Middle-of-the-Pack Girl

I can see Chris’ face now – he has become the topic of a blog post! So this week, I was lucky enough to meet Chris, the Gibtown Runner himself, in person, while he was in town on business.  We went for a run last night along the Charles River, and now I think he’s understanding completely why I say that  Boston is such a runner’s town.  So many people outside running, day and night. 

But really, it was so nice to talk to him in person, and feel very comfortable doing so, like I’d known him for much longer than I otherwise would have after the first meeting in person.  We all know, there is so much stuff  you cannot say on a blog, for whatever reason, because once it’s out there on the Internet, it’s out there. You can never take it back. Chris, you now have a running partner whenever you are in Boston, if you want one!

 It could be that we’ve all been house and snow-bound for way too long, or maybe it’s because this city is going through a re-birth, as Anne put it when commenting on D.C. during the Cherry Blossom festival period of the year.  Literally, the tres have been developing buds and leaves over the last 4 days. The hostas planted around the outside perimeter of our front lawn have been growing by inches over the past few days, and I mean, literally, inches.   And our little tree that flowers for just 3-4 days per year, already bloomed earlier this week. (And yes, I did take a picture, I will post it later on today when I download it from my camea.)  Hey, Kara, maybe I’ll make that my Twitter icon image! (I need help, people, most of my images are too  large for  Twitter, over 700k, and I’m not sure how to make them smaller.  I know, get googling.)

Ok, so back to the topic of this post.  Chris asked me last night where I see myself in five years. I think I now know the answer. In the same spirit as Lisa wrote on her blog a few days ago, here’s my goal. 

• I want to be a published fiction writer in the next 5 years. I’ve now put it out there. 
• And I don’t just want to be someone who publishes a book five people outside of my immediate family read – I want it to be bigger than that.

To be a better writer, I have to get down to the “basic me” and try to not edit myself so much. It’s funny, but I have no problem with mentioning certain things on this blog.  Yet, when I’m working on a piece of my book, and Bill walks near the computer, I tend to close up the screen.  It’s my fear that he will read it and won’t like it, but won’t want to tell me that for fear of hurting  my feelings.  Because that’s what family is supposed to do, right? Support you. My mom tells me I am very lucky to have my husband. She’s right. (Yes, Mom, miracles do happen, even your daughter that made your life complete hell when she was a teenager, can agree with you while you’re still alive.)

Am I setting myself up for failure with this goal? Perhaps.  Am I setting myself up for disappointment? Perhaps. Am I happy with the way things are in my life right now?  Not completely. I would definitely like to feel more fulfilled and inspired on a day to day basis, and not feel like I am in so much of a rut.

Is it scary to admit this stuff to myself?  Yes.  Is it also kind of exciting? Yes. I remember the feelings I had 10 years ago when I decided that I REALLY did not want to be a lawyer. There I was, about 100K in debt (that number has since climbed because of my MLS degree, sad, I know), and I was absolutely miserable. Didn’t have a clue what I wanted to do with my life, other than knowing at least one career I did NOT want to do.

I am trying to be more open to “signs” now in my life.  If I keep feeling like I am beating my head against a wall in certain aspects of my life, I am going to take it as a sign, to turn in another direction and try something else. 

And, honestly, I want to feel like what I do on a daily basis matters.

Anyway, thanks for listening.

Yep, I’m back, didn’t expect it to be so soon in the season, but I’m back. Those of you who read me last summer know of my love for these magical little white pills made by Hammer Nutrition.  Kara was not feeling great tonight – she works in a public school, and around here, they usually don’t have air conditioning. (People just suffer in June and in September.) She said her office gets a lot of sun during the day and she was in meetings all day so she couldn’t make her way to the water cooler as much as usual. So, she was pretty dehydrated to start off.

Did I forget to mention that today we were forecasted to have 93 degree temps?  Anyway, I think the highest it got was 89, and then it started to get super windy during track practice tonight. It felt awesome, except when you were on the side of the track where the wind smacked you in the face and almost stopped you dead in your tracks.

Oh yeah, where was I with the Endurolytes?  Ok, so last week, I gave Kara some Sports Beans, and she liked how they kicked in – ZOOM!  So tonight, when she mentioned how little she’d had to eat/drink today, and with the heat, I figured she could use a few. She had 1, and was starting to feel better, but not completely, so I slipped her another one. I told her, she’d know when they really kicked in.  At first she felt like she was going to skip the end of our workout, and then she ended up doing 6 of the 200s at  the end.  She also just looked better in the face, hard to describe, but she just had more color, I could tell.

Anyway, the people tonight were friendlier, but it was pretty much just Kara and me most of the night, except for when Diane joined us for the last set of repeats. I really like running with Diane – she’s good at keeping us on track with times. Which is a good thing, because I really feel like I need to move up at least one letter group.

Workout:

• 10 x 200 at 54-55 seconds. Rest 60 secs in between each 200.
• Run 12 minutes EASY off track. Kara was not feeling well – we ended up walking – gotta be honest, it was super windy at that time and I was afraid of all the dust blowing up into my contacts, so it was fine with me!
• 6-8 200s at 51-52 with 60-90 sec rests.

This is where my confusion comes in – if I am still in Group G, why are these workouts easier than what he gave Group G before? We’re getting slower times, and longer rests in between than what we used to get.

I wrote him today and asked if I could move up, but probably waited too long. I was a bit afraid of the heat after Sunday’s debacle. But next week, I need to move up, because I’m getting frustrated, with myself. I could not keep that first group of 200s to that pace of 55 seconds. I felt like I was holding back, except for when the wind really gusted, honestly.

One of my colleagues is attending the first track practice tomorrow night with MVS. I am going to see what he thinks of it. Supposedly, everyone is supposed to get some personal attention with that new coaching group. With our coach, if you want extra personal attention other than when we are on-site on Tuesdays, you have to pay extra. I am not trying to take anything away from our coach, he is good, as shown by some of his athletes’ performances. But I feel like where I am concerned, I might be part of the background. Does that make sense? 

I’m not the type to be constantly badgering a coach with questions, but I feel like a lot of my coaching that I’ve had lately has been from the people I’ve been running with, like Diane, who’s been running for 11 years. Have any of you out there done track workouts like this before and had similar experiences?

Oh, and by the way, here are some pics from Mexico – and NO, I don’t have the Swine Flu! (We got this very comical, I think, email from work – saying that they have not restricted travel yet to Mexico, and I’m sure it was meant in the way of  “official travel”, but my reaction was “oh please, do we really think we are this precious, that you could KEEP me from going someplace warm after this winter!? GIVE ME A BREAK!”

Oh, and by the way, anyone recognize this guy with me below, in the Boston Common?   It is none other than the Gibtown Runner, Chris, himself!!  We finally met in person last night because he’s in town on business, and we are going to go running together tomorrow night. He’s worried I’m going to kick his ass, and I’m worried he’s going to kick mine – LOL! (I am so not photogenic, sigh.)

More pics to come soon – we took a lot – I’m just trying to pick out the best!

Oh, and this Twitter thing – it’s interesting – I’m trying to learn to be concise – obviously I need a lot of work!