Running with my BFF or... Fashion FAIL!

Warning: If you do not wish to witness possibly the worst fashion that this blog has ever seen shut 'er down now.
Prepare to experience feelings of jealousy in my/our ability to dress ourselves. Or, feelings of horror/nausea!

This is my BFF. Since I am the Pied Piper of the running world here in the lovely vicinity of my-town Maine she has taken to chasing me around lately.
I get that a lot....
Because I am fun. Well dressed. hip. And shout NO STOPPING!!!
Which the BFF is clearly delighted about. Silly girl.
Would ya look at that little subtle gesture..... (just look at it!)

I'm not soing to lie and say that this outfit was an accident.
Oh no, a challenge was thrown down (not by me! oh no!) to put together the most heinous, rape repellant, clashing, eyeball burning outfit that could be managed.
I win.
Look at our muscles. Want tickets to the gun show??
Oddly, we both look to be about to punch ourselves in the faces. That's weird...

Man do we ever look good.
BFF has only been running for a few weeks so has had little time to assemble dreadful looking running attire. Once she becomes used to high mileage weeks she'll start buying everything off the last-years-worst-color bargain rack. Like yours truly...
I honestly want to cover my eyes when I look upon what I am wearing. That is the worst thing that I have ever seen. BFF looks straight off the fashion page compared to me- UGH HAHA!

Off we run! EPIC! BFF is about to run her FIRST 5K NEXT WEEKEND!!!!
Very proud of her and actually seriously pissed off that I'm busy and can't run by her side. I'm sure she'll kick it in the teeth though becasue she's a badass mo' fo'...!! Love her face...

In which I get very, VERY serious about my running skillzzz.

May had arrived all full of sunshine and flowers. And Spring stuff. After completing the C25K (more or less) in 3 weeks (give or take) I was prepared to claim my spot alongside the champions (obvi.)
I deemed it fully appropriate to leave my slow yellow dog home and to systematically add a few minutes to the old run each day/ish. I was counting down the days to my race and already fearing that I would finish in dead last place, partially broken and fully unconscious. It was a very worrying time for me....

May 5th, 2010: 2.2 miles 25:54 for a pace of 11:46 "A good run. Getting better. Clearly Olympic bound."

May 7th, 2010: 2.4 miles 27:00 pace of 11:15 "A CRAP run today." Could hardly do it and heaved and wheezed terribly. Will have to take up knitting..."

May 11th, 2010: 2.4 miles, 26:00 pace of 10:50 "A miracle occurred and I ran less craptastically today."

May 13th, 2010: 2.5 miles, 26:00 pace of 10:24 "I am obviously on some kind of freakish and advanced learning curve."

May 18th, 2010: 2.7 miles, 27:00 pace of 10:00 "Ran a different route today in very warm (almost 80) weather. Legs/ breathing felt pretty good although the ground was very uneven. Just in a bad headspace for running today. Never really got happy about it..."

May 19th 2010: 2.6 miles, 25:00 pace of 9:37 "Not a bad run at all considering the intensity of yesterday's workout. Ran my regular route and found it to be pretty great after running by the lake yesterday. Sore in ankles- need new shoes. Or new ankles?"

May 20, 2010: 2.7 miles 26:00 pace of 9:38 "Good: Breathing felt good, legs were good after 1st 1/2 mile Bad: Right ankle very sore. Finally remembered that I fell down a hill the other day and twisted it because I am uncoordinated douchebag. Also, very hot out! Despite the heat it wasn't a struggle though- my head was in a pretty good place. Hmmm.

This is where I'm going to stop today's excellent installment. Coming up are such dramatic things as: Getting new shoes, the joy! The countdown to the race, I haven't run 3 miles yet: Will I MAKE IT?? And the all important: My race goals, lofty or pathetic?? Stay tuned....

Very Serious April Training. VERY serious....

I had signed up for my first race, to be run with great gusto on June 2nd. Not one to leave anything to chance (and not one to just do things "for fun") I had a PLAN.
As soon as the roads were clear enough to avoid the very real possibility of falling on the ice and getting run over by a cranky snowplow driver I headed out to test out my old legs, slow poke yellow dog in tow.

April 11, 2010: 2.2 miles, 36 minutes pace of 16.22 "Getting started with no wish to break leg/neck, tear ACL or similar horrific injury. Henceforth, mostly walked per the bossy C25K. Did about 4-5 sets of wimpy little jogs, about 1.5 minutes each. The dog was reluctant...."

April 13, 2010: 2 miles, 30 minutes pace of 15:00. "Attempting to follow C25K since they should know what they are yammering on about. Walked like old woman, did half ass 2 minute run sets, about 5 of those.. I think.."

April 17th, 2010: "Attempted to run but deemed it unwise due to absurd and epic snowfall. Shall stay inside and eat chips and donuts to rebel against all things athletic, HAH"

April 20 & 24 2010- 2 miles, 29 minutes pace of 14:30. "Tried to up the challenge on these days with the 2 min walking 2 min running. I'm moving the C25K along a bit faster as I am already in good shape and do not have major heart problems and am not 87 years old. The dog is seriously impacting my situation as he needs to stop frequently to pee. Very bothersome indeed."

April 26, 2010: 2.2 miles, 27 minutes pace of 12:16: "Ran the whole thing today. Was not bad, and certainly have not followed the Couck to 5K very religiously. Might pay for this tomorrow, and have to take months off to recover. Sorry C25K, I feel like a naughty child."

April 29, 2010: 2.2 miles, 26:56 min for a pace of 12:15: "Ran again- focusing on breathing, stretching post run. Tend to gasp a bit, and flounder around like a beached whale. My legs feel better than my lungs, which feel like that of a 50 year old smoker who hits up a pack a day. Which is fully riiiidic since I don't smoke at all. PS to the other day. I wasn't really sore after the big bad run. Booyah. And sorry yellow doggie, you are too slow for this Mo' Fo'"

Fast Forward to Spring of the Oh-Ten

My triumphant introduction to running did little to fuel my desire to hit the pavement and torment myself needlessly. I would love to claim that post -November race I changed my slovenly ways and went out for some serious marathon training.
I Did Not.
I went about my business per the norm, after spending close to a week with very sore running muscles. I was deeply offended by this as I have some athletic prowess (in that completely unrelated field..) Deep down in my heart I knew I deserved every sore muscle that I had as that's what you get for gallivanting around trying to out run the masses a week after you turn 30.
Fast forward a few months. We had one of those winters that was more like a speed bump and less like the death on Mount Everest that we are accustomed to. The roads were calling! The magic hour had arrived!! Not.. However, I did feel a slight urge to train a tiny bit, put in a modicum of effort and see if perhaps I could work up the guts to do another race an improve my results/partially crippled post race state. (and honestly, despite the good solid effort I put in there was nowhere to go but up.... Especially in the OMG I'm so sore I'm gonna drink a lot of Jameson, pop a handfull of Advil and perhaps die soreness.)
I found a very friendly looking all ladies 5K fairly close to where I live- (which is in the middle of east bum nowhere.) I had about 10 weeks to whip myself into reasonable shape. Being the world's best geek I did a bit of snooping on the interwebs and stumbled across the infamous Couch to 5K training plan. I am hardly a sedentary person and the only part of me that is a couch potato is my lazy ass brain. I'm not one to reinvent the wheel so I figured that I'd give it a go, and perhaps make some little modifications along the way (maybe I don't reinvent the wheel but I march to the beat of my own drum. Hey-OH!)
Part of the inspiration for this MOST EXCELLENT blog was the series of workout notes that I took (on active.com's free training log. Pure fricking genius, people...) For my next episode of Middle Aged Runner I will (over) share my introduction to running, torment, couch to 5K (and the subsequent separation from said couch...)