running...again

I notice my blog-posting frequency increases greatly when I have something else to do (french exam studying.)

I realized I haven't updated on the running in a long while. The good news is that I'm still running! Hip, hip hooray. The bad news is that I'm up to a meager 2-3 miles per day. So, definitely not in marathon shape yet.

I have a hunch I could probably run five miles if I tried really hard, but as the indoor track I'm running on is 1/6 of a mile, that would be 30 laps...which feels like a heck of a lot of running in circles. I've also started lifting a few weights, though, and am feeling stronger even after a month of that.

My friend Dana has suggested that we run the Chicago Marathon in October and I'm still crossing my fingers that I can make it happen. (That photo is of Dana and I at the Milwaukee Marathon, which I ran half of and she ran the full, 5 years ago!)

One of the benefits of the whole getting sick for a year bit was that I gave up caffeine (ahem, was forced to give up caffeine) & a whole lot of other bad foods. Also, my muscles practically atrophied...which you wouldn't think would be a good thing, but starting from scratch has allowed me to alter my running form (which is hard to do otherwise.) I'm hoping the combination of these things (once I can actually run longer) will mean a faster marathon. I'd really like to break four hours, and always seem to hover somewhere above that.

I'm tempted to buy Murakami's marathon running book, though I hear it's pretty bad. (But how can it be: it's Murakami!)