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!

Week of Jan 14 - 20

I Managed to run 18.3 miles this week. I only ran 4 days, due to weather. I hate running on the treadmill, but half of the miles were on the treadmill, including a 10K on Monday morning.

Yesterday I ran 6.2 miles around Clement Park. It was nice. It was cold and there were still patches of snow and ice, but it was nice. See above picture, taken after my run. It is of poor quality, taken on a cell phone, and it is certainly not a thing of beauty - but I want a reminder of what this past month has looked like, and that is definitely representative of the last month.

This week starts with more snow falling. I had planned on getting out to a park and running another 6.2 miles this morning, but I will wait and hopefully the snow will slow down. Perhaps I can get out later and put in a few miles on the dreaded treadmill.

I hope I never forget this dreadful winter. When I wake up on a spring or summer morning, the sun is shining, and I can go directly outside in shorts and a shirt and run safely on dry pavement, I hope I remember these dark, cold, snowy, and icy days.

Training for a Half Marathon

I registered for my first Half-Marathon on Friday, January 12. It is the Colorado Colfax Marathon on May 20. I am very excited about this. My daughter also registered with me.

Let me say that I am 55 years old. I smoked 2 packs a day for 25 years, but stopped 15 years ago. I had a cervical diskectomy and fusion of C3-C5 in 1999 and never thought I would run again. Sometimes when I am running I just smile from ear to ear because of the joy of it!

I ran in my youth (even though I smoked), but never real seriously. I always wanted to run a marathon, but never considered it even remotely possible. I started running again in 2003. In 2004, I trained for and completed my first sprint distance triathlon. I enjoyed it so much, I did another the next year, and another the year after that - and my 27 year old twin daughters joined me on that one!

In August of 2006, I purchased the Nike+ iPod stuff, and it has opened my eyes to the world of running. With the Nike + I have kept going and going when I would have quit before. On New Year's Day I ran 10 miles, and that is when I knew it was possible for me to train for a half-marathon. I am slow, but I am also old!

I have no idea how to do this. This morning after my 10K run, I went to the bookstore to buy a book on training for a marathon, but they didn't have any. I will order one online.

What an exciting journey! I hope there are other bloggers out there who can share in this journey with me.