remember when our short runs used to be our long runs?

38:58 (4.0 mi)

9:13:50 (1.1535 mi)
8:00 pace


29:45:07 (2.8465)
10:30 pace

EWWWW

ran the first mile at BQ pace. sucked after that.

took sunday off. the key for the next two weeks is not mileage, it's consistency -- I have SO much shit going on in my life for the next 2 weeks that honestly, if I run a 20-30 mi/wk then I'll be happy. I'm going to literally have to sneak in runs next week based on the fact that I will be on site working 24/7....

run run run as fast as you can...

total: 58:41 (6.229)
9:25 pace. getting a little faster?


7:05:49 (0.9186)
7:43 pace
7:59:13 (0.8947)
8:56 pace
12:04:26 (1.1839)
10:12 pace
7:45:20 (0.8489)
9:08 pace
23:46:25 (2.3829)
9:58 pace (ewwwwwww)

the more you give, the more you get. love running more.

total time: 57:10:51
9:30 pace

6:19:77 (0.7051 mi)
9:00 pace
7:45:46 (0.8839 mi)
8:45 pace
11:40:38 (1.1815 mi) RIDICULOUS HILL right at the start of this segment. ugh.
9:53 pace
7:55:51 (0.8425) hills section... ouch. this hurt today more than normal. time for new shoes? already?
9:25 pace
23:29:39 (2.387) another bad hill. this is why i run this route.
9:50

I suck during the middle of runs. we know this.
I was semi-fatigued today. I don't think I posted my splits/times from yesterday and it looks like my watch destroyed them. whoopsies. anyways, I rocked (sarcasm) 10 minute miles. don't get it after 2 rest days, but whatever.

planning a 10 tomorrow morning and a 12 for sunday, if I'm not hurting.

aiming for 35 this week, ramping it back up to 40-45 next week then who the hell knows what the week after.

ugh

super super tired/zapped AGAIN. inexplicably this time. took 2 back to back rest days, that means I gotta crank dat straight through the weekend.... 6mi planned today (when I finish typing this) at recovery level, 6mi tomorrow again at lazy pace with some tempo on the hills section, long run saturday morning, probably 12-14 mi, depending.

up & out! stupid fatigue.

rest day

walked around a bit, rubbed my sore muscles (owch) and iced my shins (darn stomping... I'm inefficient) and worked on a construction project for a charity I'm involved with for ~2hrs after work. Tonight, I'm going out and having a few drinks for a friend's birthday, then going to work tomorrow AM.

Planning on getting in around 7:30am so I can cut out around 3:30pm, make it home by 4, crank out 6 miles and go to a social engagement at 5:30. Sweet.

i had a lovely afternoon snack of sweat and hills.

Ran this for 6 easy ones, plus warm up/cooldown.

Highlights include:
first 1.6 in ~12:00 (7:30 pace)
last 2.4 in 22:50 (ok, 9:30 isn't that hot...)

died on the mile of hills. oops.

total in 56:30 (avg split 9:25... we need to shave 90 seconds off that sucker)

all in all, came out too fast, blew on the hills, recovered but not enough on the flats on the way back and also hit another 1/2 mile worth of "hills 'o' death" (anything about a 5% grade screws me bad).




so last night i hit the sack super early (10pm) so I'd be recovered, rested, nice words that start with "r" will continue, read to run, etc. I went to sleep at 3am. I got up at midnight and fed myself, thinking I was just hungry (post-run I tend to be STARVING but after a smoothie am like "ok, no more food") and then stayed up for another 3 hours not being able to sleep... annoying. I was cracked out at work today all day from and now... I'm not really that tired. hopefully I'll be able to hit the pillow in a little while, because I can't handle the schedule shift!

SO TIRED

but heading out now for an easy 6.2.... eval when I get back and the story behind my crazy fatigue.

i eat hills for a late afternoon snack.

I clocked 30 miles last week, so I started off this easter sunday a little easier.

I rolled my ankle trying to escape a car on Thursday, so I've been a little cautious not to aggravate that lately.

I ran this route for a cool 7.3 miles. The weather was NUTS here; I left and it was sunny... in the middle of my run it was near-blizzard conditions. kid you not, that shit was insane.

I smoked the hills on price blvd. It's a 0.83 mile stretch of 4 rolling hills -- i'd guess a 6-7% grade, probably closer to a mile of topographical mileage. One day I'll measure it in my car. Anyways, I smoked my former timing (~8min, ouch) with a flat 7:00. I dropped into the first downhill and "Don't Stop Believin'" by Journey comes on, then "Counting Blue Cars" by Dishwalla -- the first is great for inspiration, the second for cadence and "pushing".

Started to go down Wydown for a little jaunt, then realized pushing it was probably not the best idea. Forgot to reset my watch, but I hit the 1hr mark at the turnaround (including the world's longest red light... seriously).

Going to try to get in an AM run tomorrow -- getting up at 5:30am sucks but it works! I figure I hit the pavement for 6 miles plus warm-up/cooldown, home by 7:00am, on the road to work by 7:30am. Get to work at 8am, work 8-4pm, come home, nap, social engagement at 5:30, home and sleep by 10pm. mmm the life...


running in 35 degree weather... now that's a love/hate relationship.

are you crazy?

Most people start running with a goal in mind. Running was my Everest. I looked at the park. I looked at my feet. Why? Because it's there. Why not? No good answer.

I ran recreationally, usually under 30 minutes and under 5 miles for about a year. Then shit happened.

I started working. I started stressing. The gym killed me. I felt like a rat in a cage and yearned for some fresh air that didn't smell like football players. And I found one thing that helped -- going out, killing my lungs, pounding pavement for an hour after work every day. And a few hours on the weekend. I love putting on some embarrassing jams and rocking out, embarassing soccor moms and almost causing accidents with my ultrashort shorts. I got a killer farmer tan.

And I thought, why not add some purpose to this? Why not set a goal besides "kicking my own ass"? Why not be able to actually have a goal people besides other running masochists can relate to? So I'm setting one.

Boston requires a 3:40 marathon for my age group. I'm projecting right under 4:00 given my current times. I'm shooting for a first marathon in Sept. 2008 and hopefully a qualifier in the winter of 2008/2009, then Boston 2009. If I can do that without killing myself, qualifying for the Olympics is a 2:39. But that's also a 6 minute mile. Insane! Maybe it'll be added to my 25/25 (list of 25 things I'd like to do before I'm 25)

Goals in 2009...

Spring:
sub-4:00 marathon (Little Rock)
coaching my MBA running babies to the finish line, injury-free and happy (STL)
coaching my girls to their first 5k! (Girls on the Run)

Summer:
1:45 half marathon (joker's wild)

Fall:
1:40 half marathon (STLTC)
3:45 marathon (L&C, KC)

Winter:
BQ (PHL)
sub-21:00 5k (chesterfield)

So, who the F*** are you?

I've realized it's much easier to do this than try to put a billion "customize" boxes up or try to cram everything into the profile paragraph.

The Early Years - Philadelphia, PA


I'm in the back. With the puppy ears. I got rid of the hideous glasses, but I kept the ears.

I grew up in Philadelphia, PA. In middle school and high school, I was a competitive figure skater and chess player.

Fun factoid: I am a former member of the team that won the 1997 National Junior High School Chess Championship.

In high school, I became interested in biology and medicine. I did scientific research at my high school and eventually began working as a lab tech at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia in my junior year. I had the amazing opportunity to work with a PI who treated me like a graduate student and a graduate student who treated me like a colleague. I dual-enrolled my junior and senior years of high school, taking classes at Community College of Philadelphia my junior year and at The University of Pennsylvania my senior year. In 2005, I moved out to St. Louis MO.

Life in a Swing State - St. Louis, MO



I enjoyed college. We'll leave it at that.

I settled on a major in Engineer Physics after bouncing around for a bit. I got connected with the first female tenure-track physics professor. Together, we both recieved competative grants for our work together. We conducted research in single-molecule biophysics, analyzing the mechanical forces behind the transcription process.

What is this? Why do I care?

Well, our bodies are built out of proteins. The Human Genome Project was just the tip of the iceberg. DNA is the code for life, but simply knowing the code isn't enough. Most of our DNA is "junk" -- the product of evolution. The portion of our DNA that is not "junk" is pretty small, around 10% of our base pairs. The "non-junk" DNA codes for protiens, the building blocks of our bodies and every organism's structures. The protien code is much more complicated and difficult to decipher, since we basically have a road map -- DNA. The problem is, our road map is really badly drawn. Someone left off all the street names and did such a poor job drawing the map that many of the streets on the map don't exist. So scientests have to go through and figure out which streets are nonexistant and the names of the streets that do exist.

The amazing thing about our bodies is that, unlike us, they have the cheater version of the map and know where everything is. And they're pretty smart. Instead of making every protein possible at once in one big "copying" translation of DNA to RNA, our cells only copy what they need. In order for this process to occur, our cells have to figure out where to copy since nuclear DNA has millions of base pairs.

This process is like hailing a cab after a movie. Imagine a full multiplex showing a midnight premiere. After the movie finishes, all the moviegoers spill out onto the pavement. In order to hail a cab, you have to walk to the curb and wave your arms around a bit, then the cabbie comes and picks you up. That's basically how the first step of protein synthesis occurs. In order to have a specific encoding sequence copied, a recruitment protein attaches to DNA at a promoter sequence, essentially "hailing the cab".


I got a bit bored by my junior year. I loved college; I loved being independent but I was getting really burned out. A pretty awesome co-op opportunity presented itself, so I took the spring of my junior year off and worked full-time as a chemical engineer for 9 months. After getting the job offer, I also applied to an early-admit graduate program that WashU offers -- aka the 5-year MBA. The 5-year (or 3/2 program) offers undergraduates at WashU the opportunity to sub-matriculate into a two-year master's program of their choice, even at the interdisciplinary level. About 25 students a year participate in the interdisciplinary program, with most students doing a BA/MSW, BA/OT or PT or BS/MBA. A handful of students do a BA/MBA or a BSBA/MBA. Another 50 or so students do a BS/MS, BA/MA or BA/MSci. There's 10 of us in my year in the 3/2 MBA; I'm the only female engineer. I didn't expect to get into the program. The MBA program is highly competitive (top 25 y'all...) and very selective. The 3/2 is even more so -- because we're the kids, we're expected to show that we deserve to be there despite have, oh, zero years of work under our belt.

In regards to business, I'm aggressively pursuing careers in strategy. My pipe dream is pharmaceutical/biomed device pipeline valuation, analysis and strategy consulting. Unfortunately, it's a pretty niche field. The primary job attributes I'd like to have are consulting, pharm/biomed/healthcare, strategy. I might get to pick 2 if I'm lucky. So far, I've been insanely lucky -- interviews with top consulting firms and a few fortune 100 (think harvard, princeton, yale of jobs) firms. I don't have an offer yet, but I feel like I'm getting close -- and the last few months have reassured me; I can run with the big dogs and be OK.