Treading.

For a whole host of reasons, I usually do my three mid-week runs on the treadmill (my two weekend runs are outside. No matter what.). It's just the way it is.

But, I've begun to feel kinda bad about this. Not because I fear I'm getting less of a workout, or that I'm going to develop some sort of over-use injury from the repetitive steps. I feel bad because of the kids.

True confession: I park the kids in front of the tv so I can run.

I know. I know.

It's a new development. For a long time, we didn't have a working tv downstairs (where the treadmill is) so I was constantly jumping off the 'mill to do one thing or another for the kids. Now? With the tv? Uninterrupted miles are mine. All mine! Bwah, ha, ha, ha!

The first time I used the tv, I had 7 miles on the schedule, with 2x2 miles at 8:20 pace. Before tv, I would have probably eked out 5 miles with 1, maybe 1.5 of them at pace. I would have had to hop off the 'mill, probably more than once. That was just a given. With tv, though, there was no such problem. Seven uninterrupted miles. At pace! WOO!

Now my toddler can play with whatever "big boy" toy he wants to (he hasn't been all that interested in the downstairs tv), without Conal taking over. And Conal sits and watches Curious George and Fetch! with Ruff Ruffman (two decent enough PBS shows). He no longer whines that he wants to go back upstairs. He no longer begs me to stop running.

No complaints at all.

And I get to run and run.

So why do I feel like this is a bad idea?

Because I do. I have this nagging feeling that it is just not cool to park the kids in front of the tv just so I can run. I mean, isn't that a bit selfish? It feels that way . . . but, yet, it works. And it allows me to get my proper run in without the kids getting all antsy. Never mind that I don't have to wait until 8:30pm to get an uninterrupted run in.

It's good and bad, I guess.

To lessen my guilt, I've been limiting the tv to one hour of PBS, although I did turn on the Yankees game on opening day last week. And, yeah, the boys loved it and were high-fiving each other all over the place. I also try to encourage them to play with the toys that are downstairs, and they do hop on the trampoline and jump a little, or play in the ball pit, all those things they did before we had the tv down there. The tv is there as my safety net.

It works. Now I just need to stop feeling guilty about it!

Am I the only one who does stuff like this to have time to run? 

Please tell me I'm not . . .

(Oh, and, yes. I ran today. A little over 5 miles on the treadmill while Conal watched Word World and Niall played trains. It was a great run. Great.)

Hope you're having a good week!


~ Felice

The long, cold run.

When you wake up early on a Sunday morning, 17 miles on your running schedule, and the thermometer reads 12 degrees . . . what do you do?

Go back to bed? Well, that might be the sane thing to do. But it is not, apparently, the Happy Runner thing to do.

The Happy Runner crazy marathon training thing to do is get up. Get dressed. Chug some coffee, down a PureFit bar, and take off to run. And feel pretty flippin' hardcore afterward.

Yup, that's what happened.

I was meeting my friend, Melissa, for a long run at 8:00. She planned to run 15 miles, I planned to run 17. Before I left, the thermometer read 12 degrees. As I drove to meet her, the temperature crept up to 14, which is about what it was when we set off to run.

It was tough. The first 3+ miles were directly into the wind. Our noses were running faster than we were. My hands were freezing. My cheeks were burning from the cold. But we kept going. I took a Clif Shot gel at mile 4 and it was pretty cold and thick. Fortunately, not frozen.

We kept going. We were chatting and chatting and before I knew it, we were almost at mile 9, which was when I had planned to take another gel. I couldn't believe how quickly those first 9 miles went by! The bad thing was that, by this point, the water in my water bottle was starting to freeze. I had to run with the spout in my mouth for a while to thaw it before I could take a sip. It was less than ideal.

We reached a turn-around point at mile 11 and the wind was back at it. Trying to beat us down. We didn't give in. I will admit that at about 13.5 miles into the run, I started to sag a little. But, soon enough we were almost back to the parking lot and I knew I could quickly grab a replacement bottle of water and another gel before leaving Melissa and turning back out for two more miles.

So, we finished the 15 miles and that's what I did. My hands were super cold so I had a little bit of a hard time with my gel but I got it eventually.

Once I set out for those last two miles, I started to question my sanity. Why are you running these miles? Why didn't you just stop at 15? The answer, of course, is that if you always stop short of your goal on your training runs, what's to stop that from happening on race day?

I want no part of stopping short on race day. So, two more miles it was!

And, boy-howdy, were they tough. I was incredibly cold. My hands hurt. My cheeks and chin hurt. I wanted the run over so I pushed the pace and finished mile 16 in 9:19 and mile 17 in 8:44.

Rock ON, Happy Runner!

Yes, I did indeed feel pretty hardcore. I can't deny it.

Overall, I ran 17 miles in 2:42, a 9:35 pace. It was a great run in tough conditions. Cold, cold, cold.

What's the coldest temp you've ever run in? Do you bag your runs under a certain temperature? Or do you always tough it out?

Have a great week, everyone!

~ Felice

Distracted.

Exhibit A that I have too much going on and am far too distracted these days:

A friend called to invite me to go strawberry picking today but the timing just wasn't going to work out with naps and such. Once the baby woke up, though, I decided I couldn't resist fresh strawberries so I took the boys by myself. It was great. Conal loved picking the strawberries, we ran into one of Owen's friends, and we all got some sunshine and fresh air.

Our bounty (after we ate about a dozen or so berries each):

Delicious!

So, I put the strawberries in the back of the car, put Niall in his car seat and helped strap Conal into his booster.

What I didn't do is take my wallet off the top of my car before I left the parking lot.

So, yeah. Two minutes after pulling away, I looked in my rear view mirror saw a whole bunch of wallet-type cards and papers bouncing off the road. I immediately knew what happened.

It was my wallet and everything that is normally inside it, sprayed all over the road. I slowed down, pulled into a driveway and turned around. I had to try to get it and the items -- you know, like my license, credit cards, etc., etc. -- so when I got to the scene of the Great Wallet Drop I turned into yet another driveway, flicked on my flashers and ran along the side of the road picking up an appointment card here, a receipt there . . . it was about as embarrassing as it gets. For real.

Here's what I gathered:

Nice, right?

Yeah, I think I have a little too much on my mind these days. Good thing it was only the wallet that I forgot to put in the car!

Fortunately, the big project I've been working on is due on Monday so once that is done and submitted I shouldn't be quite so distracted. At least I hope not!

Until then, I have an easy run on the schedule for tonight and a 9-miler this weekend. Have a great weekend, everyone! Don't lose your wallets . . .

~ Felice

Paranoia will destroy ya.

File this under "At Least I'm Not as Crazy as the Happy Runner."

Or just laugh at me. Either is fine.

First, by way of background, we're 5 weeks from the half marathon and every little sore anything has me slightly paranoid. When I started to feel a little something in my left knee yesterday I kinda freaked. I never have left knee problems. Whenever I have any sort of foot/knee/hip problems they are in my right leg. Always. So something in my left knee? Yikes-ola.

It was one of those funny-surface feelings. It felt as if some ligament or tendon was just loose and flapping around right under my skin. It didn't hurt, which I figured was a good sign, but I definitely felt the flapping when I walked up or down the stairs and when I sat or stood.

I didn't want to think about what could be wrong.

And so I thought instead about how terrible it would be to have to miss the half marathon. I would be doomed. These thoughts ran through my head all day, especially when I felt the flapping. Stupid knee!

Or maybe just silly, silly me.

You see, on Thursday I had cut my knee. Just a wee little cut but it bled so I covered it with a band-aid. That's right. A band-aid. Apparently, not a tight-fitting band-aid because that was what was causing the weird flapping around feeling on my knee. It wasn't a torn ligament or pulled muscle or off-set kneecap. Nope, just a little bandage on a little cut.

So, yeah. I'm OK. Still on for the half.

Now, doesn't my crazy paranoia make yours seem normal?

You're welcome.

~ Felice