After having a good run on Thursday, I decided to take myself back to my old cross country days and entered the Kris Kringle 5K, giving myself a goal of 27:00. Woke up this morning just as the snow was starting to fall, and i thought to myself, 'This is going to be awesome!' I'd never ran a cross country race in the snow before so i was pretty excited as roommate Catherine and I drove to Swope Park to brave the frigid temperatures and fluffy white stuff. The field of about 60 runners got off to a fast start and i got to thinking that most people would think we were all crazy to be running three miles in the snow. I, on the other hand, thought it was the absolute best thing to be doing on a winter morning, that is until I realized that there was a really long hill ahead of me. The course was not the easiest, with several steep uphills, two small creeks to run through and the frozen solid terrain that refused to provide much cushioning. But as i ran along, i thought back to my days in high school, running over golf courses and fields with my friends, not always enjoying the difficult runs, but always enjoying the comraderie and feeling of accomplishment when done. I knew I was well ahead of my goal pace and took the time to enjoy what i was doing, and having Catherine there to cheer me on only helped me savor the thrill of it all. Finishing time was 25:25, much better than i had anticipated, and i finished 2nd female overall and 1st in the 18-24 age group, earning me a really pretty blue ribbon. I was giddier than a school kid winning the three-legged race.
Total distance this past week: 11 miles (+6 elliptical).....168 days until San Diego!

Why must my body do this to me?!?!

Or, maybe it's the other way around...why must i do this to my body? Kind of by accident, kind of due to holiday parties, i took off from running the entire last weekend. I prefer not to go more than 1 day without running, so 3 days off was just unacceptable for me. And that's probably why my body replied with such evilness and revenge. I hopped back on the treadmill Monday night, and it felt really great. Shins did great, pace was great, and I ran 4.25 miles in 35:00 (which seems to be my new favorite thing). Everything was going great until i stepped off. OUCH, ouch, OUCH! My left shin, whom i have named Luci (short for Lucifer) was practically screaming at me to cut off my own lower leg. So began my 3 day limp. In retrospect, i did this to my body by taking 3 days off and then hitting it hard. Luci was not a big fan of my new training schedule and he let me know that. It hurt to walk, so i resorted to spending some quality time with the elliptical machine on tuesday, which i don't mind but i feel like i'm not getting as good of a workout on that thing. So Thursday i knew i needed to work out but Luci was still upset at me so i let him play on the elliptical machine for half hour. I spotted an open treadmill and hopped on it, knowing of the impending doom, but choosing to ignore it. I told myself i would try to run 10 minutes and see how the shins felt. Started off at a 9:30 pace and there was definite pain, but i kept on jogging. 10 minutes passed and i told myself i'd run 10 more at 9:00 pace. By the time i hit 15 minutes, the pain was gone and i was running on at 8:30. I ended up doing 3.75 miles in 35:00 and i stepped off the treadmill and lo, and behold....no pain!! It was like Christmas had arrived early. I guess sometimes i just need to have a 'down and dirty' fight with Luci and show him who's the boss. That's right, ME....I'm the boss.

This will be short and sweet....
Winter wonderland is here and as much as i love the snow, it certainly makes it difficult to keep up on my mileage. I went to the gym last night and hopped on the treadmill for the first time in a couple years, and i was kinda dreading it. Now, I can't decide if i liked it or not. On the plus side, i was able to keep track of my mileage and keep up a good pace. But, there's not much to look at while running in place. I had a great run though, 4 miles in 35:00. Started out with a 9:00 pace, then was down to 7:45 pace the last mile. Felt good and my shins didn't hurt as bad as i thought they would on a treadmill.
Last week's mileage: 14 miles
This week's mileage so far: 11.25 miles. I didn't do my track workout this week in an effort to avoid the bone-chilling wind. I hope to fit another 4 miles in somewhere between our office holiday party tonight and college graduation parties tomorrow.

ok, ok, so i've been neglecting my blog the past week and a half. but no need to worry, i have not been neglecting my running. as if anyone is concerned about that....well someone should be, because one of these days i'm going to wonder why i decided to take this journey and really start questioning my sanity. and when that happens, when my logical left brain takes over my emotional right brain, someone will be needed to psychologically smack me upside the head. but until then, i will do better at blogging. i got me some new kicks last week since my old running shoes were probably, correction: definitely, about to turn 2 years old. 2 year old tennies, not too good for the shinnies. I broke in the new shoes over Thanksgiving when i went back home to my parent's farm. I gotta tell you, there's nothing quite like running on a pasture trail as the sun sets on a cold fall evening. good times, good times. our dog, skittles, used to make the run with me in high school, but he's pretty near death so my brother took his place one night. and that run ended with him sprinting home to get the car to come pick me up 1/2 mile down the road. anyway......
last week's mileage: 12 miles.......2 mile track time 17:15
this week's mileage so far: 10 miles......2 mile track time 16:20
days until San Diego: 184 days

i'm very excited about the words of encouragement that i've been receiving from others, and the advice i've been given to help me deal with and lessen the pain of my shin splints. i ran in the Gobbler Grind 5K this morning with co-worker jamie and we made it our goal to run it in 30:00. I'll humbly say that jamie hasn't been running to the extent that i have so i did not run the first 1.5 mile like it was a race, but we were just out for a leisurely run amongst the thousands of runners. at the halfway point, jamie gave me the go-ahead to run on without her, so i ran the last 1.5 mile in just under 12:30. Finishing time was 29:40. Post-finish i felt great and even could have kept on running, or at least that's what i tell myself given the fact that i didn't actually have to run further. The shin twins did great, just a dull pain during the beginning of the race. Actually, i don't even know that i'd call it pain...they just let me know that they were still trying to control my running life.
this past week's total: 12 miles....2 mile track time...16:45 (which i, for some reason, decided to run on the coldest night of the week)
195 days until San Diego. that's less than 200. eeek!

Words of Wisdom for today's blog: If the benefits of exercise could be put into a pill, it would be the most prescribed medication of all time........And lately i've discovered that a day without my medicine is a day not preferred by me. The feeling after completing a run is one of breathlessness and thoughts of 'what have i gotten myself into?' But with that comes accomplishment, wellbeing, and ultimate satisfaction and these far outweigh any negative feelings. Even though some days it takes every last ounce of energy i have to lace up my shoes and stride away, I always feel better than if i'd let my body win the argument against my mind. My shins are without a doubt the loudest yelling body parts of mine. They scream at me every single day, every time i run up stairs, every time i take the first step in my run. But do i listen to them? no. I pound them on the pavement and tell them to shut up. "Just deal with it a little while longer, guys and get over it already." And they succumb to my orders and the pain subsides and i keep on running. Saturday was one of the best running days i've had thus far in my training, even though the wind gusts were enough to knock over a small child. I spent most of my run down in a valley, running on the Prairie Village streets covered by a tree canopy so the wind was not too noticeable. But the best part of it all was getting caught in the rain, which always gives me a unique kind of exhilaration to help carry me through my run.
This past week's mileage: 11 miles.....2mile track split: 16:50
Time til San Diego......201 days, 21 hours, 47 minutes

the mind wanders....when i'm running, it's just me, myself and my music. i've realized that running 26 miles without my ipod is going to be a challenge for me. even running 13 miles sans music will be a struggle. i should probably work on weaning myself away from the tunes, but it's just not as much fun running without the beats. many times, they're what keep me moving as i struggle up a hill or am running out of energy at the end of a run. here's what's on my 'RunninOn' playlist this month:
At the Stars- better than ezra
Leaving Town- dexter freebish
do you remember- earth wind & fire
josie- outfield
hold me now- polyphonic spree
jesus walks- kanye west
sugar magnolia- grateful dead
sweet marie- the anniversary
not the same- ben folds
daylight- better than ezra
all these things that i've done- the killers
my doorbell- white stripes
hollow- better than ezra
take your mama out- scissor sisters
jesusland- ben folds
well, i decided to hit the track this past week, which i haven't done since high school. Running in circles brought back a lot of memories and since i haven't been measuring my runs by distance, i wasn't quite sure what to expect. I ran 8 laps in 17:32, which i was pretty happy with and i gave myself a new goal to get my 2-mile time down to 13:00. just for the fun of it. so, figuring i run a little slower than an 8:45 mile when i run on the streets, i ran about 9 miles this week. could be more, could be less. shin pain is hovering around a 4.8, up a little bit from last week. i guess i'll be bringing back my long lost friends, mr. icy hot and ms. advil.

so far, so good...i made my decision to run a marathon a week ago, and since then i have logged 90 minutes of running in 6 days. amazingly, i even managed to get up at 8 am saturday to go for a run. i figure this is goodbye to sleeping in on the weekends and hello to running being more important than sleeping. i'm not so big into the mileage, as i am into keeping track of my time, mainly because i haven't calculated my mileage...too much work. but this is a huge step for me, since i haven't ran this much in over a year. shin update: on a pain scale of 1 to 10, (10 being 'please cut my legs off cause it would hurt less') they've been at about 4.35, which is very good for me. josh told me to run on asphalt instead of concrete, and that's made the biggest difference in the world. i've already received so many words of encouragement from friends & family which are really helping me stay focused. i'm still on a mission to get a friend to join me......
my countdown:
215 days until San Diego. oh my goodness, that's A LOT of days and A LOT of miles to run.

first things first. the reasoning behind my blogging beginnings: it stems from having some incredibly inspiring people in my life. While i could type forever about those who have inspired me, this is a running inspiration so i'll focus on them... my former co-worker josh and my long time friend crystal have both ran in marathons recently and upon hearing about their experiences, i've been doing some thinking. Running a marathon has been a goal of mine since as long as i can remember. This crazy desire started when my mom would let me tag along with her on her 5K races and i would run in the fun runs, desperately wanting to be allowed to run in the 'big people' race alongside her. It continued through jr. high and high school cross country and track, lost its luster when i went to college and resurfaced two years ago, only to be extinguished by severe shin splints and the need for physical therapy.

A recent trip to Chicago with girlfriends reignited my goal. I made a vow with jessi to run the marathon within the next 10 years. But this plan was put into action when kristin expressed her desire to run in the 2006 chicago marathon and i told her "what a great idea, let's do it!" Oh, and a shout out to erin, who was the inspiration behind the name of my blog (kitkat). I'm aiming to run the Rock n Roll San Diego Marathon in June and the Chicago marathon in October. I'm just praying that my shins stay strong and i remain relatively injury free. So here we go, there's no looking back, only running forward......