Friday, February 25, 2005

More snow! Curses!

We had another snowstorm this morning. As you can see from the picture below, my personal trainer wasn't too happy about the weather conditions. Although we've been out every other snowy cold morning this week, we skipped running today (maybe THAT's why he's crying. He does love his morning run). It was just snowing too hard, and I was worried about the slippery conditions.

But of course today was the day that people asked if I'd been out for my run. So maybe I'm a slacker. However, tomorrow I'm out for my 15-mile jaunt, so it's probably a good idea to have a rest day before that. At least that's what I've been telling myself.

This stinks! I hate the snow! Make it stop! No pictures! Sure, it was pretty on Tuesday, but I DON'T LIKE IT ANYMORE! Posted by Hello

Thursday, February 24, 2005


Nicholas enjoying the snowy day at the conclusion of our run. Please note that he is wearing a hat, so it must be cold, as he usually refuses to cover up the Mojo that is his curls Posted by Hello

Tuesday, February 22, 2005

Snowy Day!!!

It's snowing! I am using so many exclamation marks because we only get one snowfall a year in London, if we're lucky. It's a beautiful snow, too, really big clumps of snowflakes that make looking outside like looking in a shake-it-up-snowglobe.

Consequently, the snow has made conditions somewhat adverse for running, with the cold and the snow, but my trainer and I ventured forth just the same. (See picture above). But the conditions are bad only if you need to train for a marathon, not if you are, say, five years old and hoping to go sledding in the park. In that case, it wouldn't be adverse (there isn't enough snow to do so) it would be "disappointing."

And when I say adverse, I mean for London. Weather like this would be springtime in Chicago. Living here for six years has made me less hearty than I used to be.

Monday, February 21, 2005

Whee! I did it!

I am very chuffed (to my American friends: that means extremely pleased) with myself today because I finished my first half-marathon race yesterday in Brighton. As U2 sings in "Vertigo": YEAH! YEAH! YEAH! YEAH!

My legs are slightly sore, but not nearly as bad as they were after I did the Nike 10K in November.

There were 2,499 other people regstered for the race, so the start was pretty crowded. Lucky for me, my friend Liz was also doing the race, so we could be nervous together. We didn't run together though, because she's much better than me, so she sped ahead after the start. She went on to get a personal best. Technically, since this was my first half-marathon, it was a personal best for me, too, but I was a little disappointed with my time, so I'm not going to share it.

It was a beautiful, though extremely cold, morning. The sun was bouncing off the English Channel, as we ran down the boardwalk and around into Hove. The first six miles were sunny and flat, so fairly enjoyable in a "This is a kind of torture" kind of way. The final seven miles, though, were horrible, as we had to climb fairly big hills to get up onto the Sussex cliffs. Then the winds came, cutting across the cliffs making me feel as though I wasn't moving at all. But I persevered and when I hit mile 12, I thought, "One mile! I can do that!"

My iPod ran out of juice after only three songs, which was a huge bummer, but what can you do. I've already appointed Tim as my "iPod maintenance guy" for Marathon Day.

All in all, I feel confident that I can finish the big marathon in April, which pleases me to no end.

Wednesday, February 16, 2005

Getting Ready for Sunday

This Sunday I will be running in my first-ever half-marathon race. I'm excited, but also nervous, because I want to do well (read: not throw up or weep as I cross the finish line).

I've run 13 miles before, mind you, but that was ALMOST 20 YEARS AGO (yes, I'm shouting). I couldn't believe it myself, but I did the math, and it's true. I was a young girl, running cross country in high school. I am now 36. It's funny, because when I recall my high school days I think, "That wasn't long ago." Then I do some calculations and realize if I had been a teenage mother, my offspring would be old enough to vote. Scary.

But back to the race. It's in Brighton, which is a beautiful seafront city directly south of London. The last time we visited, I was heavily pregnant with Andrew and it was an unusually hot summer day. Brighton is principally known for two things: its shops and its restaurants. All I wanted to do when we went there was have a nice lunch in a small cafe followed by a browse in the shops. Unfortunately for me, Tim felt that it would be more fun to get a sandwich and sit on the beach. Once we got to the beach, we realized it was what the Brits call a "shingle beach," which means there's no soft sand there, just big smooth rocks that are NOT comfortable to sit on, particularly if you're nine months pregnant. We also didn't see the Brighton Pavilion, which is an old Victorian mansion, nor did we eat ice cream. The next day, the doctor said I had heat exhaustion, due to walking around in the hot sun the day before. Consequently, I have no fond memories of the place.

We're going to make a weekend out of it and go down on Saturday and stay the night. I picked a hotel equipped with an indoor pool, thinking it would give the boys something to do while I ran the 13.1 miles along the coastline. I'm hoping to finish in around 2 hours, but that may be overly optimistic, given that I missed a week of training two weeks ago due to illness and I haven't been able to do much this week either since Andrew is on vacation from school and he's reluctant to join me on my training runs. (I asked him the other day-- I even told him he could race me on my scooter-- but given that it was 30 degrees outside, he wanted to stay home).

I am then considering this a "rest week", which will hopefully help when it is race time on Sunday.

Friday, February 04, 2005

Out Sick

This week my training regimine has been interrupted by a terrible cold. I'm sure you're thinking, "A cold? Is she serious? How will she finish 26 miles if she can't even beat a cold?"

Oh, but believe me, this one is a doozy. Perhaps it was the training day out in the rain (see below). Maybe it was the fact that I keep forgetting to eat more fruit and vegetables, even though I should. Maybe I've been pushing myself too hard. Maybe it was all of those things, but the end result is I haven't been out for a run since Monday. I'm worrying quite a lot about the days I'm missing, but given that I feel like I've been knocking on death's door, there's not a lot I can do about it.

I'm hoping I'll still be able to do my long run on Sunday, but it doesn't look good, given that I can't even climb our stairs without losing my breath.

I know I'll live, but will I finish?