Ok, How About a FUN ONE?

I blame this on Wes and Able. It looked fun, and Ye Olde Blogge was in need of something FUN.

1. How would you describe your running 10 years ago?

Basic. I did gymnastics in elementary school, figure skated in middle school and high school, and ran in high school. At 18, I was training to go into the armed forces and hadn't run much since high school. I was about 20 lbs overweight (I'd kill to be that size now), and knew I had to run 2 miles in less than 22 minutes. My goal was to shoot for the men's time cutoff, 20 minutes, so I ran 5-7 days per week, 2-4 miles per day, taking myself from a 14-minute mile to a 10-minute mile in a few months with no injuries. I never thought I'd be capable of a marathon.

2. What is your best and worst run/race experience?

Florida Half Ironman. Best because I was so lucky just to get there given my health and undertraining. Best because I toughed it out and proved how great my endurance is. Worst because I was too slow for the run cutoff - my nutrition had been failing me for months, and, looking back now, I could have figured that out months before and saved myself. There was so much going on in my life during my training that bumped my training to the side, physically and mentally.

4. What is the best or worst piece of advice you've been given about running?

The worst is the "blanket advice" - e.g., don't run every day, take only one day of rest per week, a heavier runnier needs a stability shoe, don't get too much sodium in your diet, if you're not making your workouts then you're making excuses. There is no one-size-fits-all piece of advice, and the best coaches and mentors realize this. Best piece of advice, though? From my best friend Karime, before one of my big races, when she told me: "Run like you mean it, you silly bitch."

5. Tell us something surprising about yourself that not many people would know.

I'm very obsessive and orderly, but I hate order and schedules. If I don't have a routine, I tend to do nothing at ALL - but getting me to actually stick to a schedule is nearly impossible. Wise is the man or woman who can get me into a routine that fools my little brain into thinking I'm really "winging it." There's just so much JUNK that comes up in my life that there MUST be flexibility, but if there's no routine, forget it - I'm going to sit there drooling like the brainsuckers came after me.

See? Not very exciting. I don't really have a whole lot going on behind the scenes. But a lot more fun than listening to me whine, yes?

:-0