Baby it's cold outside!

Today I ran three laps around Lake Elkhorn!!!! That's another goal met: 6 miles in 1.06. I felt like I hit my stride and went slowly, but surely. Usually I take several walk breaks around the first lap, but today I took very few walk breaks around any lap, although I did walk up the hills. The third lap around was the hardest because it was really tiring. I had very few aches and pains and as I write this in the evening, I can say that my thighs feel a bit sore, but so far so good.

I'm also thinking about slowing down down my mileage increases to give my body more time to adjust to the longer distances and stay injury free. This is important to me because I was in a car accident about 9 years ago and had a minor injury to my right kneecap, and even now when it's cold or damp out, I can sometimes still feel that knee. Previously, I've had some problems with my right achilles tendon, and now it seems that in the cold I can feel it the cold weather or after a workout. I can't help thinking that my right leg is the weaker one--I have few problems with the left leg. So I really want to be careful and gradual in building my base. In every three-week cycle, I plan to repeat the previous longest distance, then increase by 10%, and then decrease by 50% during a recovery week. Then I'll start the cycle again with the new longest distance.

It's been really cold here in Maryland and this is the first year in a long time that snow has been on the ground for more than a day or two. It was 25-30 degrees during my run. It didn't seem quite so cold and there wasn't a lot of wind chill. The lake is frozen now, except for a small section near the dock where the birds congregate. I always feel so sorry for the birds being outside in the water in this cold weather. I always wonder why they don't go further south for the winter. The cold makes it sooooo hard to get motivated to get out there and run. I just feel like hibernating. I feel tired a lot and I can't get up in the morning. At night, I just want to dive right into my warm bed.

I'm fighting the urge to knit in this cold weather and finish up a scarf or two. But I'm in the middle of an online class that I'm taking as part of my CAE pursuit and I'm knee-deep in reading chapters and articles, and then posting online and participating in web chats. It suits me perfectly--I really like going to school.

Knitting for Christmas

I always wanted to post pictures of my knitting projects because I really enjoy seeing other people's pictures on their blogs.

This is the Christmas I knitted gifts for everyone. I made my mom a simple garter stitch triangular shawl in a sparkly kid mohair that she can wear to Red Hat Ladies events. My coworkers, who are far more experienced knitters than I, were just raving about it. I knit my tutor a small keyhole scarf out of some super soft hand-dyed angora wool that produced variegated colors. I often knit at her house during the two hours a week she patiently helps my kid with his reading. Her house is a knitter's paradise, well decorated, always clean, and very peacefull with light coming in from the skylight. My co-workers received a version of this same scarf design knitted with fuzzy angora wool.

On these cold winter days I still enjoy my very first knitting project: a garter stitch scarf made out of a super-chunky multi-colored wool. The scarf is now longer than I am tall, so I can wrap it around and around and around my neck for warmth. It was knit on size 35 needles, so it was really quick and easy. I knit one for my husband and one son, and I'm tempted to knit up another for myself.

But all of my knitting projects will have to wait. I've put away my knitting needles and unfinished projects for the year so I can focus on studying for the CAE.

One Hour Runner

On Saturday, Jan. 21, 2007--almost exactly a year after I started running--I became a 1-hour runner!! I can't quite believe it. Before I do each long run in the back of my mind I think, "I can't run 1 hour..." and then somehow I just do it. This is a little over 5 miles for me, nearly three laps around my favorite park. I don't run all of the way. I run the first lap with intermittent walk breaks, then run the entire second lap, and then go back to running with walk breaks. If I don't do anything else with my running, I hope to continue to be a 1-hour runner.

I've been following a schedule to become a 1-hour runner that I found in Runner's World that calls for increasing the long run by 10% two consecutive weeks and cutting back by 50% the third week as a rest week. (The plan suggested that experienced runners could increase by 20%-25%, but I thought that was just too much.) So far this has worked out well, but I find that running 55+ mins is hard on my body and I'm tired or a bit sore the next day. So, I plan to repeat weeks to let my body adjust. This next week I'm going to a conference, and next week I'm running a 5K race. After that I'll go back to running 60 minutes.

During the week I run on the treadmill at about 4 a.m.!!! I swear, sometimes the only reason I'm running at that hour is because the treadmill is moving. I'm up to 45 minutes now. Usually, I begin by walking 15 minutes and then alternate running and walking by some ratio.