140 miles at a time

My running is still nothing but miles upon miles with 800s mixed in. I guess that’s ultra training! If I have time, I think I’ll get a section on here with Garmin stats. In the meantime, I figured I’d just talk about the Boulder thing after being here for awhile. I’d guess from my writing that any reader would know I’m not too big on the stuff outside of my own world. I mean, my favorite place to run so far is a small park in Indiana with hilly dirt trails, grass trails, a lake, some wetlands and next to an asphalt trail and indoor/outdoor tracks that I have access to at a college. There’s also incredibly nice, tree-lined rolling hills on asphalt roads behind the park. It’s like the stuff I used to run at home, especially around my parent’s house. A tie for that place is my childhood running loop in Massachusetts up the hills and around the urban lake I grew up on. I’ll be revisiting both spots again this year.   :) I know Boulder is all the rage in the running world. I don’t ...

What’s the point in running if you don’t feel happiness from it? There isn’t one. I started running in 6th grade because it gave me a sense of happiness no matter what crazy was happening around me. Over the years, the most strict I got was on the Boston Marathon training plans. It was like high school with more miles. So, really, it was high school running that made me happy. I was naive. I did what felt good. That’s all running was to me. I loved it and I love it once again. While unemployed, more miles felt good. So, I built miles. That was it. I was like, “I wonder if I can do this…” and pushed my miles up more. It started with 100 and went straight to 140 after a year of hundos. It felt really cool. It was for me. I don’t think I can ever explain what made me think I needed other people involved in my running. The closest I came to explaining it was a lack of confidence that held me back in a lot of areas; not just running. Lack of confidence was the root of the problem. ...

Week #3, still came back! (no guarantee on a regular schedule post-class start though   ;)   Priorities, man.) I was going to just call this “Don’t just run. You need a life.” but decided to integrate my current training and life. The original title just didn’t fit anymore in my mind. So, I’ve done this 12-hour race for the past four years starting in 2011 and I freekin love it. It’s like, no matter how much I just didn’t want to run anymore, this race got me off my butt and going again. I’ve run it off crummy training once and still had a ball and did well because it’s on my favorite trails ever! Mentally, it’s cake. The past four rounds have been with my good running buddy. We take turns running 5K loops for 11.5 hours. Then, for the last half hour, we alternate 800m loops as fast as we can (He’s way faster than me and I totally blame him for me starting this ultra shindig   ;)   ). It’s a combination of dirt, gravel, asphalt and grass. So, it’s a pretty goo...

I had to take a breather after watching it today! That was awesome! Nice effort, Michiganders! It was good to see Desi and Ritz lead for awhile :D They come from a great place to run with an amazing running scene and that place deserves some credit. If I’m not running Boston, I’m yelling at my TV and computer for the whole thing. Plus, we had a pretty good Facebook thread going among my friends as usual. ha. :D I needed Boston more this year more than ever. I may not be in a location I want to live forever right now, but I am at altitude and feel like I want to race again for the first time in awhile. I’m mentally back due to the race plan I have laid out, which will let me travel to places I love and see good friends. After years of losing control of my running to others and feeling like I was running because I had to, I needed a clear mind and Boston to remember again where it all started. I began in cross country and track and did it because I was good at it and therefore t...

Hey, week two and I actually came back. Maybe I can actually keep this up :P First. Thanks everybody for reading! I didn’t think I’d get this much attention after just one post. It makes me really happy. I hope my stories can help other runners out there. It can be tough sometimes and take a lot of mental power to turn around a sinking ship; but if I did it, anybody can. I especially want to help other women runners reach their potential. We’re really hard on ourselves sometimes. It doesn’t have to be that way. :) And, for the sake of being able to talk about my experiences, I guess I’ll be pretty private online until I turn in the direction of my daily running. (Everybody came from my link on Facebook, so thanks for sharing!) Right now, it’s still just a lot of miles prepping for my favorite race in a few months – pretty boring. But, there’s plenty more to talk about. So, I’ll randomly be picking from the topics I already listed – plus several more I wrote down in my notepad. They ...

I’m no writer and really, I barely like writing at all. That’s probably what took so long. I have a lot more to write about today than I did 5 years ago though. I think there’s a lot that can be learned from my mistakes in the running world. I figure why not share them especially when I know for a fact there are some other women still stuck back where I was. I won’t try to hang on the negatives too much but I think it’s a good place to start because a lot of positives showed up as a result. It’s all just my opinion based on personal experiences too. So, relax dudes and ladies  ;) . I won’t ever use names or identifying attributes because this isn’t about revenge. It’s about turning my negatives into something that can help runners and even non-runners. This stuff applies to anybody who’s gotten in a tight spot with addicts and other bad people. Yes, that stuff is all over the running world. Or maybe I still just think it is because that’s, unfortunately, what was happening...