Sweaty Saturday... and a Hockey update

I don't have much to talk about for sweaty Saturday because I didn't get much running in this week. The week began with me getting locked out, so no running then. I got a run in on Tuesday and then woke up Wednesday morning with some pretty swollen lymph nodes and a bad cough. I have gotten this sickness every single winter ever since having a bout with mononucleosis when I was 16.

When I was in University, this sickness would stay around for a week or more. I was almost always in the middle of track season and there was no way I would let my smokers cough interrupt that! I wouldn't miss a practice, let alone a meet. Just medicate a bunch and all would be well. So it makes perfect sense to me why it always lasted so long. And although I'm training for the marathon now, I don't mind taking some days off to really allow myself to get healthy. It sure worked too, it's been only three days and the cough is almost gone and was able to do a short, easy run today. Yoohoo!

Hockey has been going pretty dang great for Kev's team. They have won 7 of their last 8 games including a big win last night against Berlin. The Freezers are currently sitting in third place in the league with a game tomorrow. A game that you can all watch! I'm not sure if that link will work, if it doesn't: go to the league website, www.del.org. Click on the "Krefeld Penguine-Hamburger Freezers"on the right side of the page under Live Videos. The game will be at 10:45 a.m. for the WI folk and 11:45 a.m. for you Markham people.

From last night's game

I will be with a bunch of the girls tomorrow and their children watching the game and decorating Christmas cookies. Cookies that I must go finish! Tschüss!

Sweaty Saturday

My training week in review:

Sunday: 14.25 miles, average pace: 8:24 per mile. Currently my longest run ever, but I suppose I will be having my "longest run ever" a lot leading up to April!

Monday: 2.73 miles, avg. pace: 9:09. I felt Bruh-uhtal on this run. I didn't do a very good job refueling and rehydrating after Sunday's run and it really took an effect on my body today. Had a fever and lots of aches Monday night. Lesson learned: Wine is not a proper source of energy post-long run!

Tuesday: 4.46 miles, avg. pace: 8:38. Had a bit of speed tacked onto the end.

Wednesday: SPEED 4x1000 meters with 90 seconds recovery. You will quickly learn that I one thing I do love to do is intervals!! I'm a miler at heart so I love me some speed.

Thursday: Didn't have time for a run between work and class so I settled on a quick ab workout thanks to my Nike Training i-Phone app.

Friday: Run #1: 6 miles, avg. pace: 8:12. Felt great and was really enjoying a new route!
            Run #2: 2.83 miles, avg. pace: 8:28 with some quick strides in there. Strength training.

Saturday: 3 x 1 mile repeats with two minutes recovery.

Weekly mileage: ~42 miles

I continue to learn how much of training is mental. I used to dread distance runs, thinking "45 minutes?! Ugh, that is so long!" Don't even get me started on the long runs! But now that I have done a couple runs just short of two hours, I'll see those 50 minute runs on the schedule and think, "oh really, that's all?" Such a large part of my journey towards a marathon will be training my head to really push the limits and change my view on running in general. Although I never truly looked forward to long runs, I always enjoyed the time spent conversing and bonding with my teammates, many of whom are and will always be my best friends. Now that most of my training is done alone, I am able to adjust my viewpoint and see my longer runs as an amazing way to explore Hamburg and see parts of the city that I may not have otherwise.

Like that cool playground above in the middle of a forest of trails. Not that I have kids of my own to bring to it, but I never would have found this without my running! I've been running with my phone lately to use nike's GPS app, so I'll try to snap any other cool things along the way.

Speaking of kids, Ida may be my favorite girl baby in the entire world. Now I didn't want my only little nephew, Cole, to get jealous so I made sure to clarify. I said girl, Cole, you are by far my favorite little man and I miss you! Ida is just at such a fun age right now (18 months) and I can't get enough of her. She loves animals and although she can't speak much yet, she knows how to oink and moo with the best of them.

Don't you just want to squeeze her?? More German lessons for you all as well!

Now that I have already digressed from the running theme of Sweaty Saturday, I'll let you all go. Enjoy your weekend! Tschüss!

Sweaty Saturday

Welcome to Sweaty Saturday! And we're diving straight in, going to get all emotional right away. I'm going to share with you something I wrote back in the summer after a particularly difficult running workout. I posted it to the blog that night and removed it within 12 hours. I wasn't sure if you were all ready to read something more intense from me! Mostly, I wasn't sure if I was ready to share it. There is something so comforting and easy about keeping this blog light and airy. But that's not realistic. Life isn't always light and airy, and as all runners know, running isn't always easy and comforting. As far as I know, my mom was the only one to see this post before I took it off and she said it made her cry. Mom, that was not my intention! 

So here it goes, my first Sweaty Saturday post (originally written after a crummy run in June):

Tonight, I did one of the hardest running workouts I have over the past year. Lots of hills, lots of speed, lots of pain. And there’s times during workouts like these that I wonder why. Why do I put myself through this? Nobody’s forcing me. Why do I run till it hurts? I don’t even like to run all that much.

But then I remember what I do like.

Competing.
Racing.
And winning doesn’t hurt either.

There was a time in my running career I did just that. I competed. I raced. I won. In high school I ran with a fearlessness that I now forget I even had. I would line up next to a bunch of girls just knowing I was going to crush them. And if I didn’t crush them, I knew that I would be right up on their heels making them work their ass off to beat me. Then, senior year of high school, I broke my ankle in the middle of the qualifying race to the state meet. My mentality hasn’t quite been the same since. I’ve been scared. And in some races, I’ve down right given up.

I’ve been told since my final collegiate race that I had such a great career and have so much to be proud of. And that is a really happy, sweet, sugar coated way of looking at it. And in some facets that’s true. I did accomplish a lot and have things to be proud of. But the hardcore truth is that I didn’t do what I was recruited to do.

I didn’t do what I know for a fact I was capable of.

Ever since that season ending race my senior year in HS, I’ve been running full of fear. But who knows, that may have happened with or without the broken ankle. I may have still shown up to the race line in college, seen the other fast girls, and gotten completely scared.

My mind got in the way. And that is why I will continue to put myself through miserable (for me, at least) 90+ minute runs and speed workouts that I think my legs will fall off during. Because I know I have so much more that I can accomplish and will be proud of. I just need to get back to that naïve 16-year old running mentality I once had. I’ll get there. I’m working on it.

Now, don't go thinking that I am just some mental head case. Although, with my running, sometimes I feel like I am! I think that year+ break after BGSU was just what I needed and I'm ready to get back to kicking some butt.

I read this post before heading out to do my 2x10 minute hilly Tempo Intervals and it served as great motivation when I got tired! Ended up doing the first 10 minutes at 6:37 mile pace and the second at 6:22 mile pace. Breezed through it today! And you know what I said to myself when I was finished? "F***ing right, Autumn, F***ing right!" I obviously spend way too much time with a foul-mouthed hockey player.

Schönes Wochenende! Tschüss!

A new direction!

First off, some completely random Hamburg Happenings:

The boys won tonight in a shootout. I thought we had it in the bag until Nürnberg tied up the game with 3 seconds left. THREE Seconds. They just had to give us a thriller tonight! Thankfully, it ended in our favor. 

For the first time ever, Kev and I hosted a dinner party. We (or should I say, I, can't say Kev slaved in the kitchen the entire day ;-)) made a mexican themed feast for 10 people! That's a lot for our little apartment to hold. Not to mention that I can never host a dinner and not go all out. We tried our best to make sure we stayed with in our theme. Even down to the San Miguel beers. Alright, that means we already left the theme, San Miguel's are Spanish not Mexican. At least we were within one language!

our table setting for 10 (4 couples, and 2 of the single guys)

I am really looking forward to the team's "post-Halloween" party on November 4th. Halloween was a highlight of my days at BGSU and I like to think I had some pretty great costumes. After not having a party at all last year, I am really looking forward to going all out this year. We have decided what we are going to be, and have most of our supplies for our costumes. You all will have to wait until after the party for the big reveal!

The first league break is coming up soon after our Halloween party. So far, we are thinking of Prague, Czech Republic, although nothing has been booked yet.

The next city we may be crossing off the list!

I have been thinking for a while now what direction I want to go with this blog. As much as I enjoy being able to update everyone back home on our lives here in Hamburg, writing solely "life updates" gets repetitive for me. I need a change!

As most everyone that reads this blog knows, I run for fun. Well, most of the time I don't think it is all that fun, so we'll just stick with running is a big part of my life. Therefore, I have decided to start a new "feature" tomorrow, called "Sweaty Saturday." It will be a chance for me to bring another part of my life into the blog. It comes at the perfect time as I just registered for my first marathon today, the Hamburg Marathon in April, 2013. Check back in tomorrow! Tschüss!