Jinx! Padlock!

Do you remember playing this game as a child?  When two people say the same thing at the same time, one of them, or a random listener, can shout, "Jinx!  Padlock!" and then the other person (people) can't speak until someone who isn't padlocked says their name three times.  Other versions include, "Jinx!  Buy me a coke!" and "Chin!  Dada!" which is really only the version Baby plays as she tags along after 6 y.o. and repeats everything he says.

Hard to believe this kid would follow his parents around the house, asking them questions to which he already knows the answer so that he can say what they say at the same time in an attempt to "padlock" them.  Not!  What's hard to believe is that there might be something more annoying that a child could do for weeks at a time.

We have "played" this "game" a lot (lot lot lot lot) during the past several weeks, which might be the reason why I keep thinking of jinxes.  Let me clarify- I am not a superstitious person.  I believe that there is actually an Ultimate Plan for my life, and that luck, jinxes, and the like do not, in reality, even exist.  I typed those last 2 sentences with great conviction, and I definitely stand by my wise words.  However, you will never again see me wearing my Buccaneers earrings on game day.  They lose every time I have them in!  Once, I wore them during the first half of the game which was, in typical Bucs fashion, a disaster. I removed the earrings during halftime, they came back out and won the game.  But I'm not superstitious.  So, all of the jinxes I'm about to describe are certainly not actual jinxes.  Jinxes don't exist.  (Unless you and the person sitting next to you just read 'jinxes don't exist' aloud at the same time.  Then you're both padlocked.  Ha!)

The Speed Jinx

I love my running group.  You would not believe how kind, supportive, encouraging and motivating this group of runners is.  Aaaaannnndddd, one of the kind, supportive, encouraging, motivating friends (I won't mention any names) totally jinxed my pace.  June 14.  5 a.m. group run.  Afterward, as everyone chatted and basked in the knowledge that their stink was undetectable amidst the stinks of those around them, this particular KSEM friend said, "So, you're like never even in the 9s anymore, huh?"  He was right.  In the 2 months prior to his comment, nearly 40 different runs, only 5 had been over a nine minute/mile pace.  In the 2 months since, only 1 of my nearly 40 runs has been under a 9 minute pace, and that one was at 8:57.

Lucky 13?

I registered for the race of my dreams on July 13th.  I used a discount code to save $13.  The code was LUCKY13.  All of which, of course, means nothing bad.  How could a number have any power over me?  It isn't as if typing a 1 and a 3 would somehow magically make my calves hurt or something...

The Best Laid Plans...

Every mile carefully plotted out in a lovely calendar purchased specifically for my marathon training plan.  Pace goals.  Rest days.  Projected weekly mileage increases.  Ink color coordination.  For someone who loves lists like I do, and loves writing with sharp pencils on blank spaces like I do, planning marathon training was blissful.  But, as they say, "the best laid plans of mice and men and marathon running wannabes oft go awry."

What If...?

Maybe it's a genetic trait.  My aunt discussed anticipatory worry on her blog a while back.  Maybe I've got a previously undiscovered anxiety disorder.  Regardless of the origin of this habit, I often (like, really, really often), try to think of every possible thing that can go wrong, despite my firm belief that it's impossible to do so.  Without fail, it is the things I don't think of that do go wrong.  My conclusion, which makes complete sense in some part of my brain, is that if only I had thought about a stinking stress fracture (maybe just a stress reaction) that would put my legs on the couch instead of on the road for all these weeks in the middle of my training, it wouldn't have happened.  Here are some of the things which will now not happen to interrupt my training or spoil my first marathon:

- Stress fracture during the race

- Migraine race morning

- Getting lost on the way to the start line

- Hotel not having our reservation

- Super cold weather

- Super hot weather

- Vomiting

- ITBS

- Forgotten running shoes

- Abduction

- ACL tear

- Car accident

- Snake bite

- Surprise pregnancy

- Bad fall

- Dehydration

- Zombie apocalypse

- Leg amputation after a shaving cut from a rusty razor

This, by the bye, is a pretty small sample of what I've found to worry about.

Missed Wood Knocking Opportunity

My calves were sore, first, but I kept running.  The pain wasn't terrible, and once I was a few miles into each run, they would feel better.  Then, there was that long, hilly run.  My left knee started to sing in awful harmony along with my calf, and kept feeling worse and worse with each passing day.  Probably 8 different times, I said to different family members and friends, "I'm sure it isn't anything serious.  Nothing broken or torn or really damaged."  Do you think I knocked on wood any of the times that I said those words?  Nope.

This image shall serve to remind us all that I did, at one point not so long ago, run.  I even outran all but 1 person in my age group this time, and earned a medal.  Oh!  And remember how I used to smile?!

Knocking on wood is pointless and silly.  Certainly, doing so wouldn't have changed anything.  Right?  Right.  Although the knee pain wasn't getting any better, and the calf pain was still there, I tried every few days to run a few miles.  The last time I did so was Saturday.  I limped/hobbled/made horrid faces for the entire 1.5 miles, and while I showered afterward, I kept distracting myself with reminders of how many times I had been in worse pain. (Pre-epidural.  Migraine.)  With ice, the swelling went down, but the spot on my tibia which felt as though a very mean, very tiny person was chiseling away, did not feel better the next day, or the day after.  After spending some way too much time researching, and after shrieking my way through the hop test, I'm pretty sure that I have a serious problem.

So, here I sit, trying to be calm, trying not to vomit every time I think about/hear about/see anyone running.  I've decided to take a few weeks totally off from running.  If all goes well, I'll still have over 5 weeks to prepare for my first marathon.  No, that isn't even close to as much time as I had planned, but it is better than no weeks.

If all goes poorly, well, I'm sure there's good reason.  I'm also sure that my marathon will not necessarily be the one that I can't get out of my head right this minute.  I will rest.  I will stay calm.  I will smile.  Eventually, I will run.  My legs will carry me where I want to go.  My regular pace will, again, be less than 9 minutes/mile.  I will run a marathon.  And, I will resist the urge to knock on wood as I type, because I'm not superstitious.

My advice for you today is to run when you can run, and rest when you need to rest.  Oh, and have yourself a listen to this!

Do you believe in jinxes?

Do you worry about things in advance?

I'm Engaged!

I can hardly contain my excitement, and I can hardly wait for my special day.  No, this is not a Throwback Thursday post, as I'm not talking about my engagement to Husband.

That engagement ended in a fabulous wedding and blissful marriage.

I don't have a new diamond to show off, and I don't have any dress shopping to do.  I wasn't even proposed to, actually.  I haven't called all my family members and changed my relationship status on Facebook.  However, this is a big deal for me.  Huge.  Epic, as 6 y.o. would say (although he uses that word waaaaaay too liberally, these days [I've been wondering- can something be more epic than something else?  Is there such thing as 'a little bit epic'?  I find myself agreeing with him, that the dinner I cooked is indeed, epic.  But then, I backtrack and say something like, "Well, I mean, not epic epic, but pretty epic."  Ah, who am I kidding?  I know that

 was at least a little bit more epic than

my fantastic Chili Chicken Crescents {a.k.a., "Imperial Walkers"-named by 6 y.o.}].  So, yeah, this engagement falls somewhere in between Wednesday dinner and world-altering battle on the scale of epicicity.)    If you're not ready for my big news, this is the part where you should stop reading.  Here goes: I've chosen which marathon will be my first.  I've made a mental and psychological and heartfelt commitment, which is pretty much the same thing I did when I was engaged to be married.  There is nothing legally or financially binding me and my marathon-to-be together, yet, but that doesn't mean I'm going to just run, willy nilly, with no training plan and no hard work.  So what if I haven't actually signed up for it?  The registration price doesn't increase until July 31st!  I think this engagement period is very important.  I have a few weeks to change my mind before the invitations are sent and the family members start requesting time off work, see?  Not that I'm going to change my mind, of course.  Think about this:  how often do you hear about people cheating on their fiance?  Not that often, right?  I'm pretty sure that more spouses cheat than engaged folks, because they committed too fast or to the wrong person.  (That is not true for me and Husband, mind you.  We're desperately in love with each other.)  I'm 99% sure that I've chosen the right marathon, and that I'm going to be healthy, injury-free, and ready for it.  I just don't think there's anything wrong with my having an open relationship with my race-to-be, for now.

Our love is epic.

I've chosen to run the Savannah Rock 'n' Roll marathon on November 9, 2013.  18 weeks and 2 days from now.  The timing of the race is just right.  Although I'm one of the world's worst procrastinators, I'm also rather impatient when I'm excited about an upcoming event.  Early November is pretty near the beginning of racing season for us Southerners, so I won't have to endure too many marathon stories from my runner friends before I have one of my own.  Plus, there's a training plan I like that is 18 weeks long.  Also, when I think about it, the rock 'n' roll aspect is pretty fitting for a rocker like me.  This series of races includes live music along the course and a concert at the finish line.  I was/am a little bit nervous about the popularity of the race series (there are R'n'R races all over the country, they're well advertised, not disgustingly expensive, and make 26.2 miles seem like it'll be a long party full of sweaty strangers) making it too big for my liking, but realistically, the size of the field probably won't effect my performance much at all.

Savannah is the oldest city in Georgia, the home of racism and butter Paula Deen, and is really quite charming.  The climate isn't much different from home, and the elevation isn't much higher, which is nice for training purposes.

The whole race course will be this serene and beautiful.  Right?

The drive there from my home in central Florida will only take about 3 1/2 hours.  We will have to stay in a hotel, which makes me a little bit anxious because of Baby's aversion to sleeping in beds other than her own.  I came up with a still-secret plan, though, that makes me think the traveling will not be so bad.

There you have it, friends.  I'm engaged to run a marathon in a few months.  In the meanwhile, I'm going to be putting an obscene number of miles under my feet, producing gallons of sweat, learning lots, and getting stronger every day.  I hope you'll follow my training and offer me some encouragement along the way.  I'm going to need it, I think.  Unlike being the bride, beautiful, glowing, pampered and fussed over on her wedding day, this engagement is going to end with me filthy, stinky, disheveled, exhausted and in a lot of pain.  Let's just hope that the arch I smile under that day has the word "FINISH".

Any training advice for me?  

Would you rather train for a marathon or plan a wedding?

UPDATE: Remember how I'm not really a "math girl"?  Yeah.  Totally miscountedcalculated and I have to admit it because otherwise I'll seem even more of a dummy later on.  The marathon was 20 weeks from when I posted this, not just over 18.  Still, training starts soon!