Feb. 18-24

Another cell phone photo of Clement Park. BUT, you will note that some of the lake is actually thawing! I ran last night after work, my least favorite time to run, because it was supposed to snow today. But alas, the sun is shining today. I hope the weather will be nice tomorrow because I need to get a long run in.

I ran only 13.44 miles this week. 4 miles on Monday, 2.08 miles on Tuesday, 3.10 miles on Thursday, and 4.25 on Friday. My times are abysmal. I am not sure what I am doing wrong, but I am certain there is something wrong because instead of improving, my fitness seems to be declining.

One encouraging note... I have the Nike + iPod gadget, which gets me signed on for all of the wonderful functionality of Nikeplus.com. Part of that is a leaderboard for each age group. In women 55 to 59 years old, I am now in 9th place in terms of total mileage. It really meant a lot to me to break the top ten.

Ethiopian Friend

I have an Ethiopian friend at work. He is a runner. I mean, a REAL runner. I talked to him today about my training and he thinks I am running too frequently. That I ought to try running 3 or 4 times a week, not five. And that I ought to run 10 miles max.

Then he went on to give me a pep talk that had me feeling like I could do anything! He said that in our culture, a woman of my age who can run 13 miles is rare indeed. He said in his culture, they run... but not here. That encouraged me. So, tomorrow, I am taking a day off!

Feb 11-17

It was a less than stellar week. The 13.1 mile run on Saturday last week took absolutely everything I had. So, this week, I managed only to run 13.39 all week! I ran 3.11 on Monday, 3.12 on Thursday, and on Saturday I ran 7.16. I am really tired. I have talked to folks about the training and apparently I really didn't need to run the distance of a half-marathon. Mentally, I think I did need to do that. Physically, it probably wasn't the best decision.

I still have not bought a book on training, and I can see that I really need to do that!

Feb 04-10

I did it! I ran 13.1 miles this morning! I just checked my time, which seems abysmal and miraculous all at the same time, against last year's race results and my time comes in 9th place in my age group - if I were doing the Colfax Marathon today. This sounds convoluted, I hope you know what I mean.

As I ran in the last 10th of a mile, I started sobbing. I was so blown away to have done this thing... all by myself at a park, running around a lake. And each time around, having people pass me as they sprinted their one, two or three miles. I would just smile and think, go ahead, I am 55 years old and I am going to run 13.1 miles today! I am so grateful that this old body will do this. I was talking to someone this morning about the back surgery I had 8 years ago, and I am glad I reminded myself of where I was a few years ago.

Other than that, I logged 23.92 miles this week. If not for the 13 miles this morning, it would have been a very short week. I was tired all week.

Week of Jan 28 - Feb 3

I logged my all time high number of miles run in a week: 23. 29. I also finished my all time high month, in January I ran 90 miles!

Last Sunday I ran 8 miles in a park - around and around a lake. It was lovely. I was not in any hurry, the day was relatively warm - in the 40s, as opposed to the single digit temperatures we have been having. On Monday, I ran just over 5 miles, running around my neighborhood - which has good hills. On Weds., I ran 4 miles on the dreadmill. This morning I ran 6.2 at Clement Park. I would have taken a photo, but it would be identical to the one I posted 2 weeks ago.

I hope I am not over-training for a 55 year old woman. I feel good. I registered for another half-marathon this week! It is the Denver Marathon, and is held on October 14. So the highlights of this year will be the Colfax Marathon (half) on May 20. I am still not sure if I want to do the Danskin Triathon in July, but I know I want to do the Tri For the Cure on August 5. Then the Denver Marathon in October.

Thanks to anyone who has visited. I love your comments!