Uncanny resemblance

So there's this poster in the bathroom at work.  For years, I've been looking at that familiar face.  "who are you?  why do you taunt me?  who ARE you?"    Then suddenly, some 4 years later...it hits me.  It's Albert!  Albert Ingalls. 

No?  I swear there's a resemblance here.  I am proud of myself for uncovering the mystery lady in the picture in the bathroom.  That's no lady, that's Albert Ingalls.  Maybe he left Walnut Grove in shame after burning down Mary's School for the Blind and killing her baby, and turned to modeling for artists, in drag, no less.

Run #75 Every little step

Date/Time:  August 12 at about 6:30am

Place:  treadmill at home, not enough time to head out to the lakefront, and truthfully, I just didn't feel like seeing 63rd street beach today

Mileage:  3

Time It Took:  35:49, including one 1-minute walking break at 2 miles

Pace:  11:56

Miles this week:  3

Miles this month:  16

2008 Goal:  439.09/1000 miles

Thoughts/Comments:  This run was hard when I was thinking about how hard it seemed, but on the flip side, it still went by fast.  Weird.  Whatever, it's done and that's what matters.  I don't know if I said this here, or said it to one of my fellow running friends or what, but I think it's best if I just try and maintain some sort of mileage during my midweek runs, instead of getting all crazy and increasing mileage and doing speedwork and stuff.  I just feel lucky to be running!

Need help with your opinions, runners (past and present!)

ok, so in my COMEBACK QUEST, my return from patellafemoral pain syndrome to hit my second marathon this year, my beloved Chicago Marathon, here's my schedule for long runs for the remaining weekend leading up to Chicago, including the taper...note the highlighted on, b/c I will be asking a question and gathering opinions on it.

August 16:  10 miles

August 23:  12 miles

August 31: 13.1 Half Madness (half marathon)

September 6: 16 miles

September 13: 18 miles

September 21:  Ready to Run 20-miler "pace race"

September 28:  12 miles

October 4: 8 miles

October 12:  Chicago Marathon

Ok...so how important is that 18-miler?  There is another half marathon that weekend in Chicago, the one I ran last year, and it's now in my neighborhood.  (I moved, the race didn't.)  I really want to somehow fit it into my schedule.  Do you think it would be ok to forego the 18-miler?  Maybe I will need a cutback week anyway?  How much can I rely on my training earlier this year to go from a 16 miler, up to a 20 miler 2 weeks later?  Am I plain nuts?  Should I just forget the half marathon that weekend and focus on the bigger, more important goal?  What do you think????

Best of luck...sending out good running vibes

The Chicago Distance Classic (half marathon) is tomorrow at 6:30 am.  I'm admittedly disappointed that I won't be running, but realistically it just ain't gonna happen.  BTW, my knee has been hurting ALLLLL DAY today, but strangely at around 8pm or so...it just...well it just stopped.  Weird.

But anyway, good vibes out to Annah, my best friend.  Her best half time is 2:04 and some change.  I'm sending vibes out to her to hit the 2:00 mark or even less!  And Lou, who PR'ed in her last half at the Flying Pig (they have a half and a full, I think I mentioned that in my race report.)  I think she'll do quite well again this time.  And to Jaime, who has been knocking out her runs at a steady clip faster than our 12:00 pace from last year, also.  She ran the Miami half marathon in January and a crazy trail half marathon a few months ago.  I will also be keeping an eye out for this dude's race report, only b/c he is awesome.  I don't even know him, I just lurk on his blog.

As for the CDC and it's new course, hopefully I will be back next year to earn the best medal around.  This year's would have been my third consecutive.

Run #74 Crazy Eights

Date/Time:  8/8/8 at 10:00am

Place:  Lakefront, starting from my old meeting place when I ran with Chicago Endurance Sports, right from the statue of Ben Franklin.  Mid to upper 70's by the time I finished.

Mileage: 8

Time it Took:  1:40:04

Pace: 12:31

Miles this week:  8

Miles this month:  13

2008 Goal: 436.09/1000 miles

Thoughts/Comments:  So I get out there on the path, I'm feeling fantastic, my mind is just right, only thinking about today's run and nothing else.  Following the advice of an article I recently read about coming back from injury, I walked after each mile.  Just one minute.  My goal was to run 7 to 8 miles, but once I got started I realized that it's 8-8-8, so how could I NOT run 8 miles?  BTW, happy birthday to one of my best friends, RABIYA!. 

So I'm running out there on my old stomping ground, and it was like an old friend greeting me "So good to have you back, you've been gone to long!"  Flashbacks from last year's group training runs, like the first run when I wore a cotton t-shirt, or when we came around the bend and happened upon the 11:00 pace group giving cpr to "Sam" who'd had a heart attack, or the 16-mile run when we dodged raindrops, ginormous puddles, and branches still left behind from the storms earlier that week.  What about that 18-miler during my spring marathon training when I stopped at St. Joe's Hospital after running out of gatorade...stocking up on pretzels and lemonade.  Aaah the memories!

At the turnaround point, I stopped ye olde Garmin and went to the bathroom, stretched, had a gu and chugged some water.

During the return trip my legs were a bit tired.  This was my longest run since MID-JUNE.  A few thoughts tried to creep in, thinking too far ahead in the future. 

But by the end of the run, I felt 100% fantastic about meeting my goal for TODAY.  I won't be running in this weekend's Chicago Distance Classic half marathon, but I should be on track for the half marathon at the end of the month that I'm registered for as well.  I"m headed off to the health and fitness expo in awhile to pick up my packet, even though I'm not running.  There's always some cool vendors.

Where in the World is Lindy?

ROUGH WEEK, it feels like about 2 weeks have passed since Monday!  I haven't run or biked, but at least I made my two PT sessions.  GIve me a pass, please:

1.  Late Sunday night I noticed the fridge temp was kinda high.  Sure enough, upon waking Monday morning, it was in the 60's.  Just went to the store on Sunday afternoon!  Managed to fill a bag with stuff and took it to work to put in the already overcrowded fridge.  Schedule appt for Tuesday, will have to take part of day off from work.

2.  Monday at about 11am.  Hubby calls me to tell me that my car (I was driving his car) is completely dead.  We argue b/c I told him, in effect, "I told you so", we should have just gone ahead and had it fixed.  For the next 2 hours, we deal with getting it towed and get him to where he needs to be.

3. No fridge, no food.  Order pizza from neighborhood Pizza Hut.  "It will be ready in 15 minutes, they say." Yeah, heard that onebefore, so I arrive in 25 minutes. No pizza.  Um, Um, Um, I think we gave it away.  20 minutes later, they find it in the other "warming" bin.  Not warm, but at this point it's 7:30 so I just take it and go. 

4.  Two blocks from home.  Dangit.  One Metra train...Two Metra trains.  Wait Wait Wait.  OK driving again.  What's that? Blue lights and a siren?  Get pulled over.  "Not until you tell me why you're pulling me over" (my response to license and proof of insurance.)  "Your license plate tags are expired."  Flashback to Joey several times in the past few weeks talking about needing to go buy the tags for his car before the end of the month.  Nice.

5.  Eat.  Hmmm, storm warnings on tv.  Ok.  Getting darker.  More storm warnings.  Tornado sirens go off!  I don't ever remember hearing them in Chicago.  Suburbs, yes.  Chicago, no!  The sky goes from regular to green to black and the trees start bending all crazy and we "batten down the hatches" and go downstairs.  There we sit and watch the weather news on tv for an hour or so.  Later, we marvel at the damage in other parts of the city, on the news.  Doze off sometime around 10:30.

6.  11:45 Hubby wakes me up with "it's storming again."  I look up and BOOM, power goes out. I go upstairs to check on the cherubs and Jada was sitting on the side of her bed whimpering.  I get her and Zoe and decide to go lie down in our room.  After watching the tree near our window, all I could envision was the story on the news about the mother and her children who died when a tree fell on them as they cuddled in bed. So we went downstairs, just to the 1st floor.  At this point, down the block, I'm seeing glowing red, like a fire. I call 911. (Later we saw that it was 1 block down, a huge tree fell and brought down all the power lines and transformers and smashed four cars.)

7. Hubby goes to check on things downstairs.  "LIndy! The sewer is backing up AND we're getting water in!  So I run down to try and help move a few things, come back up and Lysol my feet.  Jada was all upset, and Zoe was STILL sleeping.  (Amazing how a creak on the floor as I"m trying to duck out the door for an early morning run will wake her, but all this commotion and she's still in dreamland!)

Anyhoo, to make this long drawn out story a little shorter, our power came back on in the middle of the night Tuesday going into Wednesday.  Wednesday we had the refrigerator repair man come out and it was less than $100 to get fixed....AND my car is fixed, AND..... AND......the time has come, and we are the proud new owners of a 2005 Honda Civic hybrid.  (This was already in the works when my car first starting acting up.)

Now maybe things can get back to normal.  I plan to run tomorrow.  I'm still beat down tired, I've only had about 4 or 5 hours sleep each night since Sunday.

So forgive me for not blogging! 

BIke Ride #2

Date/Time: August 3 at around 6:30am

Place:  from home-city streets to lakefront path; 63 degrees

Mileage:  10.07 miles

Time it Took: 57:28

Avg. mph:10.5

Bike miles this week: 18.25                                                                

Bike miles this month: 10.07 / 75 mile goal

Thoughts/Comments:  Today's ride went better, a little more confidence and a shift in gears goes a long way. 

Run #73 Slow is the new fast

Date/Time:  August 2 at about 6am

Place:  lakefront, 70 degrees but 82% humidity

Mileage:  5 miles

Time it Took:  1:02:32

Pace:  12:30

Miles this week:  8.16

Miles this month:  5

2008 Goal:  428.09/1000 miles

Thoughts/Comments:  "Don't give up, never give up...keep trying, you'll get it back"  I SWEAR TO YOU these are the words coming out of the mouths of the Yo Gabba Gabba crew that Zoe is watching as I sit here and type.

Anyway, so slow is the new fast, and 5 miles is the new long run...I think I've decided that I will just increase my mileage now each weekend (yes, I have a plan but I won't bore you with the details), and Im not gonna worry and stress about "will I make it to the marathon?" b/c that does me NO GOOD mentally when I'm out there just trying to complete what needs to be done for the day.  I'll just take it as it comes, and my performance on these long runs should give me my "answer" soon enough.

Anyhoo, this 5-miler included a walking break about each mile, and I'm not even mad about it, whatever.

So in getting to the lakefront today, I couldnt even go to the usual place, I totally forgot, the South Shore triathlon is today.  It was just about to start, I think, when I finished up.  If I'd have gone any longer in my run, I would have been stuck in the parking lot.

A revelation

Though some like it hot, I for one, do not.

Run #72 Humid is as humid does

Date/Time:  July 30th  at 6:00am

Place: lakefront, 72 degrees and VERY humid (81%)

Mileage: 3.16

Time It Took: 36:25

Pace: 11:32

Miles this week: 3.16

Miles this month: 16.12

2008 Goal:  423.09/1000 miles

Thoughts/Comments:  So ridiculously humid out there, I was struggling.  I don't know how on earth I can pull off this marathon thing at this point, given how much I was struggling...but I figure it's not fair to make any decisions on a humid day while running.  But this weekend, I need to hit 8 miles at minimum, and then just keep going up by 2 miles every weekend.  And even that is gonna be a stretch.  I'd appreciate your thoughts, fellow runners.  Am I crazy to think I could still run the marathon at this point?!