Fun-Loving
Happy-Go-Lucky
Pensive
SassyThat's Susie!
*Apologies to Matt Groening
Showing posts with label susie. Show all posts
Showing posts with label susie. Show all posts
Sunday, December 16, 2007
Saturday, September 08, 2007
We Got Bike
Susie says goodbye. She might look happy but she's crying on the inside.
Yours truly has no mixed emotions whatsoever.BIKE is now safely ensconced at my office, which is craftily located right next to a bike shop.
I'm jazzed.
In other running news:
Eight miles this morning, and two of them were straight uphill on the Custis Trail. I hemmed and hawed about whether or not to take the watch, but decided at the last minute to wear it in case I needed to run by time instead of distance, since we were coach-less.
I headed out with my friend K., who is faster than me and has a Garmin. She kept me at 10:40 min miles for the first 3 miles. Then she took off. I am proud to say I DID NOT walk for those four miles, not even on the endless, freakin' totally endless uphill. I did slow down, but don't know my pace because we switched trails and the mile markers had all changed. So I ran a total of 48 minutes, which I'm sure was at least four miles.
On the way back, I ran with another strong runner, E. I took two walk/water breaks, but they were on purpose, not at all the kind of thing I've been experiencing, the just-give-up-and-start-walking-for-no-reason thing. Has the SPELL BEEN BROKEN?
My last mile took 11:40, which is fine by me.
But, curiously, I accidentally erased all my splits and my final time once I got back to the car. I guess I secretly didn't really want to know, because, as a famous German father of psychiatry once said: There are no accidents in life.
I did it. A good long hard run, with no iPod either.
Friday, September 07, 2007
Try One Thing Every Day That Scares You
Well said my good and trusty friends!
I (metaphorically) threw away the watch this week, even before I read all your good advice. I ran three miles on Wednesday and Friday morning, before work, sans watch. Ya can't fret about time when you have no idea what your time is. Tomorrow is an eight-miler and I'm pretty sure I'll be doing that watch-free, too, and like all my long runs, I'll do it sans iPod. Just me and my God, who might make another appearance, since the temps are expected to be high 90s. Good times.
I'm still pretty nervous about running, though. But I know that if you do the thing you fear often enough, the fear dissipates. So that's the plan. Just keep running.
Meanwhile, tomorrow is a big day for a few reasons.
First, someone very special is giving me one of these:
That's right! Ask and ye shall receive! I'M GETTING A BIKE! Susie swears she doesn't want it and is GIVING IT TO ME. I can't begin to tell you how excited I am about this. Soon I'll be talking about watts and flats, and all that other jazz. Now all I need to do is learn how to swim. Oh yeah, and run.
And speaking of triathletes, I'll be (sorta) live blogging it over at a.j.'s site this weekend. A.J. is a spectator extraordinaire at Ironman Wisconsin (also known as IMMOO, don't worry, my first job is to find out why it's called that, other than the obvious cow thing), and there are all kinds of meetups and shenanigans planned for the spectators. The plan is for a.j. to call me or text me and I'll do my best to impersonate her over there. Which if I'm going to do it up right, should involve drinking, trying lots of cute hairstyles, and telling funny stories about men. In between working out like a maniac. So, I'm pretty much screwed. (Updates will also be posted on the IM Wisconsin 2007 site, here.)
SHOUTOUT: To my very special peep and bestest friend, Mark, the running blogfather, who is running the Regina, Saskatchewan (that's somewhere in Canada) Marathon on Sunday. Good luck to Mark! And to all the IM Wisconsin folks, too!
I (metaphorically) threw away the watch this week, even before I read all your good advice. I ran three miles on Wednesday and Friday morning, before work, sans watch. Ya can't fret about time when you have no idea what your time is. Tomorrow is an eight-miler and I'm pretty sure I'll be doing that watch-free, too, and like all my long runs, I'll do it sans iPod. Just me and my God, who might make another appearance, since the temps are expected to be high 90s. Good times.
I'm still pretty nervous about running, though. But I know that if you do the thing you fear often enough, the fear dissipates. So that's the plan. Just keep running.
Meanwhile, tomorrow is a big day for a few reasons.
First, someone very special is giving me one of these:
That's right! Ask and ye shall receive! I'M GETTING A BIKE! Susie swears she doesn't want it and is GIVING IT TO ME. I can't begin to tell you how excited I am about this. Soon I'll be talking about watts and flats, and all that other jazz. Now all I need to do is learn how to swim. Oh yeah, and run.
And speaking of triathletes, I'll be (sorta) live blogging it over at a.j.'s site this weekend. A.J. is a spectator extraordinaire at Ironman Wisconsin (also known as IMMOO, don't worry, my first job is to find out why it's called that, other than the obvious cow thing), and there are all kinds of meetups and shenanigans planned for the spectators. The plan is for a.j. to call me or text me and I'll do my best to impersonate her over there. Which if I'm going to do it up right, should involve drinking, trying lots of cute hairstyles, and telling funny stories about men. In between working out like a maniac. So, I'm pretty much screwed. (Updates will also be posted on the IM Wisconsin 2007 site, here.)
SHOUTOUT: To my very special peep and bestest friend, Mark, the running blogfather, who is running the Regina, Saskatchewan (that's somewhere in Canada) Marathon on Sunday. Good luck to Mark! And to all the IM Wisconsin folks, too!
Sunday, July 22, 2007
Eats, Drives, and Runs
Saturday was an action-packed day here at Not Born to Run headquarters.
At 8 a.m. I met the D.C. Road Runners Ten-Mile group at the Lincoln Memorial. Since our group's coach was out of town, I had agreed to take the slow runners out for a 3- mile loop around the Washington Monument and the reflecting pool.
I was kind of dreading it because I thought if I run slow, then I'll be running slow. And will never get fast. One slow run will do that to you, you know.
But! It. Was. Awesome. Turns out, I know stuff about learning how to run. 'Twasn't so long ago that I was walk/running (hmm, actually I think it was last week!) My group ran probably between 11-12:30 min miles. I ran back and forth and kept up a non-stop litany of advice, encouragement and jokes. My reward? Everyone ran, no one walked, and one deranged person actually told me that I gave great pep talks.
Who knew?
Around 9:30 I headed back to the car to drive home (yes, same car with the cracked thing that's going to blow any minute) and called Bex to doublecheck that we were leaving town at 11:30 to visit Susie and David in Fredericksburg. Ding! Wrong. Turns out we (and by "we" I mean "Bex") had planned to arrive in F'burg at 11:30. F'burg is about 45 minutes south of D.C., which meant we had to leave Bex's by 10:45. I'm about 30 minutes north of Bex—by car. Do the math.
We were a little late.
But we had a great visit with Susie and David, had lunch, chatted about this and that, Bex's move, weddings, travel, jobs and kids. A good time.
(L-R: Bex, Susie, moi. Photo, unbeknownst to her, courtesy Bex.)
We had planned on getting back to D.C. by 3, but that was looking iffy since we didn't leave Fredericksburg 'til 3:30. Bex dropped me at the King St. Station and two Metros and a bus later, I was home by 7 p.m.
Which was a really good thing, since the Rockville Twilighter 8k started at 8:45 and registration closed at 8 p.m. and I had cleverly not pre-registered.
By this point in the day I had eaten: oatmeal (plain!) for breakfast, a veggie burger for lunch, followed by a double iced espresso mocha something. (Did I mention I haven't had caffeine, in oh, 12 years or so?) This was my doping scheme.
For the rest of my nutrition, I ate two pieces of bread and drank some water. Oatmeal, veggie burger, espresso, bread, water. Got it?
Since I was early I milled around and noticed a Starbuck's cart handing out some strange espresso concoction with raspberries on top. Score! More caffeine.
Blah blah, we were off! I had my usual race goals: Don't be last and don't walk. Oh, and this was going to be simply a training run, with no racing at all. Of that I was certain.
This is such a fun race. You're surrounded by a few thousand strangers running with you through a quiet suburban neighborhood. The neighbors line the streets, cheering, and spraying the runners with garden hoses. The runners get to watch the sun set, and then run in the dark.
I hooked up with a guy (wow, I never thought I'd be writing that in a race report!) for miles 1 and 2. He worked in a bike store, so we talked bikes for a while. He was laboring but I wasn't. The course is gently rolling and I kept waiting for that big hill, thinking I should hold back for it. I remembered Peter telling me during our 5k to "glide downhill" and pump my arms on the uphills. I FLEW on the downhills and maintained on the uphills. I kept waiting for the Giant Hill that I just KNEW was waiting for me and would reduce me to walking.
I lost Bike Guy after a nice downhill somewhere around mile 2, right around when I decided I was going to race this thing as if my life depended on it.
Mile 3 I thought I could pick it up and I stopped dreading the Giant Hill. I started passing people. What a great feeling! People started walking.
I don't know what happened in mile 4. Apparently my watch stopped. Or, possibly I got worried about finishing strong and slowed down. And there was no Giant Hill. Anywhere.
Mile .97 I flew. I pushed myself. I'd been playing cat and mouse with an older gentleman (yes, my competition consists of old men, people in casts, and children—I take what I can get), and I decided I was taking him down if it was the last thing I ever did. I remembered Laurie saying it's supposed to hurt. I passed the geezer. I passed one chick who was starting to fade and I felt myself wanting to encourage her, but instead made the decision to focus on ME. Screw her! I felt bad for about 1/2 second, but I wanted to give it all I had and I thought this was no place to be thinking about anyone else. Something inside me just clicked.
A volunteer called out: "only 200 feet left, just like halfway around a track" and I picked it up even more, and flew through the chute.
I was elated. I had no idea what my time was but for the first time, I. Loved. Racing. Loved it!! I wanted to call up everyone I knew and tell them but alas, no one was around. Or no one who would actually care.
Except you guys:
The stats:
Rockville Twilighter 8k, July 21, 2007, age 50
Unofficial time: 53:08 (10:41 min./mile) 51/76
mile 1: 11:00
mile 2: 10:52
mile 3: 10:31
mile 4: 11:11 (no no no no no)
mile .97: 9:32 (yes yes yes yes yes!)
Rockville Twilighter, July 17, 2005, age 48: 58:18 (11:44 min./miles) 60/69
PR: St. Patrick's Day 8K, March 12, 2006, age 49: 52:28 (10:34 min./miles) 80/113
At 8 a.m. I met the D.C. Road Runners Ten-Mile group at the Lincoln Memorial. Since our group's coach was out of town, I had agreed to take the slow runners out for a 3- mile loop around the Washington Monument and the reflecting pool.
I was kind of dreading it because I thought if I run slow, then I'll be running slow. And will never get fast. One slow run will do that to you, you know.
But! It. Was. Awesome. Turns out, I know stuff about learning how to run. 'Twasn't so long ago that I was walk/running (hmm, actually I think it was last week!) My group ran probably between 11-12:30 min miles. I ran back and forth and kept up a non-stop litany of advice, encouragement and jokes. My reward? Everyone ran, no one walked, and one deranged person actually told me that I gave great pep talks.
Who knew?
Around 9:30 I headed back to the car to drive home (yes, same car with the cracked thing that's going to blow any minute) and called Bex to doublecheck that we were leaving town at 11:30 to visit Susie and David in Fredericksburg. Ding! Wrong. Turns out we (and by "we" I mean "Bex") had planned to arrive in F'burg at 11:30. F'burg is about 45 minutes south of D.C., which meant we had to leave Bex's by 10:45. I'm about 30 minutes north of Bex—by car. Do the math.
We were a little late.
But we had a great visit with Susie and David, had lunch, chatted about this and that, Bex's move, weddings, travel, jobs and kids. A good time.
(L-R: Bex, Susie, moi. Photo, unbeknownst to her, courtesy Bex.)We had planned on getting back to D.C. by 3, but that was looking iffy since we didn't leave Fredericksburg 'til 3:30. Bex dropped me at the King St. Station and two Metros and a bus later, I was home by 7 p.m.
Which was a really good thing, since the Rockville Twilighter 8k started at 8:45 and registration closed at 8 p.m. and I had cleverly not pre-registered.
By this point in the day I had eaten: oatmeal (plain!) for breakfast, a veggie burger for lunch, followed by a double iced espresso mocha something. (Did I mention I haven't had caffeine, in oh, 12 years or so?) This was my doping scheme.
For the rest of my nutrition, I ate two pieces of bread and drank some water. Oatmeal, veggie burger, espresso, bread, water. Got it?
The Race
The first and last time I ran this race was July 17, 2005. It was one of my first races and I remember being a nervous wreck for about a week beforehand. What a difference two years makes. I also remember a Giant Hill that I had to walk up not once but twice.Since I was early I milled around and noticed a Starbuck's cart handing out some strange espresso concoction with raspberries on top. Score! More caffeine.
Blah blah, we were off! I had my usual race goals: Don't be last and don't walk. Oh, and this was going to be simply a training run, with no racing at all. Of that I was certain.
This is such a fun race. You're surrounded by a few thousand strangers running with you through a quiet suburban neighborhood. The neighbors line the streets, cheering, and spraying the runners with garden hoses. The runners get to watch the sun set, and then run in the dark.
I hooked up with a guy (wow, I never thought I'd be writing that in a race report!) for miles 1 and 2. He worked in a bike store, so we talked bikes for a while. He was laboring but I wasn't. The course is gently rolling and I kept waiting for that big hill, thinking I should hold back for it. I remembered Peter telling me during our 5k to "glide downhill" and pump my arms on the uphills. I FLEW on the downhills and maintained on the uphills. I kept waiting for the Giant Hill that I just KNEW was waiting for me and would reduce me to walking.
I lost Bike Guy after a nice downhill somewhere around mile 2, right around when I decided I was going to race this thing as if my life depended on it.
Mile 3 I thought I could pick it up and I stopped dreading the Giant Hill. I started passing people. What a great feeling! People started walking.
I don't know what happened in mile 4. Apparently my watch stopped. Or, possibly I got worried about finishing strong and slowed down. And there was no Giant Hill. Anywhere.
Mile .97 I flew. I pushed myself. I'd been playing cat and mouse with an older gentleman (yes, my competition consists of old men, people in casts, and children—I take what I can get), and I decided I was taking him down if it was the last thing I ever did. I remembered Laurie saying it's supposed to hurt. I passed the geezer. I passed one chick who was starting to fade and I felt myself wanting to encourage her, but instead made the decision to focus on ME. Screw her! I felt bad for about 1/2 second, but I wanted to give it all I had and I thought this was no place to be thinking about anyone else. Something inside me just clicked.
A volunteer called out: "only 200 feet left, just like halfway around a track" and I picked it up even more, and flew through the chute.
I was elated. I had no idea what my time was but for the first time, I. Loved. Racing. Loved it!! I wanted to call up everyone I knew and tell them but alas, no one was around. Or no one who would actually care.
Except you guys:
The stats:
Rockville Twilighter 8k, July 21, 2007, age 50
Unofficial time: 53:08 (10:41 min./mile) 51/76
mile 1: 11:00
mile 2: 10:52
mile 3: 10:31
mile 4: 11:11 (no no no no no)
mile .97: 9:32 (yes yes yes yes yes!)
Rockville Twilighter, July 17, 2005, age 48: 58:18 (11:44 min./miles) 60/69
PR: St. Patrick's Day 8K, March 12, 2006, age 49: 52:28 (10:34 min./miles) 80/113
Monday, June 18, 2007
It Was the Best of Times
Yes, it's true, I was lucky enough and felt incredibly honored to attend the wedding this past Saturday of Susie and David (who now needs his own blog if he wants to be in da FAMILY).
Susie was radiant. David was handsome. The service was lovely, unique, and fun. I took about a million pictures but I don't want to steal their thunder, so I will hold myself back (not easy, believe me).
But when Susie took the microphone and sang "'Til There Was You," directly to David, I thought I'd never stop crying.
I heart these two! And many happy returns to them.
(Below: The way I remember them. "'Til There Was You" comes right after "All My Loving." Thank goodness they flash their names up on the screen or we'd never know who was who. That Paul is sooo dreamy. Still! And available, I hear!)
Susie was radiant. David was handsome. The service was lovely, unique, and fun. I took about a million pictures but I don't want to steal their thunder, so I will hold myself back (not easy, believe me).
But when Susie took the microphone and sang "'Til There Was You," directly to David, I thought I'd never stop crying.
I heart these two! And many happy returns to them.
(Below: The way I remember them. "'Til There Was You" comes right after "All My Loving." Thank goodness they flash their names up on the screen or we'd never know who was who. That Paul is sooo dreamy. Still! And available, I hear!)
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