For Lauren...

My Dear cousin, Lauren Kaminsky, recently told me she wanted me to start re-writing this blog. I failed miserably updating it, I didn't even write a marathon recap, and the whole point of this thing was to keep people updated on our training for the MARATHON. Heres my marathon recap:

Miles 1-10: Great, awesome, fun, in the shade, men in cheer leading outfits, fun fun fun!

Miles 10-20: Ok, Fun still, but not as much. When do we get to turn around?

Miles 20-26: Kill me now. This is stupid. People who do this for fun are stupid. I hate this. Why is the sears Tower so far away still? Shouldn't we be headed back now? Is that woman crying or throwing up?

Miles 26-26.2: Oh God is that the finish line? Why am I running up the only hill in Chicago? I'm done. I am not crying, or happy in any way. In fact, I think I'm angry. Or just tired. Can't tell.

Post-Race: No one look at me, touch me, talk to me, tell me I did a good job, smile, make me eat or drink, or try to congratulate me in any way. I am in a foul mood and I hate the life choices that have lead me to this point.

Post-Shower: I need food.

Post- Food: Ok that was fun! Lets do it again....

Yes, Alyssa and I finished the marathon. No one died. We didn't even cry at all during the race, although I wanted to around mile 22. Thank God alyssa was there, or I probably would have sat down on a curb and refused to move. Usually I am a very positive person, and I was trying REAL hard to keep it positive and upbeat, but I think most of the stuff coming out of my mouth from chinatown to the finish line was not nice. We ran the whole stinking thing (ok we walked through aid stations but that does not count), probably because we know after mile 20 that if we started walking, it was over. We have our medals, we got our potato blankets, and we can now say we ran a marathon.

But what happens next is a mystery about to be revealed to all:

I spent the week after the marathon on the couch. It was fantastic. I think I started running again around Thursday or Friday, but then I stopped. I deserved some time off right? I thought about training for a triathlon for a while, so I got in the pool and started swimming, or biking instead of running. Way more fun. (for like a week...) Then I can't tell you what I did fitness wise. I was working out every day. I was not following any type of schedule. I ran over Christmas break (when I was not in LA cheering for the Badgers in the Rose Bowl), and then I signed up for some half marathons. This is the part where I actually started following a schedule again....for like a week.

A few weeks into the spring semester, my friend Kelsi asked me if I wanted a job as a distance track coach at Cambridge High School, in Cambridge Wisconsin. She recently reminded me of my initial reaction, which was "Ummmmm maybe?". I had never coached track before, hell I never even really ran it in High School! I enjoy my contact sports thank you very much. But I applied, got an interview, and got the job. Suddenly, I was taking 18 credits, spending about 20 hours a week at this high school, and still working my job at a dorm front desk a few nights a week. I was BUSY, so my workout schedule pretty much was whatever my track kids were doing that day. If they were doing repeat 400's, so was I. Let me tell you, 400's are GREAT for improving your mile time. Not so great for running 13 miles. On days we had meets, my workouts consisted of running all over the football field tracking down kids, taking times, screaming, and formulating race plans. Again, burned a lot of calories, but did not run 5-7 miles.

On top of my hectic life, being a track coach has brought to light some realizations about TERRIBLE habits that I have developed. For instance:

1) I tell my kids NO SODA ("I'll have a vodka sprite please!")

2) I tell them to eat healthy ("Oh its 2am during finals week....I'll call Dominos" OR "When was the last time I ate fruit?")

3) I tell them to stretch (hahahahahahahaha)

4) I tell them to ice injuries (again, hahahahahahaha)

5) I tell them to get enough sleep ("I'll go to bed right after I finish a semester's worth of readings about colonial American print")

6) I tell them to stay hydrated (Ok that one I'm actually good at....)

Basically, its a miracle that I can even call myself a distance runner when I do EVERYTHING a runner is supposed to not do.

Which brings me to my 10 mile run on Monday. I ran the first 5 miles at about an 8:30 pace, turned around, remembered I HAVE A HALF MARATHON ON SUNDAY, and there is no way I can run 13 8:30 miles and struggled all the way back home. I have no way of pacing myself without Alyssa next to me, and with these stupid fast track kids in my head. I predict the first half of my half will be great, and then I will die. And then today, during my taper week, I decided it was more important to do hill repeats in the rain. Nice easy rest week my ass.

I have NO IDEA how the half is going to go on Sunday, but it should bring about some funny stories. It will be my first race alone, without Alyssa and without anyone there to cheer for me. I'll have to make an extra long playlist or someone is going to get punched around mile 11. I don't care what the Gods of running say about wearing headphones, I'm going to have to be THAT person. This is the Madison marathon for goodness sake, not the Chicago marathon. There aren't that many people to cheer for me and tell me how great I look.

Tomorrow is the Sectional track meet, so I am a nervous wreck. I'm sure after that I will be a nervous wreck about this half. (But lets be real, I'll probably forget about it again until Saturday night, eat some pasta, throw on shorts on Sunday morning and see what happens. Thats been my training philosophy so far this time around)

No, I do not have a coach. I do not have a game plan. I do not have any sort of confidence that I can do this. I don't even know if I will have enough clean laundry to make a race-day outfit that is not smelly. But I can live with that.

I ran a marathon dammit.

TAPER CLUMPS!

Holy Mother of God. (Sorry God...)
When I first started this whole mess, I could not WAIT to taper for the 2 weeks leading up until the marathon. Coming off of Sundays when I had to get up at 5 and run 20 miles, this week's 12 was a walk in the park. Usually on Wednesdays I had to run 8 miles...today I did 4. This Sunday's run is only 8 miles. That's absolutely CRAZY. I remember the first time I had to do 8 miles at once. I honestly thought that I was going to die, and it took me a while, and I vowed that I would never enjoy running, ever, and I pretty much thought my world was over. Now 8 miles is the final part of the taper, and I can not wait to run it. I guess we have come a long way.

However, despite the perks of tapering (the rest, extra sleep, time to do my homework, not having to run as far) there are some distinct disadvantages. Here they are:

1) My body is USED to getting up at the buttcrack of dawn to run. I can't sleep in. Between my time at Loras this summer (read about that fun experience here) where I was up by 6:30 every day, and my crazy schedule here, I have been getting early pretty much every morning since June. So on a Saturday when I have NOTHING going on, I still find myself wide awake by 7:30 or 8. Yikes.

2) With all of this extra time on my hands, I find myself doing TOTALLY useless things, such as:
-Learning how to play Taylor Swift songs on the guitar so I can seranade Alyssa (lucky her)
-Facebook stalking...more than usual
-Lurking into Marie's room to talk about NOTHING for hours
-Painting my nails
-Organizing my closet
-Late night food runs
-Online shopping.
**Note: these are mostly very "girlie" activities, the likes of which I try to avoid. This is exactly why I need to be in constant motion...**

Things I should be doing (but I'm not...)
-Icing my horrible shin splints
-Stretching
-Watching what I eat
-Mentally preparing to run 26.2 miles...ha. Like thats going to help.

3) I have excessive energy. Because I don't have to run a gigallion miles every day. And its killing me. And the worst part is, when I feel like this normally, I can go play basketball or rollerblade or something. But because the marathon is lurking very close at hand, and I have a tendency to get hurt doing daily tasks (I'm clumsy), I am trying to keep physical activity that may hurt me (aka, any physical activity) to a minimum.

4) I am no longer able to eat whatever I want, whenever I want. I still have to eat, and eat lots of carbs, now I just have to be smarter about it. Next week, I'm not supposed to eat anyting fatty/greasy/bad for me in general. However, a perk to next week is I am also not supposed to eat too many veggies the few days before the race. I'd say that's a fair trade off. I'm also supposed to eat carbs. And then more carbs. And then even more. But avoid cookies. What a roller coaster of food emotions.

Anyway, I used to laugh at people who talked about "taper madness". I thought it was a myth, like the Tooth Fairy or a cool Packers fan (sorry Packers fans, had to get a jab in there. Daaa Bears), but let me tell you, taper madness is real. And it will kick your ass.

11 days...oy.

-Katie

18....20....eff.

Oh hey world.
Yep. Basically you should be used to our random/not at all reliable posts by now. But look on the bright side, when we do update, its like Christmas morning for you! So Merry Christmas to all six of you!

So we have been doing some long runs. And by long, I mean distances that one would usually bike. Or drive. Or call a cab for. Or ride a camel or horse. But apparently to be ready to run 26.2 miles, we actually have to run 18, then 20, then 20 again. When I first looked at the schedule, I remember thinking, "damn self. Running 20 miles is going to be terrible. Good thing its so far away!". Heh. 20 miles has come and gone, and let me tell you, its not fun. At all. Now, we had our fun moments, like standing on the side of John Nolan Drive, in the bushes and weeds, laughing histerically at NOTHING (This was mile 16....) while Alyssa yelled "So THIS is what a runners high feels like...I like it!!". Sorry Alyssa, I think we were just exhausted. Or the time that we saw geese out by the hospital, and Alyssa decided she had to save them from the oncoming traffic, so she ran at them flapping. When my ipod ran out of batteries, I think I actually cursed God (sorry God, I was just tired), and that too was funny. When we first left this morning at 6am, there was lightning everywhere, and we could have died. But I was a hard ass and made Alyssa keep going. Oops. I think we dropped the F-bomb more times than either of our Moms would be happy with (sorry Annemarie and Barb....). And somehow, we survived.

Now for all you people who actually care about the running part, we broke the 20 miles into 3 smaller runs. We started with 8, then stopped back at our apartment for food/gatoraid. Then we did 7, and stopped again. We finished with a walk/crawl of a 5 miles. The time we spent actually RUNNING, not counting water stops here (which we try to keep short), was 3:36.33. (Yes I timed it to the tenth....I'm anal.). That puts us at 10.08 minute miles, which is actually faster than we did during our 18 mile one. Im not sure why the improvement, maybe the cooler temps, or were just getting used to it mentally and physically. Ok well maybe not physically, because the thought of standing up right now makes me want to cry. I'm just glad its all over.

Our next "long" run is only 12 miles! I can't believe I'm excited that I only have to run 12 miles! Barf! After that we do another 20, then its taper until the marathon. 5 more weeks!....

Happy Labor Day!!
Katie (and Alyssa too!!)

OUCH

Long distance running can be very painful. However, it's not like any kind of pain I have felt before. It's not like getting a floor burn diving for a volleyball, or getting elbowed in the face while posting up in basketball, or feeling like your hamstrings are going to rip off after sprinting 400m in track, or feeling like you're going to pass out/die/see Jesus after doing a 2k on the erg. No no, it's nothing like that. Today I ran 17 miles, my farthest run yet. During my run, I realized that doing anything over 10 miles feels like this:

-all of the cartilage in your hips have been ripped out

-your IT bands have snapped off

-someone is banging your knee caps with a hammer

-a hole is being drilled into your femur

-your hip flexors have turned into metal and no longer let you raise your foot passed your ankle

Yet the weirdest part is that not only does the pain never go away, but it doesn't really get worse. And walking does not make it feel better, so you might as well keep running and hope that you make it home before you collapse.

Happy running!

~A

Finding My Feet Again

Oh hey blog. Long time no post!

I apologize for my lack of contributing. So far running this summer has been...well, let me tell you. Just before the half marathon in May, my hips would get really sore when I ran. I didn't think much of it, I figure lots of people get sore when they run. It's normal. But then afterwards I started getting up to 35 mile weeks and the soreness turned to pain. So I went to see the good ol' doc and she said I strained my gluteus medius muscle (no, not my gluteus MAXimus aka booty). It's a deep muscle in the hip region. She prescribed me new shoes, taking a few days off then running 3 miles every other day and then back into my training plan, and physical therapy. Oh, I also changed my training plans-my dad was writing me one. He ran plenty of marathons in his day, now he race-walks halfsies. Anywho, as the pain grew worse I started to think that the plan he was giving me was a little bit much. He used to RACE marathons. I'm just trying to finish. So I asked Katie if I could see a copy of the plan she was using. The longest mileage my dad said I would get up to would be 50-70 mile weeks (closer to the marathon). In Katie's plan, the longest mileage week was 43. That's what my dad had me doing on average in July. So the doc also said to switch to Katie's plan.

Now this part is my fault. I got new shoes, ran 3 miles ever other OTHER day, and procrastinated calling the physical therapy office until 2 weeks ago. I know this isn't an excuse, but my boyfriend left for Australia a week and a half ago, so leading up to that we went camping and I was busy planning a surprise going away party for him. Running got put on the back burner until the day after he left. So now I'm back into full swing, but it's slow. Last week Monday I had to do 14 miles and I did it in 4 different runs: 6 and 2 in the morning and then 4 and 2 at night. It was more of a run/walk, but I got the mileage in which was my goal. Then yesterday I did 15 miles in 3 runs: 7 and 3 in the morning (which sucked with both slowness and soreness) and then 5 at night. That 5 was great! I was cruisin along at around 9.5 min miles and it felt good! I was so relieved that I still had a good run left in me. And it got especially better when my man Enrique came on my iPod singing "I Like It". The past couple days I had been running iPod-commando, and some days it was nice. But other days, I could only handle my thoughts for so long...plus, it's so much nicer when I have Enrique's sweet sweet voice serenading me :) Now that I'm back on schedule, I signed up for the Madison Mini Marathon on August 21. My goal is to run the whole thing, or at least beat my time from the May half marathon.

And for those of our 3 loyal followers, I am running the Chicago Marathon for a charity called Girls In The Game which is an organization that gives girls the opportunity to learn different sports and how to stay and eat healthy. I'm all for that, especially the eating part :) So if any of you would like to make a donation, you can do so here: http://www.active.com/donate/charityraceteam/alyssageorge It would be greatly appreciated!

Until next time (hopefully before October),

~A

My juggling act of a life...

SORRY!
I know I have not updated in too long...again. I really do not mean to do this, let me try and explain myself.

See, I work at a sports camp over the summer. It is the best 5 weeks of my entire year. I get paid to hang out with kids, play games outside all day, coach boys lacrosse, and work with some of the coolest people in the world. And for those of you who are looking skeptically at me, YES, I am good with kids. My snarky/sassy/sarcastic demeanor is not brought along with me to sports camp, and instead I spend my weeks brushing hair, tying shoes, leading obnoxious cheers/dances, cutting up chicken, discussing the relative merit of the Jo-Bros, Justin Beiber, and silly bands, and calling 7-10 year old girls "sweetie". Its almost like a totally different Katie.

Anyway, my days are pretty much full. I do get 2 hours off every morning while the girls are at their Major sport of the day, but depending on the day I either spend that time:
A) Running/showering
B) Learning the counselor dance for the camp dance
C) Dealing with "injured/sick" (aka homesick) kids
D) Dealing with kids who are really injured or sick
E) Napping (especially on days when a camper wakes me up 7 times the night before...)
F) Planning my daily "PADDLE" talk with the girls about being a good person
G) Filling out their evaluations/journals
D) Talking to head counselors about problems

The rest of my 18 hour workday, you can find me playing such games as Cricket, Cageball, Powerball, Passgoal, OmniBall, basketball, soccer, Captains Coming, PiloBall, and a variety of other made up sports. Or I may be coaching lacrosse for 3 hours, or supervising free time, or telling girls to "Push in your chairs and say please and thank you!" at meals. But seriously, its the best job ever. However, it leaves little time or energy for coming up with witty/entertaining blog posts. I know that you, the three adoring fans, deserve more, and I pledge to do better.

Oh, you want to know about training? Its going well. Dubuque is really hilly, but I have found routes that are fairly flat. Its summer, so its hot. I run a tad bit slower sometimes. Sometimes I am really tired and I run less than I should, but I always make it up at a later date. I ran 11 miles last weekend with Lauren and Dan, and that went well. Yep. This whole running every day thing gets a little boring, but I make up games to entertain myself, like "name that tune" when I shuffle my Ipod. I need to get one of those hydration belt thingies so I stop stealing Dan's gatoraid.

See, why would you want to read about boring training when I can tell you all about how I convinced my campers that I am a professional Cricket player in England!? Thats much more exciting.

Until next time,
Katie

1/2 Marathon...3 weeks later...

Oh...hey.

I was at a family graduation party yesterday and was reminded gently (and sometimes not so gently) that I had not updated the blog since our victorious and glorious 1/2 marathon on May 30. I guess I have had enough time to decompress by now. Hopefully. So lets try this:

The night before, my family and I headed out to Madison to hit up the marathon expo, which was pretty uneventful. We checked into the hotel, met up with Alyssa and her mom, and checked out the local Olive Garden for some cheap and abundant carbs. My brother D.J. told the hostess that Alyssa and I were twins (we do look alike) and that it was our birthday, so we even got free cake. Thanks D.J.! We headed back to the hotel and sat in the hot tub for a while, and tried to go to bed early. I could not fall asleep, I probably got about 2 hours that night. I was up at 4 to eat a full breakfast and tried to get back to sleep, but that was a fail, so I just laid in bed until 5:30. We left the hotel with Alyssa's mom at 5:45 and had no problem getting downtown and to the start in time. We warmed up and stretched like good little runners, hit the port-a-potties, and were ready to go! Then we watched the crazy marathon runners start. And then it was time for us to start!

The first 5 miles were easy. (Too bad there are 8 after that right?) Alyssa had to pee right away so we hit the first bathroom we could find, which caused us to lose our pace group, but whatever. They were crazy anyway. Those first miles were through campus, and it was hilly. We had some choice words for the people who plan the route on our way up the hill on Observatory, but we were on campus so we knew where we were and that helped a lot. We saw our families around mile 5.5, and that was great! I really don't remember the next few miles, but I know that at mile 7 I had to stop and pee, and that's when my body though we were done for the day. Sitting down was a terrible life decision. It took a lot of convincing to get my legs to believe that we still had 6 miles to go, but somehow they got the message and we kept chugging. There really weren't many people on that back half of the course, and it was getting HOT, and we were just not feeling it. When we hit mile 8, I got excited, because we only had 5 miles left, and that's less than an hour, and 5 miles is nothing, right? Ha.

We ran along the lake for a while, which was nice and cool, and then we looped around Menona Bay, which is where I really started to hurt. We saw 2 people being taken off of the course on stretchers, probably because of dehydration (it was 88 degrees and HUMID when we finished). Someone was blasting "Telephone" by Lady Gaga, and that was nice. People had their hoses out and were spraying us down, and that was even nicer. But I was not feeling it. I was trying to keep smiling, keep chatting, doing whatever it took to keep moving forward, at a decent pace. Because we only had 3 miles left dammit. And 3 miles is NOTHING. I should be able to FLY for 3 friggin miles. Finally, FINALLY we hit the one mile left mark, and I almost got excited, but for some cruel and evil and demonic reason, the asswipe route planners decided that the last mile should be UPHILL. People were just walking (or limping, or crying) everywhere, it was like a giant game of frogger, and I honestly thought I was going to puke up about a gallon of yellow gatoraid. But to our credit, we ran up that entire damn hill. And then just where I thought the finish line was...there was more hill. So we kept running. We heard our parents cheering for us, so we ran faster (showing off our studly skills....). And then....we ran up a little more hill. But then we were done! And I did not throw up, and we got our medals, and more water, and then we hobbled about looking for our families. Alyssa's watch said we ran it in 2:15.08 (not including potty breaks), and I was really pleased with that time. Our goal was 2:10, but seeing as it was hot as balls, and hilly, and our first 1/2, I can not complain.

We found our families, and drank more, and began to slowly move back to the cars. Stretching and walking back to the car took a while, but I stayed on my feet. We got back to the hotel, and I took a ridiculously long shower, and then was anti social and cranky the rest of the day, and ate 3 pieces of deep dish pizza for dinner. Because I earned it dammit.

I was really proud of us after the race, but I know we still have a lot of work to do before the marathon in October. I started Hal's 18 Week program this week, and I decided to do Intermediate I, because the novice ones looked like a huge step down in mileage for me, and I did not want to slide backwards. I know I have never run a marathon before, but I think I can handle it. We'll see how it goes. I leave for my counselor job at Loras All Sports Camp on Tuesday, so balancing work and training and dealing with random crises that arise will be an interesting and new challenge, but I'm up for it!

These last few weeks I have been getting back into my full training schedule, I was really sore after the 1/2. A few weekends ago I ran the girls on the run 5k downtown which was a blast! I had so much fun running with a great group of young women and their inspiring role models who did not care about time or splits or any of the other crap most "serious" runners care about. Despite the rain, everyone had a great time. And the medals are sweet. Shout out to my cousin Lauren who coached a great group of girls all spring! All I heard about for 3.2 miles was how cool "Mrs. Kaminsky" is, and how funny she is, and how awesome she is, and blah blah blah blah (just kidding Lauren, but seriously, they were quite enamored of you...).

Thanks to everyone who continues to support us during our training. Having you there for us (and knowing full well you will judge me if I just give up at this point), really helps! Keep the advice coming you crazy running people (I seem to be related to a lot of those types)....

Until next time!
Katie