Jessica's lack-of-power struggle, Tuesday

NOTE: This harrowing tale was originally recorded using the ancient methods of a pencil and paper. It was transcribed Monday night in a format easily readable by others (because no one can read my handwriting) and set to autopost throughout the week.

Translation: Jessica was unable to watch “My Name is Earl” reruns on Netflix after a nasty windstorm knocked out power for several days, so she continued to blog on paper. She watches too many apocalyptic movies, so the second she has access to Netflix you will find her motionless on the couch rewatching “The Stand”, because that’s what she’s been comparing her experiences to all weekend (even though they didn’t have smart phones or iPods). Oh, and also the #Anniesmove episode of Community.

See all parts here.

TUESDAY 1 p.m.: The lights came back on at the Advocate this morning. We were able to move back upstairs a couple hours ago.

I got my hopes up after I got a text from my landlord, so an hour ago I ran home to check. Still no lights on at home L I’m getting anxious, mostly because many areas of Newark are coming back up but I’m still in the dark. If the lights are still off tonight I’m going to go to Brandie’s to do laundry and take a long, hot shower.

Breakfast was melon and a protein bar. Lunch was almond butter on rice cakes. I really want some real food, something that doesn’t have a bar code or come in a package.

After reacquainting with my pillow and my TV, here's what's next!

Me and running buddy Karl showing off our
marathon medals at Brews.
I'll do an official photo post soon!! 

I can't get the 30 Rock theme out of my head. Because making it through the end of Season 2 (love the episodes with Edie Falco) and most of Season 3 has been hands down the most productive thing I've done since the 2011 Columbus Marathon. (Tracy Morgan just tried to kill Jimmy Fallon. Very nice.).

**Warning: Pointless, scatterbrained post ahead**

That's outside of work, that is. I did get to cover what will probably be the story of the year, when a bunch of wild animals were set free in Zanesville, Ohio. In between chuckles over the increasing absurdity of the story, I managed to get one of my stories picked up by USA Today, and another by the Cincinnati Enquirer. (Insert shameless plug for professional Facebook page here.) 

"It's like Noah's Ark wrecking here in Zanesville." Jack Hanna

And here's some more news: I'm now a certified Spinning instructor. Starting in November I'll be teaching at the Newark Y, 6 a.m. Wednesdays and 6:30 p.m. Thursday. So if you're in my neck of the woods come see me!

Spinning was the only activity I did last week, so my DailyMile displayed a whopping one workout. I proudly posted this shining accomplishment on Facebook and Kim B. promptly responded: "Hey...you are supposed to be taking it easy."

Facebook post from Monday 10/24. 

Spinning Thursday was fun but slightly nerve-wracking. Jamie let me be in front of the class with her. Once I'm settled in and on my bike I realize I'm in a 90-minute class. But Jamie ran Columbus too (and we wore our twin shirts that day to prove it), so if she could do it, I had no excuse. I survived the first half no problem. Most of the class left at the break, leaving just a few brave souls. Jamie let me cue some jumps, and I learned that it is not easy to talk and count in my head. 

Urban Dare Columbus race report, and other musings

Life has kept me a little busy lately, in good ways, so this is going to be uncharacteristically short (as in -- here's what I can write while inhaling a hummus sandwich on my lunch break).

First up -- the Urban Dare Saturday. This was a fun event -- though it was more scavenger hunt, less dare. I did it with my buddy Jason. We had no idea what to expect when we got there, we were handed blue shirts to wear and told to await further instructions. There were about 80 teams.


First instruction: Run to the statue 20 feet away. That was easy. We got our other instructions -- all clues of places to go around downtown Columbus. In Columbus, I know where the statehouse is. And Einstein's bagels across from the statehouse. And... that's it.

Thanks to a glorious invention called the smartphone (I'm not cool enough for one, but Jason was) we got online and deciphered the clues, and plugged them into the GPS. They were all statues, restaurants and landmarks.

We got turned around a couple times, and almost ran 3 miles out of our way. We ended up having to run a mile back because we missed a landmark. We also had to stop a couple total strangers on the street and ask them to recreate this photo:

Beyond this, though, the "dares" were pretty pathetic. At most landmarks we just had to take a picture to prove we were there. At one we had to do a 3-legged race. At another we had to jump rope. Far from the rock climbing walls and stuff the event advertised! It was still a good day though.

The event was billed as 5-7 miles. I decided to be crazy and I went to MIT that morning and did 6 with Kim, and my hamstrings were screaming from Crossfit two days before. Thanks in part to my superior navigating skills, we ended up covering 9.3 (with lots of stops in between!). Our official time was 3:32 (there were many stops). Total was 15.3 miles for the day, giving me a 27 mile week, my highest since Cleveland.

I'll update later with some more links and stuff. In the meantime, a few other random musings:

Bart Yasso is coming! Bart Yasso is coming!

All of us in MIT have been stoked for weeks, Bart Yasso, the head honcho at Runner's World magazine, is coming to Columbus. He's going to speak to us Saturday, then run with one lucky pace group. Mr. Yasso, if you're reading this, please pick the 10:30s.

I hear good things about his book too. I won a copy on the Columbus Marathon's Facebook page, and I can't wait to read it.

This is a peak week in training so I've been putting in a lot of miles. I'll have 36 when the week is done, I did 3 Monday, 8 yesterday, 4 today and 3 tomorrow. Then, 18 Saturday -- last stop before 20, but we'll have a couple taper weeks first.

I've just been feeling really good this week. I had a wonderful run last night in Granville, I even pushed it up the Denison hill at the end (and got slightly lost getting back to my car).

I finally heeded the advice to get a second pair of running shoes. I picked up a pair of Zoot Ultra Speed's. I ran in them twice this week. They're really light and seem to have the right amount of cushioning. It's giving the Mizuno's a chance to breathe too, which I think is helping, I haven't had shin pain all week, before that it's been pretty chronic.

A friend of mine in my pace group and I have already vowed to tackle the Columbus marathon in the fall, so that means I have no choice but to survive Cleveland... in 66 days!

Photos from the Granville winter run

The Columbus Roadrunners Club took a bunch of photos at the Winter run Feb. 13. Here's a YouTube slideshow of all of them:

Here's what I look like finishing 15 miles (special thanks to CRRC for emailing these to me!):

And here's the starting line:

Race Report: CRRC 15-mile Winter Run

I'm officially past the half-marathon point. I covered 15 miles today! Just don't ask how my legs are feeling. Or, pretty much any muscle in my body, for that matter.

I ran the Columbus Roadrunner's Club Winter Run (CRRC Winter Run), the 15 mile distance, this afternoon. We really lucked out with the weather, I was comfortable in my tech shirt and compression tights, but the course was tough. Here's the course map, and below is a screenshot of the elevation chart. I'm really glad I've been doing some hill repeats, I know I was passing a lot of people on the inclines.

And, with this run, I finally hit 30 miles for one week! Wahhoo!

The beginning of the run took a lot of restraint. There were some fast people, really fast people, there. I started off toward the back of the pack and had to force myself to keep above a 9:30 mile. Pacing was hard throughout... every time I stopped paying attention I found myself drifting toward an 8:30 - 9 mile. I recognized the 10:00 pace coach from MIT and tried to stay behind him, but lost him toward the end of the first lap.

15 miles was two laps of a 7.5 mile course. I forced myself to slow down for the first 10 miles, then for the last 5 I let myself go faster. The last two I really had to push through. But, toward the end I was passing a lot of people, and I ended up 3rd in my age group! I'm really glad I held back, otherwise I wouldn't have made it. 

I'm not exactly sure what my real time was. I'm going with 2:23. My Garmin said 2:19, but I accidentally stopped it so it only accounted for 14.75 miles.

I'll post some more details later... probably tomorrow, including my splits. Right now I'm a little tired, and I only have 3 episodes left in Season 2 of Lost (come on, Jack, figure out that something is not right with Michael!)

90 days until the Cleveland Marathon. (continued)

I'm afraid of Gu

I've had the same Raspberry Gu packet in my jacket pocket for about three weeks.

Here's my confession: I'm afraid to try it. I like the gummies -- Gu Chomps, ShotBloks, PowerGels. But I can't bring myself to try the fast acting stuff.

I don't want to try it for the first time on a long run because I don't want to have to quit early because my poor, wicked sensitive stomach rejects it. When else would I want to give my body a shot of concentrated carbs and caffeine? So that means this week I will try it on a shorter run.

I was off work this week so I've been up in Lakewood with the parents. I'm driving back tomorrow. I tried to do one run outside, but it was so bitter cold and windy by the lake. Did 15 miles total. I was feeling exhausted and sluggish through Wednesday, but Thursday I did a treadmill hills workout and totally rocked it.

Instead of the normal MIT long run I'm doing the winter run in Granville Sunday. 15 miles. I took an extra rest day today.

And I'm still addicted to Lost. About halfway through Season 2... Jack and Ana Lucia just decided to start an army.

MIT run: 12 miles!

Edit: I lifted this picture off of Fleet Feet's Facebook page.
Pretty crazy!

Ran 12 miles this morning through the streets of Worthington, which beat my old record of 11. And I'll be beating it again, and again, and again, until race day.

What a morning. Today was all about toughing it out. 

I almost didn't go. My stomach hurt when I got up, probably from eating too much Trader Joe's pesto tortellini. I've had cold symptoms on and off all week. But I'm glad I got my lazy butt out of bed (partially thanks to a redheaded greyhound who really had to pee). 

We usually run on the bike path but I guess it wasn't in great shape with all the ice, so we ran through Worthington neighborhoods. Those poor people, living on a quiet backstreet in suburbia, suddenly have 500 people coming through. Two kids were staring at us out their bedroom window. One guy was trying to back out of his driveway and was getting very irritated.

The run went very well, went with a good group of people as always. It started to rain/snow toward the end and I could literally feel bits of ice bouncing off my face. The ninth mile was the toughest, especially since we ran past the school where we started so it would have been so easy to just cut it short. Then the last two I was just on auto pilot.  

(Ok, I just bolted off the couch to grab my phone, literally every muscle I have protested). (continued)

10 miles!

So I just collapsed on my couch with a couple of ice packs and decided not to move for a few hours. Feeling pretty good... did my second 10 mile run. That makes 25 for the week, my highest yet.

Toward the end I kinda felt like I could have kept going... maybe I should have. I just read an article about overtraining, I was out of gatorade and my ankle has been hurting on and off, so it was probably best that I didn't, though of course now I have that nagging "how far could I have gone" mentality. Next time.

Ran with a runners club out of Granville. Very good group of people. Some were way too fast but I fell in nicely at a 10-minute pace with the slower group. We did 6 miles through the Denison Bioreserve, which I never knew existed until today. Definitely going back, beautiful area and good practice for upcoming trail runs, which I hands down prefer to the road.

Most of the group did the marathon a few weeks ago, and they stopped after 6 so I cut down to the bike trail on my own. I don't like running without my iPod, the silence was eery, but I got it done.

Got breakfast and then went right to the gym to do my strength training. Was definitely a little slower on that but now I'm done done done done done for the weekend.

24 miles logged this week

What a beautiful fall morning... I did 10 miles in Granville. Slight soreness but it's tolerable.

I logged 24 miles this week over 4 runs, and surprisingly that wasn't my highest week to date... a couple weeks ago I totaled 24.7. Both Monday and today I pushed my long runs a little further because it has just been so nice out, managed 8 on Monday and 10 today. On Wednesday I did hill repeats on the treadmill and my legs seriously hurt so I barely eeked out 3 Thursday.

Saturday mornings in Granville are marvelous. The farmers market is always packed, there are a ton of people out on the bike trail and there's this wonderful little coffee shop with great fair trade blends. Such a stark contrast from Newark.

I've been feeling really good on my long runs... usually I fall into a good rhythm after the first 2, around a 10 minute pace, and the rest of the way is a breeze (as long as the iPod is charged up... the Hold Steady's new one is my latest favorite). I need to find some hillier routes for my shorter runs, though. Dawes is always good, I'll try to get there next week.

I'm shaking things up, trying to decide if I want to move up to 5 days of running or stick with one day on the elliptical.