Libby Says...
Yes, I've been way, way too lax on my running. Stipulated. So, I'm getting my act in gear and starting again. Seems like you ought to have time for that sort of thing when you're without a full-time job, no? Walked on Saturday while in Austin, and ran on Sunday -- we did a 4+ mile loop around Town Lake both days. It's so lovely there. Walked on Monday here -- the 2 mile walk to Rice, the just-under 3 mile loop around Rice, and then the walk back -- always nice. Skipped Tuesday. Tonight: dance class Permanent Link to this entry: Permanent Link
Well, it's no Mission Bay, San Diego, but tonight I watched the moonrise and sunset while rowing on Clear Lake. The sky was this amazingly clear blue that reminded me of a slab of turquoise with clouds and moon like veins and spots of quartz embedded deep in the stone. The only sounds were my oars and the boat, or an occasional bird or duck. Soul restoring. Permanent Link to this entry: Permanent Link
Well, the pictures from Libby's 1/2 marathon have finally arrived - well, ok, we finally got around to downloading them from her camera. Unfortunately, Libby remains buried deep in her preparations for Lotusphere and so has been a little behind on bringing the blog up to date. No sense of priorities, huh?  I personally find 5K races a bit daunting, and to run over 13 miles in a day is amazing to me. I saw her dedication over the 18 weeks she trained for the marathon, finding time to fit in the recommended training runs even with the challenges of traveling abroad, house hunting, moving, the temptations of Peeps, the moral obligation to do a full exegesis regarding the Lord of the Rings movies, and the occasional industrial accident. So I offered to step in and share the details of her accomplishment with her blog buddies. For more pictures, click the image above. Here are her final results, from http://www.runraceresults.com/rcfy2004/Individual.asp Half Marathon Bib: 6660 Name: Libby Schwarz Gender: F Gender Place: 1505 Age: 32 Division: 30-34 Division Place: 258 Home Town: Carlsbad, CA USA SPLIT TIME Start Time: 07:03:42.00 (Half Marathon) 6.55 Miles: 1:17:33 FINISH: 2:28:49 PLACE 3218 Gun Time: 2:29:47 Permanent Link to this entry: Permanent Link
Well, here we are the day after Christmas. It was, to say the least, a different kind of Christmas. I missed my family, but enjoyed being with these friends. Brian and I opened Christmas presents very early, as he then went and spent the day getting scuba certified. I spent some time walking the island (about 2 miles all together) and then planted myself quite comfortably on a chair in the shade of an umbrella with a book and a frothy cold drink. Everyone else went on a snorkeling trip, out to the marine park and some other areas. I was a little lonely, but quite enjoyed having some time to myself to think and read and nap. When everyone got back, around 3 or 4, we played a game of Scrabble and then went out to dinner. Everyone was pretty tired, so it was a fairly early night. Today was the first scuba day for the gang, and I went along. One of our friends and I were going to snorkle while they dived. Well, I got soooooo seasick. I was fine on the ride out to the site, but when we stopped and sat in the water with the boat rocking back and forth, and no wind, and everyone walking around getting their scuba gear on and getting out of the boat... Well. I tried, I really did. I got into the water and did a little bit of snorkleing, but the problem is that salt water is not the cure for seasickness in any way, shape, or form. So, it just got worse. Luckily, after the first dive, we stopped on a neighboring island (Ambergris Caye) for lunch. The minute the boat started going again, with the wind in my face, and a friend's electric shock thingy (I'll have to look that up and tell you what the heck it is, but it goes on the wrist and sends little shocks down to your hand and up your arm to try to control motion sickness), I started to improve. Instead of going back out to suffer through two more dives, I did some shopping and took a water taxi back to Caye Caulker. So, clearly, the whole scuba thing is not going to be a thing for me, as much as I might like to look at the cute fishies. Ah well. I like skiing trips better anyway. Permanent Link to this entry: Permanent Link
Doesn't that *sound* like a long way? It surely felt like a long way, but I did it. I ran 11 miles on Saturday. (If you're curious, and know the San Diego area at all, I ran from just south of downtown Del Mar -- south of Del Mar Heights road -- to my house in Carlsbad, straight up the 101.) It took me a bit longer than I'd hoped -- about 2 hours and 15 minutes (10 minute miles would've gotten me there in 1 hr, 50 minutes, so clearly I slowed down a bit; perhaps I can blame it on the bathroom and gatorade stops...). I have one more week of increasing my mileage (to 12 miles) and then I taper down for a few weeks leading up to the 1/2 marathon itself on January 18th. Something I realized as I was running today -- I have talked about running as being a good time to think, which it is. There are a lot of things going on in my life at the moment, moving being only the least of them, and so I have a lot to think about. What I realized today, though, was that running is also a good time *not* to think. I'm one of those people who gets inside my head a bit -- thinking over things well past when I've made a decision about them or examined all the angles. Sometimes this is good -- I see something more that I'd missed previously or understand something more clearly -- but sometimes, all this serves to do is put my brain in a whirl. So, it can also be good to be able to focus so deeply on something else that there's no room left in your brain to stress over whatever else is going on. For me, lately, excercie in general, but especially running, has been that release. I don't feel guilty about spending time running (the way I do if I'm just spending time reading or sitting in front of the fire, knowing I have about a million other tasks I should be doing) and I am blissfully focused on the tasks of breathing and moving, aware of how my body works and feels, and enjoying my surroundings (ocean, people-watching, other runners). I have never been one of those people addicted to excercise. I didn't mind doing excercise, and I quite liked some of the specific forms of excercise I might do -- dancing, rowing, swimming, weight lifting, but now, I've finally learned to feel the rush of joy that comes not from the competing or finishing (although that's there too), but merely from the act itself. Permanent Link to this entry: Permanent Link
The sun may run from East to West in the sky, but sometimes in southern California, the clouds and fog run from North to South and back again. When I started my run today, there was a clear line of demarkation between the blue version of the sky and the ocean and the contrasting grey, clouded sky with dark waters. As I ran, I kept up with the movement of the line for the first mile, which made me feel like I was pulling a big blue paintbrush behind me and pushing the grey away with my running. The clouds ran south before me and outstripped me before mile 5, so that I was running in a perfectly blue day, skies and seas both reflecting pure blue. As I got to mile 9, however, the clouds came back up from the south and passed back over me, so that by the time I finished, all was grey and shrouded once again. Permanent Link to this entry: Permanent Link
Well, amazingly, through all the travel and the moving work, I've continued training for my half marathon. This past Sunday, I ran 9 miles, and I did 4 Wednesday (with my friend Julieana) and Friday on the treadmill at the gym. Today is another long run -- 10 miles. Each Sunday for the next few weeks, I go up a mile --- 10, 11, 12 -- before I start tapering off for th race itself. Since I started training, I've logged at least 170 miles (give or take) in various places, including San Diego (along the Pacific ocean), Los Angeles, San Francisco, Amsterdam (along the Amstel river), Monaco (along the Mediterranean), Frankfurt (along the Main river), and Houston. The marathon is January 18th, and while I've signed up for the San Diego half marathon, it has just dawned on me that I'll actually be living in Houston by that time. And the Houston half marathon is actually the same day... Might decide to stay in Houston and run here, we'll have to see... Depends on who I can get to be my gatorade-brigade here in SD, which is where I'd really like to run. Permanent Link to this entry: Permanent Link
The La Jolla cove is a protected beach area between where I live (Carlsbad) and downtown San Diego. It has beaches, a huge park, cliffs, great waves, lots of rich people, and great shops/restaurants in the nearby village. It also has outdoor yoga in the park on the cliffs looking out over the Pacific ocean. I love yoga to begin with, but taking a really good yoga class from a great teacher while looking at the Pacific ocean is guaranteed to put me in a good mood for the rest of the day. Good thing too, since immediately following yoga, I came home to do lots of laundry and work on my presentations and chapters. Sigh. Only true geeks are working on their handy-dandy Domino servers on Saturday night, hm? Permanent Link to this entry: Permanent Link |
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