5:30am.

76 degrees (on May 30 I know! I’m loving it!).

Distance accoring to training schedule: 2 miles.

For the first time ever in my life, I ran an entire mile without stopping. Not only did I run a mile without stopping, I did it in under ten minutes. 9 minutes, 53 seconds to be exact. I only did that for the first mile, the second mile was back to the combo run/walk. I’m following the rule that if I’m breathing heavy, I’m working too hard. I didn’t start breathing too hard until mile 2.

And you know what? I liked it.

Running Buddy asked me the other day if I’d felt the Runner’s High yet - that rush of endorphins you get while running. I don’t think I have, because I still felt like I was struggling the entire time. What I did feel was a sense of accomplishment and that kicked ass. I never in my life thought I would run an entire mile. And here I was, doing it with a bunch of strangers and it felt awesome! I wanted to cry I was so happy. Here I am, 5′2″ tall, 165lbs and I just ran an entire mile! I RAN A MILE! I’m still pretty thrilled.

Climbing into my car after the run today, I actually felt like I can do this. I’ve been using that phrase as a way to convince myself that I’m not entirely insane for taking this on. At 6:30am when I was driving away from the park, that was the first time I knew I could. My body told me I could. My mind agreed. I will do this.

I have a fundraising update for later today. For now I have to go get ready to learn how to dance like I’m a Bollywood star. Bollywood Babes, here I come!

A couple of random things:

Who knew Jelly Belly makes energy jelly beans? Running Buddy gave me the April and May issues of Runner’s World magazine. There was an ad for Sport Beans energy beans. How awesome is that? It’s like candy that’s good for you.

Reading Runner’s World scared the crap out of me. Every article I read made it sound like running is brutal and only the strong survive. There were photos of black toenails and blisters and people dragging themselves across finish lines. Stories about a woman who puked up intestinal lining because she overdosed on pain pills during a race. I had to stop reading after a point because it was about everything that could go wrong. There wasn’t much about what could go right. Well, no that’s not right. There were stories about people who overcame seemingly insurmountable odds to finish a marathon which is a story about something going right…but nothing about normal people like me. It didn’t balance out the negative stories. For me anyway.

And finally…I’d like to welcome the new posters/readers who found there way to my corner of the Intertubes. Thanks for stopping by and taking the time to read my brain dumps and/or leave a comment. I use it as encouragement to keep going when I don’t think I can.

I’m sorry for a lack of updates. It’s been a crazy couple of days. My parents were here for the holiday weekend visiting me and my boy. After a night out with Fleetwood Mac and my friend we affectionately call The Hoff, my guests left late Monday. Tuesday was spent putting my house back together and then today….today was spent working in Chicago. Yes, I made a day trip to the Second City at the request of my boss. I’m wiped.

But! I have been sticking to the training schedule as best as I can. Sunday was a rest day - but I didn’t sloth around. We paid a visit to the Chihuly exhibit at the Desert Botanical Gardens bright and early Sunday morning. The exhibit was beautiful, I can’t believe a human being can create such amazing works of art with sand, essentially. It was a gorgeous summer morning -warm and cloudy but a steady cool breeze. A lot of walking in flip flops, I could feel my leg muscles releasing their knots. I think it was exactly what I needed. Like a dumbass, I neglected to charge the batteries to my camera and didn’t realize until I whipped it out to take a very artistic shot that would have won the photo contest. My friend was there with her camera, as soon as she uploads her photos I will post some.

According to my training schedule, Monday was to be a running day. But with the craziness of getting my folks home (and them missing their plane because they were boozing it up in an airport bar…but that’s another story), I didn’t run. I’m going to make up the day tomorrow.

Tuesday was a brief run of 30 minutes running/walking. I’m starting to feel like each time out, it’s one step forward and two steps back. Saturday was the longer outing and I felt great when I was finished, really energized. I got back from the run and my parents were patiently waiting for me to fix breakfast for everyone.  I felt so great, I did and without bitching (ok, I might’ve said something like “I just ran 4 miles and you people expect me to whip up some eggs?”). I prepared my famous eggs for the family no problem. But on Tuesday, I was treadmilling it, and I had absolutely no energy and I couldn’t figure out why. I ate pretty well during the day, and I was drinking water like a fish. I don’t get it. Maybe it was the time of day? I ran in the morning on Saturday, and 8pm on Tuesday. I really don’t know. We’ll see how things go tomorrow. I’m running at night again.

Today was scheduled to be a 20 minute run/walk outing. I was up at 3am this morning to catch a 6am flight to Chicago, only to turn around and take a flight home at 5pm Chicago time (3pm Farrahzona time). I’m wiped and there was no chance in hell I was going to put my running shoes on and head out for a run. It kinda feels like an excuse. Maybe it is. Doesn’t change he fact that I’m plum tired.

See you tomorrow!

This will be a quick combo post on days 4 and 5. My folks are in town for the holiday weekend and we’re busy running around town terrorizing the residents of the greater Phoenix metropolitan area.

Day 4 was Friday, and was scheduled to be a rest day. I am realizing now that when the training schedule says ‘Rest’, the trainers didn’t mean ‘Do Absolutely Nothing Active’. On Thursday I was unbelievably sore, which lead to being extremely tight on Friday. I had planned on going to hot yoga, but I didn’t make it out of the office in time, and had to run to Target before picking up my folks at the airport. Target is time sucker for me. I get in there and I have no concept of time. I have been known to disappear inside a Target Greatland never to be seen or heard from again…well until they turn the lights out anyway.

Long story short (too late I know), I need to be active on my rest days. Today’s run, Day 5, was to be a 2 mile long run. I was hurting. I was still sore and tight. I think if I was active on my rest days, I wouldn’t have been.

I intended to get up at 6am this morning,  and hit the path around Stinky Lake. Stinky Lake path, according to Google Maps is about 3.7 miles. I made it out of the house at about 7:45am. The morning was beautiful. Still humid and cloudy, but cool with a strong breeze. I was reminded of overcast mornings on the beach…except I could feel the heat that was coming later in the day. Which you don’t feel at the beach.

I hadn’t run since Wednesday, and it felt like it. I struggled. I ran maybe 1/4 of the way around the path, total. I’m a bit disappointed, but I know I will do better the next time out. I finished the entire path, which is a positive and I keep trying to remember that.

Tomorrow is scheduled to be another ‘Rest’ day. But I’ve made plans with a friend to meet up at 5:30am (on Sunday! I am insane!) and run/walk. Gotta get it done before it gets blast-oven hot.

And now I’m off to fart around with the family!

And on the Third Day she rested from all the work she had made.

I’m worn out and very sore. My left calf muscle is so tight it feels like every time I step, it’s going to twist itself into a charlie horse. My quads hate me. I really think they’d strangle me if they could detach from my thighs and find their way to my neck. Needless to say I will be stretching often today. A massage may not be out of the question either. Don’t know about y’all, but when I’m sore I like strangers to rub the sore right out of my muscles.

On a positive note, I’ve slept like a rock the last two nights. Probably from sheer exhaustion.

Today was actually easy. Ok, not easy. But easier than yesterday. I’m hoping Friday’s run will be even easier still. If the trend continues, who knows…I might actually enjoy this whole running thing.

I ran with a co-worker and friend  who’s also running the Nike Women’s Marathon. She’s running on her own and not as part of Team In Training…because she’s disciplined like that. She’s done other races and looks super cute in her running skirt.  Anyway, we got to exchanging pointless emails at work one day and came up with a schedule that fits both of our crazy lives…and poof! Now I have a running buddy for my mid-week runs. Yay! In the land of Farrahzona, she will now be known as Running Buddy. As Supreme Dictator, I say it is so.

The plan with Running Buddy is to run twice a week after work. On treadmills mostly. I’d like to throw a track practice with my TNT marathon coach in to the mix too. It’s still early in my training yet though, so we shall see.

We ran on treadmills today, which may explain why it was easier. The training schedule had today’s run at 20 minutes of running or walking or both. I warmed up for five minutes, and ran for as long as I could. Then I walked for a minute or two and ran as long as I could again and kept that up for an additional 20 minutes. I’m hoping on these 20 minute runs I will get to the point where I’m running 20 solid minutes. I have to if I want to finish the marathon before the roads open back up and they start letting cars back on the streets.

My feet still had the needly tingle like they were falling asleep. Not as bad as yesterday, but still bad enough to be very uncomfortable. That can stop at any time. Seriously. It’s annoying.

Day Three is a rest day. I know I can do that kind of training very well.

I’ve been running without my iPod, or any sort of musical inspiration of any kind. I’m wondering if I should? I have a Shuffle and that would be convenient. But I really like the Nike+ functionality, and knowing there are mods out there for non-Nike+ shoes, I’d really like to get it.

On the other hand….I’m trying to train like I race, and I don’t know if iPods are allowed on the course. I’d hate to invest all that money and not be able to use it.

Thoughts?

Day one of training is in the bag. Day one of real training, that is. Today’s goal was to run or walk or both for 20 minutes.

It was a challenge much different than my attempt last week. No vomit, but it was a struggle just to get going. Schedules worked out to where I had to wait for the He-Rahn to get home before I could jaunt off down the road. He went hiking this evening and didn’t get back until after 8pm.

In the meantime, I picked up The Boy from school, fixed dinner, built a rocket ship tractor out of legos, watched a Duck Dodgers, bathed and bed The Boy. After all that, I made the mistake of sitting down. When The He-Rahn arrived at 8pm, I was almost asleep. I was pooped. The last thing I wanted to do was run.

For me, half the battle of doing something like this, is actually getting up and going. Sometimes I expend more effort talking myself out of something or rationalizing NOT doing something, that I never get started. It’s even easier to talk myself out of it when I’m ready to sink into my pillow top. I’ve always been like this. That’s probably a surprise to a few people who think I’m one of the more motivated people they know. But I can be a big lazy slug when I want to. Tonight though, I managed to drag myself off the couch and off I went.

It was warm tonight, but not 107 like it was the other day. About 95 I think, and a tail end of a storm was blowing through my part of town. It was nice, actually. A tad humid, but not suffocatingly so. My plan was to run in one direction for 15 minutes, turn around and head back home. I ran off and on the first 15, and walked most of the way on the return.

After running 5 - 10 minutes straight, my feet started tingling. That sensation you get when parts of your body falls asleep happened on one half of each of my feet - the inside half. I thought maybe my shoes were tied too tight. We’ll see how that goes tomorrow.

And can I just ask who was the brainiac who thought man-made lakes in Arizona were good ideas? I live near one, and trying to run around it tonight, I damn near passed out the stench was so bad. It’s been hot and there are probably all sorts of bacteria cultures living in that cesspool. Ick.

I also have more wardrobe issues. The sports bra held up as expected, which was not at all. I need to get a couple of decent slings. But I had an unexpected problem - Chub Rub. Well, maybe not unexpected in that I know my thighs rub together. But I had no idea how that would effect my run.

I wore a pair of old running shorts that hit me at mid thigh. So half the time the inseams of the shorts rub together and eventually migrate to the space between where my leg attaches and my crotch. You know what I’m talking about, don’t you? Look around at a fat chick. If she’s wearing shorts, the legs of the shorts never stay parallel to the ground. The inseam is always firmly planted in her crotch to that it looks like she’s trying to hold the legs of her shorts between her legs. I was either picking out the shorts without looking like I was fishing for something. Or I was running funny, almost waddling at a high rate of speed (wraddling?) to prevent the shorts creepage. It was very annoying. I either need shorts that start up there, or I need to wear pants. Chub Rub will eventually cause sores if I don’t.

So yeah, I obsessed about that most of the run and the next thing I knew I was home.

And now I’m ready to sleep for days. But I did it, and that’s half the battle with me.

See you tomorrow for Day Two.

I’ve been toying with the idea of ending my cell contract with Sprint early, and getting an iPhone. I’m cheap and don’t want to pay the early termination fees…but this may make it worth it.

The tax code on my iPhone. I want. It would be all kinds of awesome.

(hat tip: TaxProf Blog)

Today is the first official training day. I’m running after the sun goes down tonight. It will be nice and toasty then, it should be about 107 degrees today. Yippee!

It’s also the first official fundraising day as well. I haven’t come up with much of a plan yet, I will do so by the end of the week. It will be all professional like, typed up with goals and time lines and all that. Right now it’s just a bunch of ideas floating around inside the ol’ noggin. Some of which are pretty cool, if I do say so myself. Check back frequently for updates. I think you’ll really dig my ideas.

Of course, if you’d like to donate now and get a jump on everyone else…be cutting edge and a trend setter, by all means, please donate here.

I’ve settled on a fundraising goal of $7,000. I already have $250 of donations to start, without any serious effort on my part. I’m very encouraged by this. I mean, if I actually did something to raise money, I’ll rake in the cash for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society!