wine during our chat. I don’t know why we didn’t do something like this sooner.
I LOVE buying books for Mr. Baby. While home last week, we found an old Barnes and Noble gift card with $30 on it, and I bought 6 books for MB. Yesterday we read, “I Love You, Stinky Face” and it was hilarious. Our all time favorite over here is “Pout Pout Fish”, and we also really like “Don’t push that button”and “The monster at the end of this book”, but some new material is always nice.

Harry Potter is the best one. Haha
The bright spot in February was the week of vacation time Jeff and I both took last week. We didn’t go anywhere, we just stayed home while sending MB to daycare, and it was GLORIOUS. I feel a little like I’m supposed to want to travel and I’m supposed to want to keep my baby home with me when I’m off, but really I just wanted some time to get a haircut, go out to lunch, cook up some freezer meals, clean the house, and go running without a baby monitor mounted to the treadmill. Yes, traveling and hanging out with your baby are great activities, but this was the vacation I needed.
My friend and I are planning to do a selfie challenge in March. One selfie per day sent to the other. I’ll probably post some here. And I’m planning on coming up with some selfie challenges for her, but she doesn’t know that yet. ;-

This face is gonna rock selfie month.

So there you have it, some random thoughts. Now tell me: how was your February? ever take a vacation with no plans? what was your last pair of running sneakers? do you have a favorite book to read to your kids? ever do long distance yoga or wine dates? and last but not least, how good are you at taking selfies?

My Magnificent Mad-Eye Moody Medal

February 27, 2017February 26, 2017 / Amy / Leave a comment

I’m not usually overly excited about getting a race medal. Don’t get me wrong, I love wearing the medal the day of/day after the race and feeling like a total champ. Beyond that though, I don’t feel like I really need it. I’ve tried getting more out of them as christmas tree ornaments…”hey, why don’t I hang up my medals from the year on the tree!”…only to take a hiatus from racing and/or not earn a medal for two entire years.

Yeah, this is a good way to display them.

I’ve also taken steps to find a place to display them (even if only for my eyes). I spray painted an old tie rack gold to use as a medal hanger, but it’s currently sitting on the floor of our home gym with a box of medals next to it, and it’s been there for over a year.

I’m telling you all this so that you know that I never sign up for races “because of the medal”, and I’m not ever disappointed if a race doesn’t have a medal. I’m happy with a tshirt (cotton is fine), or a pint glass, or even just a delicious post race doughnut. (More donuts please!) The medal? I could take it or leave it.

Smootie in my PR Half glass 🙂

Except the virtual race I just did (The Alastor “Mad-Eye” Moody Constant Vigilance 5k) had the BEST MEDAL EVER, and I LOVE IT!! I need to find a way to display it! I took a photo with it. It’s sitting on my desk in our office right now, and I’m gazing at it lovingly. (sigh).

Mad Eye Medal for Mad Eye’s Race

It’s a real beauty, isn’t it? You can’t tell from the picture, but the blue iris part is all googly because it’s on a spring and it can rotate around the white of the eye. Seriously guys, this medal is a WINNER.

So, tell me, do you have a favorite medal? Are you all about the medals or more take it or leave it like I am? How do you display yours?

I Joined a Harry Potter Themed Virtual Running Club and It’s the Best Thing Ever!

February 6, 2017February 5, 2017 / Amy / Leave a comment

Well, that title pretty much says it all, but I’ll give you the nitty gritty details anyway because I think my husband has probably heard enough statements starting with, “So, in the Hogwarts Running Club…” J/K, he can’t wait for my daily report. 🙂 Previously, it was “Guess what I read about cloth diapers….” so I’m sure this is actually quite a refreshing change. (BTW is anyone interested in what I read about cloth diapers??? I have LOTS to say! hahaha) Anyways, I’m getting off track. Let’s start at the beginning.

A long long time ago in a galaxy far far away…..wait, wrong universe!

Really, though, I have been following The Hogwarts Running Club (HRC) on Facebook for maybe 2 or 3 years. I’m a huge Harry Potter fan and as soon as I heard about HRC, I was all, “sign me up!!!”. But I didn’t really sign up. For whatever reason, I just watched from the sidelines. (ugh.. Past Amy is the worst!)

The kind of awesome thing that gets posted in the HRC

Now fast forward to this January. I was contemplating running a half marathon in March, and in order to have any hope of making this possible, I needed to get my butt in gear (and fast). To do this, I decided to sign up for my first HRC virtual race, which had just opened for registration. In general, virtual races don’t motivate me to quite the same extent as in person races, but having a 5k on the calendar (virtual or otherwise) would at least push me to run 5k, my current distance being a tad shy of that. Plus I’d get a themed medal, and the money goes to charity. Both good things. It was signing up for this race that spurred me to find out more and really become a member of the HRC.

Here’s a little Q & A-

How does a virtual running club work?

This is the only virtual running club I’ve ever belonged to so I can’t really give you a one size fits all description, but this particular club is a virtual community (on Facebook) of runners who all love Harry Potter and motivate each other to run. There are themed virtual races and competitions.

What makes this one Harry Potter themed?

First of all, the virtual races have Harry Potter themes. The one I registered for was the Alaster “Mad Eye” Moody Constant Vigilance 5k. They also have a yearly Platform 9 3/4K. Additionally, members join one of four houses (or designate themselves as faculty/independent) and miles are tracked between houses for a year long House Cup competition.

How do I become a member of the Hogwarts Running Club?

Anyone can follow the Hogwarts Running Club on Facebook. To really join up, though, you need to request to join the closed Facebook group “The Great Hall”. From there you can read all the relevant info about the club, and go on to join the Facebook group associated with your house.

How do you pick a house?

The official recommendation is to be sorted on Pottermore.com or take another online quiz. I went with Pottermore and was sorted into Gryffindor. (This surprised me, I thought I’d be Ravenclaw for sure). When it really comes down to it though, you have final say. According to club rules you can even join two houses for a couple weeks to find out where you fit in best. And this is important, because your house is where you get most of your motivation.

I knit this as a gift, but couldn’t resist trying it on myself. (And pretending to cast a spell with my knitting needle wand)

How are miles tracked?

HRC uses the Charity Miles app to track miles for the house cup. They ask you to join both the HRC team and your house team within the app, so total miles can be tracked as well as the house specific miles. These miles are tallied each week and houses are awarded points depending on miles per person for that week. This week, there is a special challenge and it’s Gryffindor/Slytherin vs Hufflepuff/Ravenclaw teams. Right now, Gryffindor is in last place for the House Cup, and this fact has been MAJOR motivation to get me moving!

Anything else?

There is definitely a charity aspect to this running club. Registration fees for the virtual races go to charity (and they are tax deductible!) and Charity Miles is used for tracking mileage. HRC is run by a non-profit, and there is a lot of encouragement to log more miles in order to do #somuchgood

I’ll never get a letter from Hogwarts; I’ve got this though!

I hope this helps explain the Hogwarts Running Club. This whole experience has been really great so far. Most importantly because it’s gotten me so excited about running! I strongly encourage any other running Harry Potter fans to check it out!

Need more info? http://www.hogwartsrunningclub.org/faq.html

Hack the App: Charity Miles

January 30, 2017January 29, 2017 / Amy / 2 Comments

By now, I’m sure that many of you have heard of the charity miles app, (in which case feel free to skip the rest of this paragraph), but if you haven’t here’s a quick description. The app allows you to earn money for charity with each workout you do (run/walk/bike). Once you have downloaded the app and made an account, it’s a pretty quick process to get going. You select your charity from a list of options (I usually run for the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation of America), choose your activity (run/walk indoor, run/walk gps, bike gps), and press go! It’s that easy! There are some additional features (you can join teams, post your runs to social media, and snap a photo of your run), but this is essentially a charity app, not a running app, so it would be used in addition to a running app, if that’s your cup of tea.

Anywho , I recently started using the app again after a long break. For a while I had a lot of technical issues with getting the app to work, so I stopped using it. Then, I got a new phone and never reinstalled it…you know the drill. I’ve come back to it in the last couple of weeks, though because I joined a (super awesome) virtual running club (more on this later), that uses the app to track miles for friendly competitions, as well as to encourage the use of the app to do #somuchgood.

screenshot_20170127-200918

Within charity miles, I’m on a team associated with my running club, and any miles I run are automatically tallied under the team total. There are multiple teams associated with the club and we are essentially in competition with each other. And that’s where “hacking” the app comes in. Because really, whenever something is a competition, there’s bound to be some…ahem…creative…ways to win.

I know what you’re thinking, (cough..cheater…cough cough) but I promise there are ways to hack the app that are not cheating. And both Charity Miles and my running club encourage it. Obviously, sitting on the couch with the app on pedometer mode and jiggling your arm is a no go, as is putting the app on gps mode while you’re driving, but there are so many “approved” ways to hack the app, and you don’t have to be even slightly devious to come up with them. Hacking the app is basically turning it on any time you’re doing some kind of physical activity: walking to work, shoveling snow, vacuuming, etc.

Today, I’m hacking the app for the first time. In the most non-creative way possible: I turned on pedometer mode when I got up and it’s recording any movement I make all day (sadly very little with my desk job); but it has definitely inspired me to get up and move around just a tiny bit more than usual. I feel like I have this fun secret…I’m raising money (I think I’ve raised a whole 25 cents so far today..haha!) AND I’m getting miles for my team. (We’re currently in last place, so the situation is DIRE.)

At first I thought it was weird and a little wrong, but since it is encouraged (search #hacktheapp on Instagram) by both Charity Miles and my running club, I figured I should give it a try. And really, the end result is that I: a) raise more money for charity b) am more active, and c) have a little fun. How can that be wrong?

Do you use charity miles? Do you hack the app?

I’ve Got a Goal!

January 25, 2017 / Amy / Leave a comment

Hi! It’s been a couple weeks, so let’s catch up. In my last post, I was super eager to sign up for a half marathon through my work even though I have almost no time to prep, and I’m not physically at my best. I got some great suggestions on how I could make it happen with run/walk and not putting pressure on myself, but in the end I’ve decided not to sign up for the half.

ashland
Fortunately, it turns out that this year, for the first time, they are also holding a 5 mile race! I’m going to do this instead! While I’m still craving long distance; the 5 miler will be exciting for other reasons; I haven’t run a 5 mile race in a long time, and I think I might have a chance to PR! Although 8 weeks isn’t enough time for me to train well for a half, it should be plenty of time to train well for 5 miles!

I feel good about this decision. I’m so glad they added a 5 miler. Prior to getting pregnant and taking a running break, I was itching to run a 5 miler because my current PR was below my fitness level. I was sure I could PR a 5 miler if I could just find one to run. At my current fitness, it’s pretty much the only distance I have any hope of even coming close to my current PR; so it gives me a little challenge that wouldn’t be there for a 5k or even a 10k. And I think a little challenge is part of what I wanted to get out of the half marathon.

Current PR: The Run to Remember ::: Boston, MA ::: May 25th, 2008 ::: 52:43

Another thing that I realized with my crazy desire to sign up for the half is that I want to do long runs again. When thinking about the half, I really didn’t know how I could fit in runs that might end up taking 2 hours. But I’m pretty sure I can find one hour! So, I’m going to take my current 30 min run and lengthen it at least once per week. That should be a good starting point. With any luck, I’ll be able to get a half marathon on the schedule sometime in 2017.

Note: My hometown turkey trot is 8k (4.97 miles) and I have run that numerous times, but I haven’t run an official 5 mile race since 2008.

Good Idea/Bad Idea

January 11, 2017 / Amy / 8 Comments

Alright, let’s play a game called “Good idea or Bad idea”!

Here’s how it works: I’ll tell you about my life, then ask you a question about whether I should run a half marathon, and you tell me if it’s a good idea or a bad idea. (Spoiler alert! It’s a bad idea, but I want to do it anyways, so tell me it’s a good idea. wink wink!)

Here’s some background-

The company I work for has a program that pays race entries for employees and their friends/family (with some restrictions)
Since I moved at the end of July 2015, a lot of the races are local to me, but I’ve only been able to participate in 1 so far (due to the time of year, pregnancy, general busyness)
They just sent an email with the spring schedule of races which has a half marathon on the list that’s in the next town over
I have not run more than 5 miles since, hmmm….well, it’s been over a year
The aforementioned 5 miles happened once…Turkey Trot 2016, aside from that I mostly run/walk no more than 4 miles at a time (3 times a week, at best)
In the last 3 weeks, I have run once….2 miles, and I walked a good chunk
I am studying for an exam that is at the end of April, and while I wouldn’t say it’s going poorly, I will admit that I am doing the bare minimum and struggling to get that done. (I say this to insinuate that I have no time for training, and if I somehow make time for training, I should really be using that time for studying instead)

To recap- I am in no shape (physically) to run a half marathon, I have almost zero time to train for a half marathon, and yet… I WANT TO RUN THIS HALF MARATHON!!! And it would be FREE!

Finishing my last half, which was apparently almost 3 years ago! Gosh, has it really been so long??!

So, here’s the big question: Good Idea or Bad Idea?

Oh, also it’s in like 9 weeks.

Talk me into or out of it, please!

Lean, Mean, 2017!

January 6, 2017 / Amy / 7 Comments

Hi There!

Anyone still out there? If so, glad to see you again; I hope 2016 treated you well. 🙂

Let’s see…how do I do this again? I think I might have forgotten how to blog. I suppose should give a little explanation of where I disappeared to. You see, I feel weird writing in my running blog when it’s not about running, and 2016 did not see a lot of running. And certainly not a lot of exciting running. So, I thought about blogging many many times, but never actually put pen to paper (so to speak). The second reason is just not having time. I know I can make time, but since I wasn’t particularly sure what to write about, I didn’t. That’s pretty much it – not a lot of time and not much running news.

The thing is, though, 2016 was a big year around here. HUGE, actually. There were honestly a million things I could have written about. Non-running related things, but also little running adventures, hurdles, and victories. Lots of things I could have shared that I just didn’t. My bad. I’m going to try to be better about this in 2017. Pinky swear.

So to catch you back up, here’s a short list of the most important things that happened in 2016-

I HAD A BABY!

Yep, you read that right. I had a baby. Nope, I didn’t even breathe a word about this on the blog. But it happened, I SWEAR.

PROOF!

And, I still have that baby; he lives with us now. Which is just fine because he’s the best baby. I’m not just saying that because he’s mine and I’m biased. He is actually the best baby.

SURPRISE!

Good list, right? It was a good year.

On the running front, the short version is I ran until it sucked, then I stopped. I started up again when I was cleared by my doctor, and ran consistently until Christmas when I took a short break that I’m hoping to end this weekend. At some point, I’ll try to do a post on running while pregnant and about my not so glorious comeback.

Until next time….

New Year, New You

January 3, 2016 / Amy / 3 Comments

It’s a new year, and that can mean only one thing….it’s resolution season!

Ten bucks says you can’t guess even one of my resolutions…j/k! I’m sure you’ve figured out that blogging is on the list.

It’s been so long, I’m not sure I even remember how to do this.

Today, Jeff and I hiked around the state park for a little while. It’s getting a bit chilly out there, but hiking in Fall/Winter kicks summer hiking’s butt…there are no bugs, few people, and it’s not hot. Win, Win, Win!

IMG_20160103_093237290_HDR

I also rode the recumbent bike for the length of one episode of the Good Wife. (42ish minutes) I recently figured out that the 6th season is available on Amazon Prime, so I started re-watching the series. I’m currently on season 2. If it takes me long enough, maybe the 7th season will also be on Prime by the time I make it through all 6.

Between the hiking and the biking, we had one of my favorite lunches of all time…grilled cheese! Not my best grill job, but still delicious. With pickles, gold fish crackers, and root beer on the side. Then, I followed it up with a couple oreos because if you’re eating a kid lunch, you better do it right.

2016-01-03 13.23.41

I’ve been off work for two whole weeks now, and I have to go back to work tomorrow, and it is so totally depressing. You know those people that say they get bored when they’re off work doing nothing, or that feel refreshed and ready to jump back in after time off…..I am not one of them. If anyone has instructions on how to be one of those people, forward that along.

So the plan this week is to go to work and study, and just make it through to the weekend. Ideally, I’d also like to do some running, but let’s not set the bar too high. 🙂

Happy New Year!