Minneapolis-Star-Tribune-runningkellometers

I know I haven't really been blogging all that much lately. To be honest, I have lots of run envy out there but I'm happily brewing Baby Wilson instead. This week the husband is on his "Dad Trip" which is a vacation that his friends wanted to take as his last big "hoorah" before becoming a dad. (He is one of the first of his close friends to become a Dad, but I have a feeling the others won't be too far behind.) Anyways, I've been occupying my time getting the nursery set up and playing with the pup. The other night I was putting something away in the closet and thought it would be funny to bring out the old yearbooks and see if there were any fun Track and Field photos. Oh and let me tell you. It did not disappoint. All of these photos are from my junior year of high school when I was about 17 years old.

As I may have mentioned before, I was on the "sprinting" squad. You know, because I'm obviously built for speed. Here is a sweet action shot of me setting up the starting blocks for a teammate as we set up for a relay. It was probably the 4x200m (I wasn't in the right clique to be on the 4x400m relay). I wish this photo wasn't in black and white so you could see how OBNOXIOUS my track spikes were. Seriously, they were super bright and loud, and I loved them. I actually bought them at Dick Pond Lisle, way back in the day. Oh yeah, and my hair was short and blonde back then. Hard to believe, am I right?

I'm the one on the left

Junior year I decided that I wanted to try some different field events. Hurdles and high jump didn't work out so well for me. They required a bit too much coordination that I just didn't have. Why not give long jump a try?

This picture CRACKS. ME. UP. Is it embarrassing if I still own (and wear) those running tights? I didn't think so. Yet again with those obnoxious spikes. What is up with my form? Or lack there of. I still had my no-muscle Olive Oyl arms. I actually wasn't a horrible long jumper for only doing it for a single season with no previous experience. I think those long legs worked to my advantage. I came in 6th place in our conference meet and I think that was the only time I actually earned my team some points at a conference event.

And then, the obligatory group shot.
I remember taking this photo like it was yesterday. I was due for some new sports bras so I was actually wearing 2 old and dingey white ones with my awesome uniform when this photo was taken. Thankfully with the black and white, you can't really tell. In case you don't know where I am, I've added a sweet arrow to help you find me.

Well, this has been an extremely fun trip down memory lane and has got me even more excited to watch the World Championships in Moscow this week and anxiously await my return to running in Winter 2013.

Alternative title: USA Track and Field Championships This Weekend! Where Have I Been?

I know not everyone that follows this blog is as big of a Track and Field nerd as me, but I just thought I would let you all know that the USA Track and Field Championships are in Des Moines, Iowa this weekend and I'm very sad I didn't properly plan for the weekend. Des Moines isn't too far away and I probably could have made a weekend out of it with fellow Oiselle teammates and other bloggers that are also going. (Instead, I'm on my way to Mall of America right now to get my shop on. So, it is still going to be a fun weekend either way.)

The list of the heats and runners in each event are out and I couldn't be more excited!! I mean, the 5k alone has me jumping out of my skin. (Women: Mary Cain, Shalane Flanagan, Molly Huddle, Julie Culley, Kim Conley, Amy Hastings, Abbey D'Agostino... Men: Galen Rupp, Dathan Ritzenhein, Evan Jager, Bernard Lagat, Ben True... YES PLEASE!!!!) I'm also very much looking forward to some Morgan Uceny redemption in the 1500m! Tons of Olympians will be there and I just am beyond giddy with excitement. Right now, I'm in desperate need of some info on how to watch these events. I want to see them as they take place instead of the summary live broadcast later. Looks like I'll be catching up on my laptop in the evenings after a long day of shopping! I'm sure I'll be stalking FloTrack's twitter feed for the latest updates and spoilers, catching up on the videos later.

(I've posted lots of info on the Olympics last year. Click here if you're interested to know more.)

Are you going to Iowa to watch the festivities this weekend? Will you be stalking the internet and social media like me for the most recent updates?

And in case you'd like to follow some of these athletes along on Twitter, Maggie sent me this list of the top 100 Track and Field twitter accounts. (Turns out, I already follow about half of these. #runnerd)

Since every post needs a photo, here is one of me and some of my pals that came over super early in the morning (4am to be exact) to watch the Women's Olympic Marathon.

Since I'm really good at procrastinating, I decided to go digging in the basement to delay studying and packing before heading off to Las Vegas. I found some gems from my high school track days that I thought I would share as I occasionally mention the days of yore.

Getting ready in the starting blocks for a 100m hurdle race. Probably around 1999 or 2000. Pigtail buns with feathers were really cool.

I think there must have only been 2 high jump participants that day... I swear...

Apparently I wasn't always a heel striker... The home stretch in my first heat of the 400m

In front with unflattering grey sweatpants; resting between events, junior year, 2001

As I'm sure many of you have seen, the Liebster Award is making it's way around the blogger world. I've been nominated by two different bloggers and fellow Oiselle ambassadors (Paulette and Andrea)! What does this award mean? The Liebster Blog award is meant to honor "up-and-coming" blogs with smaller followings that you really like. I'm excited to be a part of it to share my story and to nominate other bloggers you should check out (including the above ladies who nominated me.)

The Liebster Blog award asks the blogger to do the following:
1. Answer 11 questions posted by the person who nominated you.
2. List 11 random facts about yourself.
3. Nominate 11 blogs.
4. Write 11 questions for the blogs you nominate.

As I was asked by 2 different folks, I'm only going to answer 11 questions total, picking and choosing my favs. :)

1. What's your guilty pleasure running song? I really love songs that talk about running. I mean, I'm not even tired of "Born to Run" by Bruce Springsteen yet! Right now my favorite song that mentions running is Florence and the Machine "Dog Days are Over"

Yesterday Maggie and I had plans to hit the track to participate in Run With Jess' virtual Olympics. I had a super fun time the last time I visited a track so needless to say, I was pumped. We met up after work at the nearby high school track in between our houses. Thankfully there wasn't anything going on (we heard rumors about football practice) but we were pretty much on our own. We did quite a few distances (1500m, 800m, 400m, 200m, 100m) to compare ourselves to the Olympians. Uhhh if you cut our times in half, they were kind of close. Lol.

I was most interested to see my 400m time. My PR at the distance is 62 seconds, from 2000. I never broke the 60 second barrier and more consistently ran 64s... over 10 years ago... After completing the 1500m and 800m (we ran all of the distances together), I still had high hopes for the 400m. I ran my butt off and thought I nailed it. I had to be close to that PR, right? I was looking at my stop watch expecting to see a time in the 50s. Why? High hopes I guess... Needless to say, I was off... My stopwatch read 1:20.5... That is 80 seconds amd not even close. I still had lots to smile about--it was a lot of fun! I really liked going fast even if I'll never go pro. Hehe. That's what 5k age group awards are for, right?!

Maggie and I getting ready to start our 200m dash

I ran in my Mizuno Wave Inspire 8s and I really loved how they helped grip the track and keep me on my toes. I really like these shoes for racing and will continue to wear them for 5ks in the future. While we were out there, we thought how fun it would be to participate in a local track meet with other local running clubs. But then the thought of getting the track time, the logistics of timing the various distances, etc... we thought a cross country invitational may be more fun. I guess we'll start planning after the Chicago Marathon... :)

Have you entered my Pro Compression raffle yet? You still have a few days and the minimum donation required to enter is only $2!

As many of you know, the track and field portion of the Olympics started today in London. There are some pretty awesome events that will be aired tonight and this weekend. Here is a quick schedule of some of the events I'll be watching out for. The times listed are the times when you can see them live, streaming on the web (nbcolympics.com). All times given in CST and provided by USATF.org.

Today (8/3)
Womens 10k Final 3:25pm

Saturday (8/4)
Mens 10k Final 3:15pm
Womens 100m dash Final 3:55pm

Sunday (8/5)
Womens marathon 5:00am
Mens 3000m steeplechase Final 3:25pm
Mens 100m dash Final 3:50pm

Tuesday (8/7)
Womens 100m hurdles Final 3:00pm

Thursday (8/9)
Mens 200m dash Final 2:55pm

Friday (8/10)
Womens 5k Final 2:05pm

Saturday (8/11)
Mens 5k Final 1:30pm

Sunday (8/12)
Mens marathon 5am

Some of these events will be played in the evening summaries (starting at either 6:30pm or 7:00pm CST, depending on the day) and some will be covered live (like the marathons). NBC's coverage isn't really clear as they lump all of the "track and field events" together on the website. Don't they know there are runnerds that need to know the exact coverage of all events at all times??

Also, I'm not sure if many of you have been following some of the athletes on Twitter, but there is a lot of controversy around the "blackout" and Rule 40. It dictates when athletes can talk about their sponsors and what sponsors they're allowed to wear at the Olympics, etc. Oiselle did a nice summary of things here as well as listing of athletes and their sponsors. I plan to tweet to some of my favorite athletes' sponsors in the days to come. I really like Oiselle's idea as it isn't aggressive and it still gets the message across. To follow along with my tweets, feel free to follow me!

Today is National Running Day. How are you celebrating? I'll be running 5 miles tonight as recovery for my speedwork yesterday.

Every Friday my coach sends me my workouts for the upcoming week, which is nice because then I have time to coordinate my schedule and mentally prepare for the impending speedwork. This week's speedwork was a "ladder" as follows: 400, 800, 1600, 800, 400. As soon as I saw what I was supposed to do, I knew it was a workout meant for the track. When I told Toph I was headed for the track, he seemed confused that running in circles would be more fun than out on the trail. I haven't been on a track since high school so I was absolutely giddy at the mere thought of running on a real track. I arrived and instantly felt like I belonged there. (Maybe because I participated at a track meet at said track when I was in high school.) It was kind of a weird feeling. I ran around a few times to get in my 1.5 mile warm up and determine my preferred lane. I had a side cramp to start that went away once I got moving. Thank goodness for warm ups! Once I got rolling, I nailed all my splits. I know that you don't walk away from every speed workout feeling confident, but at this one, I did. I met my all of my goals and pushed it in the 2nd half. It was a great workout and one of those days when you can't help but think "OMFG I LOVE RUNNING!!"

I whipped out the camera and took some pics on the cool down as I couldn't contain my excitement. Smiles all around. When's the last time you had a workout that you couldn't help but smile (and maybe brag a little) about?

And the winner of the 5k entry is...
Congrats Marty! Please contact me immediately to claim your prize! runningkellometers at gmail dot com