Wanna be runner

Sometimes you just have to force it on yourself

2012-01-28T21:39:00.000-08:00

My motivation has been severely lacking lately. I just can't seem to get myself motivated enough to get my lazy ass out the door for a run. I'm sure it's more of a winter blues type of thing but it's still sucks. I have a 5k in a couple weeks and a half marathon coming up in March. I don't have much time to get my long runs back up to where they should be. Most of the time, though, I just don't care. I always say, I'll make my next run. The only run I managed to make this week was the one where I ran with a friend.

My plan was to do my long run today. My planned distance this week was scheduled to be eight miles. I was nervous about it though, since I haven't run more than six in quite a while. I procrastinated it all day and thought I didn't have enough time by the time I decided that I should go for a run. That's when I told myself that I had enough time. I would go to Greenlake and force myself to run at least twice around, the goal being three. I really didn't feel like running. At all. But I tried not to think too much about that and went through the motions and got ready to go on a run. I had a little bit of a snafu when I realized that my running playlist wasn't synched so I spent more time than I should have getting my music together. It was cold, I was tired, but outside I went. I covered up my garmin with my sleeve and just decided to take it easy and not care about pace or effort.

The first mile was like most first miles. Not great, not terrible. By the end of the second mile I still wasn't feeling it. I was hungry, starting to feel a little lightheaded, and had to pee. So, I took a potty break, downed a gel and some water, and pressed on. Within a few minutes I started feeling better. By the third mile I felt great and was so happy to be outside running and enjoying it. By the fourth mile I though that maybe, just maybe, I was feeling good enough for three laps. By mile five I realized that my body was not ready for much more today and that I was running short on time. I needed to get home to get started on dinner.

So, I did end up doing the two laps I told myself that I would do, no matter what. That is a feat in and of itself. I'm more proud of that than the actual run. Can I say that my enthusiasm has returned? Not for sure, but I can use this is an example to myself that if I just force myself to do it, and even if it sucks at first, I will be happy that I made it out the door. Tomorrow I'm scheduled for a five mile tempo run. I will do it, I will do it, I will do it!

Contemplating the Marathon

2012-01-22T23:10:00.000-08:00

So, I'm thinking of giving marathon training a go. It both scares the crap out of me and I'm hopeful at the same time. I've been obsessing over training plans lately. I don't want to get injured, but I want to do this right and not feel like I want to die either. I tried to work out a way to get in five runs a week but with my schedule right now, it's just not going to happen. The only way to make this work and get decent mileage in is to run two of my key runs two days in a row. I don't think it'll be too bad but I really won't know until I'm in it. I have a 5k coming up in a few weeks and a half marathon at the end of March. Those are the only races I have coming up at the moment. Depending on finances and what I want to do, I may add more. Especially shorter races for speed work. I went with a Hal Higdon plan and tweaked it a little. What I can do is somewhere between one of his novice plans and one of his intermediate plans. I mostly followed the novice one but I added a little more mileage. I got rid of a couple of the early cutback weeks and added a mile or two to the mid length runs to try to up the total mileage and yet remain on my four day a week schedule. When I first started getting serious about running my husband and I agreed that I would not let running interfere with our life and family. I work a full time job, am responsible for cooking dinner, grocery shopping, laundry, etc. After I've cooked dinner and worked all day I don't have a lot of time and energy to go for a run. Plus I have to let my food digest. So, my only weekday run will be the shortest run of the week. My plan will basically look like this...Mon and Tues: restWed: short, easy runThu: restFri: mid length, usually tempoSat: long runSun: short to mid easy runInstead of doing any specific hill training I'll just do neighborhood runs which will inevitably include hills. My Sunday runs will be flat and easy for sure. I don't see any harm in making my long runs my neighborhood runs since when I run in a race it'll mimic the conditions best. I may also be able to make my Wednesday runs a bit longer if I leave work early. I think I pretty have it figured out, at least enough to where I feel I won't be obsessing over whether it's right for me or whether I can get all the miles in. I'll have to sacrifice sleeping in on Saturdays but that's okay, it'll be worth it to be able to say I'm a marathoner, right?

Last long run before the Seattle half

2011-11-20T11:06:00.001-08:00

If my half marathon goes anywhere as near as this run went, I will be a very happy girl. This run started off sluggish, I felt heavy and slow. Once I got warmed up I started to feel better. It was about 40 degrees, partly sunny, slight breeze. A good day for a run. I had decided to run from home instead of driving anywhere so that I could get into a hot shower faster after finishing my run. Anyway, at about 3 miles I stopped to use the potty and take a gel. I knew it was a little early for a gel but decided that I wanted it then as it was close enough to when I wanted to take it. My run really got good after that. It felt easy, I was running negative splits. When I got to Gasworks park I ran up to the top of the hill, twice. Once on the way there and once on the way back. Even that didn't seem so difficult and my pace didn't slow much at all. Everything just fell into place. I was breathing easy, even mouthing the words to the songs that were playing in my ipod. Here's a breakdown of my run.Mile one: 12:53, just getting warmed up.Mile two: 12:00, starting to feel better and getting loose.Mile three: 12:06, slowed up a bit, the hill is around here.Mile four: 12:22, hill and recovery.Mile five: 12:15, starting to pick it up and feeling really good.Mile six: 11:58, wow, I'm doing great and feel like I can keep this up. Hope I don't crash.Mile seven: 12:12, upward slope slowed me up a bit, still feeling great though.Mile eight: 11:55, under 12 again, awesome!Mile nine: 12:06, the hill again, barely slowed me at all.Mile ten: 11:41, I can't believe I'm able to pick up the pace this much so close to end of my run. I know that the last couple miles are a long uphill though.Mile eleven: 11:57, still doing okay, only a mile to go. Legs are starting to feel it a bit.Mile twelve: 12:18, not too bad considering it was a gradual uphill the entire mile and my legs were starting to get tired.The hill hurt my knees a little, but that was one of the reasons I practiced it. It's very short but steep and my knees don't like going down steep slopes and my half is going to be hilly. I think I'll do one more hill workout this week instead of a speed workout. I haven't done as many hill runs as I have tempos and I think I'll be better off. It's a day later and my knees are slightly sore, but that's it. I think I am ready for this half. Better trained than all of my other half marathon's. I feel much more confident and believe that I will PR.

Just under four weeks

2011-11-01T23:20:00.000-07:00

My half marathon is in just under four weeks and mileage is supposed to start peaking over the next few weeks. Today I finally ran a scheduled run, I actually followed my plan. The last couple of weeks my running has not been very good at all. Lower mileage, only running two days a week. Part of that was my fault, part of it was feeling burned out from work, and part of it was from coming down with a cold. It was just a minor cold that was gone in a couple of days. Tuesdays are my scheduled speed work days. So far I have only managed to actually do two speed work runs. That's okay, I'm flexible, lol. Anyway, my plan said six miles with four miles at a tempo pace of about 10:58mm. My goal was to try to get as close to 11mm as I could and just hang on. I wasn't entirely sure I could do it but I reminded myself that I did it for three miles in a race this weekend, I could hold that pace for an extra mile. My first mile was just a warm up mile and my pace was 12:36. OK, here we go, pick it up, Cheryl, you can do this. I don't care that you're tired or that your feet hurt. Move. Your. Ass. That was pretty much my mantra for those four miles. As far as trying to hang on to an 11mm, here are my splits.Mile 1 - 12:36 (warm up)Mile 2 - 11:04Mile 3 - 11:11 (I swear it was a gradual uphill)Mile 4 - 11:05Mile 5 - 11:01 (See? I can do this after all.)Mile 6 - 12:08 (cool down)This was also my third run in the new brooks shoes I got last week. So far they are comfortable and aren't causing any issues. No weird pains, they are slipping off my heels, I'm not used to their feel yet but I think I'm really going to like them once I get used to them. They should be going on clearance soon too so I'll have to try to stock up. In conclusion, I ran a tempo run, as planned, and very close to planned pace. I call this a success. Tomorrow is a short easy run.

Run Scared 5k

2011-10-30T20:42:00.000-07:00

Today I volunteered for and ran in the Run Scared 5k. This race is held in Seattle's beautiful Seward Park.

This race was, of course, costume themed. I had planned on running a Halloween race last year but ended up with an injury so I was really looking forward to using my planned costume for this year. I had emailed the race director prior to running this, to inquire about volunteering in lieu of registration. My my happy surprise she said yes. I was scheduled to show up for my volunteer shift at 7am. I woke up at 5:45, made a bowl of oatmeal, got my clothes on that I had set out the night before, and applied my whiskers. I was out the door shortly after 6:30 and just had to stop to fill up on gas. I had a little trouble getting there. I have never been to this park or this part of town before so I was relying on my gps to get me there. I missed one exit on the freeway but was quickly redirected. Then, I missed a turn, and again was quickly redirected. I made it to the park and parked in the only parking lot I found. I didn't see anyone and since it was dark and I was completely unfamiliar with this park I was glad that I had saved the email with the race director's cell phone number. I called her and she directed me to the right area so I moved my car and made it to my post. Volunteering was both fun and easy this morning. I had my own little tent with a couple of tables set up. One with volunteer info and t-shirts, the other with breakfast items, coffee, and tea. My job was to tell people what their volunteer positions were and where to go. It went very smooth and all the other volunteers were very friendly. I had one other lady volunteering at the volunteer check in with me so at about 20 minutes before start time I was able to get in line for the potty before checking out of my volunteer duty. Here are a few photo's of some of the participants.

The line for registration near the start time of the race.

On my way to the start line I stopped to check my back and turn on my garmin. It was windy by the water, and overcast but the rain held off and once we got going and away from the water the wind was nonexistent. The start was super crowded. There was the 5k run plus the 4k walk and there was no separation of the two. The path wasn't very wide and most of us runners had to veer off the path onto the wet grass to get around all the walkers. Shortly into the first mile we turned to go up a hill. A pretty decent sized hill that I was unprepared for but I powered up that hill, passing many people in the process. It felt good. Before the end of mile one there was one more hill but it was both shorter in length and less steep so it was easy. Mile one was completed in 11:37. Not too shabby especially considering the hills. The crowd waiting to begin.

Going into mile two there was a nice big down hill and then the rest of the way was very flat. There were supposed to be people dressed up as zombies to supposedly chase runners and I only saw two people doing that on the course. I think had the weather been nicer that there would have been a better turn out. The turn out of runner's was great. Almost everyone was in some sort of costume, dogs and children included. I was feeling really good and strong and tried to make sure to push it a bit for the remainder of the race. Miles two and three were 11:05 and 10:53. I really tried to kick it the last .1 and ran it at a 9:17 pace. All of my splits being negative and the fact that I felt like I could have kept going lets me know that I didn't really try as hard as I could have. I hadn't planned to try to PR this one though, it was more about having fun and that's exactly what I did. Here's me after the race.

The shirt and my bib.

Here's my garmin info, if you're so inclined. Thanks for reading, I was happy I was able to do this race and definitely want to do it again next year. Next up, the Seattle Half Marathon on November 27th.

Seattle half training, week two, day two

2011-09-21T21:01:00.000-07:00

Today the plan called for three miles at a 12:27 pace. Seemed like it should have been pretty easy and for the most part it was. I was able to maintain a mostly steady pace, even though my legs felt tired and sluggish. My first mile was done in 12:28, mile two at 12:24, and mile three at 12:28. Average pace? 12:26. That's pretty damn close. I know I can't get the paces exact and that's it's more of a guideline but I'm really trying to follow this plan, rather than wing it like I've always done before. I really want to see what I can do if I actually train properly.I am feeling pretty blah tonight and had almost no appetite for dinner. I had some squash that was mediocre at best. Lesson learned, don't buy frozen squash ever again. It was more humid this evening than usual, and it was warm. It's very possible that that's what's making me feel so blah. At least it wasn't sunny on top of the warmth and humidity. Humidity sucks. It just plain sucks. It's also possible that I'm just worn out. Work has gotten busier, I did my first speed workout followed by an easy run. I have rarely run two days in a row and my plan calls for it every week so it's something that I really do need to get used to. Hopefully it'll get easier, especially as the weather finally decides that summer is supposed to be over, not just starting. I'm happy that I ran and I'm happy it was uneventful. Hopefully I just need a rest day and my long run on Friday will be nice and easy. I also need to start shopping for new shoes. Mine have more miles on them that my last pair did when I retired them and I'm starting to notice new aches and pains, a telltale sign that my shoes are wearing out. I'm going to look into trying a different shoe but if worse comes to worse, I'll buy the new version of my shoe like I've always done.

Week one done, on to week two.

2011-09-20T21:37:00.000-07:00

Last week was my first official week of following a half marathon training plan. So far so good. Monday I did my time trial and got a training plan. Didn't run on Wednesday and missed my run due to laziness on Friday so I did my long run on Saturday. It was a bit of a tough long run because instead of staying on the flat path, I veered off to get some hill work in. I felt it the next day and this eight mile run was definitely harder than the last but it wasn't a terrible run so I was happy. I stuck with the plan for Sunday and ran two miles. It felt weird to only run two miles but I'm upping my running from three days a week, on average, to four. Two short, easy runs, one medium tempo or intervals run, and one long run. I've decided that every other week my long run would be run in the neighborhood so that I get some good practice with hills. My half marathon is known for being a bit hilly and I want to be more ready for this one than I was for the Kirkland half. That one was super hilly and I was under trained. I was happy I did it, but never wanted to be that unprepared ever again. Week one is officially done.Today began week two. The plan for Monday's is speed work and today's speed work was intervals. I have never run intervals before and decided to run them on a track. There's a track that basically sits in between my work and my home so it's very convenient. Today's planned called for four miles with 2x1600 with 800 rest and a warm up and cool down. I had to do math to figure out what my warm up and cool down distances should be to make the miles even and I did it right. Go me! Math is not my strong suit. Anyway, I was almost halfway around the track before I realized that I forgot to start my garmin. Doh! So, my warm up was a mile instead of 1200 meters. According to my training plan I was to run the intervals at a 10:28mm pace. I knew that I should be able to hold that for a mile, based on my time trial, but that still seems fast to me. I did pretty good though, which made me happy. It wasn't easy but it wasn't the worst thing I've ever done either. I think I can see why people don't like speed work but it's my first time so maybe that's why it didn't seem so bad. So, here's what my workout looked like today.1600 meter warm up with 1200 meters at 13:31mm. I'm sure the first 400 meters were about the same.1600 meters at 10:29mm.800 meters a 14:00 (walked a little)1600 meters at 10:25mm.1200 meters at 13:09.A grand total of 4.25 miles but I'm only counting four. Next Monday will be a tempo run if I'm remembering correctly. I like that the speed work alternates between intervals and tempo runs. Tomorrow I'm scheduled for an easy two. In conclusion, so far half marathon training is going very well. I drew a big circle with my garmin, you can see my "map" here.

Half marathon training, for real this time

2011-09-14T22:55:00.000-07:00

I wasn't going to do anymore races this year. I had come to terms with that and was okay with it. I was still running but not for any goal, just for my own enjoyment. I accidentally over extended myself one paycheck and have been having to cut way back on expenses to try to catch up. My husband and I were talking one night and he asked me if there were any races that I wanted to do but wasn't because of money. I said yes. he asked which one and I told him that I wanted to run the Seattle half. It was supposed to be my debut half, I had trained on part of the course, and was really looking forward to it until I was unfortunately injured and pretty much out of running for the rest of the year. That was last October. Almost a year ago and I've been struggling to get back to the same shape I was in last year. Anyway, my dear enabling husband convinced me that I could afford to register for this race. The only bills I still have are my credit cards and I'm paying those down so I used one to go ahead and register for the Seattle half. I was thankful that I hadn't registered for it last year as there is no deferment. I also registered for half fanatics and got a tech tee to wear for the Seattle half.

Registering for that half did something to me. I had burned out a bit after running four half's in just as many months, the last one being the trail half. I had cut back my mileage and wasn't running regularly very often. I started to run regularly again, feeling the mojo returning. After my registration was complete, I started looking at training plans. I decided to really follow a plan this time, instead of just using one as a guideline to increase my mileage. I started to get confused about what my 5k pace should be, what my easy pace should be, etc. I haven't run a 5k since February and really didn't know how fast I could run one anymore. So, I ran a 5k against myself. I came in at 32:24 and was very pleased. That's only a little over a minute over my best 5k time. I had no idea I was capable of running that fast. My training runs have been frustratingly slow but maybe because I wasn't really pushing myself? After completing my little time trial I decided to ditch my original plan and try another one. I plugged my 5k time into Smartcoach and got myself an 11 week training plan that looks like it should be fairly simple and if all goes well I should be able to beat my dream goal time of 2:30:00. I made a couple of tweaks to fit in a 5k in October and to switch around the first week since I wasn't starting on Monday but I've got it all logged into Active Trainer and it's set to send me daily emails. I guess you can only get daily emails with Smartcoach if you pay. Not going to happen.

I'm pretty excited to be actually following a structured plan. I've never really done speed work before. Mostly just winged it occasionally. The only thing that isn't in my plan is hills. I live in a city full of hills and the Seattle half is known for being a bit hilly. I doubt it's worse than the Kirkland half but I want to be prepared so I need to find a space to fit in hill workouts. I may just add a day as my plan has me running four days a week. I'm used to three days a week so four seemed a reasonable next step. I'll figure it out. I could also plan my training runs around hills, which is really easy as I live on a hill. I usually do all my long runs on the nice, paved, and flat trail but maybe every other long run I'll do a neighborhood run to get extra hills in and be as prepared as I can be. I'm excited, my husband was right, I don't want to end racing for the year and I am very much looking forward to it.

8/29 - 8/31 2011

2011-09-04T21:31:00.000-07:00

This post is going to be pretty short and sweet.

Monday 8/29:
I decided to try some speed work. I never do speed work. Ever. I ran one mile, nice and easy to warm up, at 12:47. I didn't have a specific plan, so I just started sprinting and decided to make it a tenth of a mile and then recovering. I did that a couple times in mile two, slowing way down and sometimes walking to recover. My mile two time ended up at 12:05. For mile three I decided to try to hold a faster pace for a mile. I would have made it except that I had changed my mind on how far I would go and got confused and slowed down for a bit before I realized that I really wasn't confused to begin with and picked it up again. I passed a couple of runners doing this make shift tempo pace, which felt kind of nice. I was trying very hard to push myself and keep between an 10 and 11mm. Mile three ended at 10:53. Not too shabby. For mile four I decided to throw in some sprints again and ended that mile at 11:09. Mile five was my cool down mile and I ran it in 12:32.

Overall it was a pretty good run. Speed work is not that easy. You really have to push yourself, which I love and hate at the same time. I feels good to know that I can push myself but at the time I'm wondering, why am I doing this? I want to get back to my 11mm easy paces. That's my first goal. To be where I used to be before injury and weight gain and a major depressive episode. I'm slowly losing weight, I'm now medicated and doing very well mentally, and things are heading in the right direction. As a long term goal, I just want to try to be the best runner that I can be and enjoy it for as long as possible. I will be incorporating speed work regularly from now on.

Tuesday 8/30:
Cross training! Something I need to do more of and I'm starting to get into strength training routine, which is good, but I should vary my cardio too. I looked at the pool schedule and saw there was a lap swim at 8:30pm. Perfect. Plenty of time to make, eat, and digest my dinner beforehand. I tried my best to keep count of my laps, which is actually pretty difficult to do. I have have under counted but I'm pretty sure I did a total of 650 yards. I haven't swum laps in over 10 years so I think I did pretty darn well. I alternated between crawl and breast stroke, taking lots of breaks between laps. Breast stroke was definitely the most tiring and I didn't do quite as many laps of it. It felt good but I was spent. A little while later I had an ache in my shin area on my right leg. It felt like I tweaked something from the breast stroke kick. Based on where the pain is, it's the only thing that makes sense. I figured it was just muscle soreness and went to bed.

Wednesday 8/31:
Got up early to run with my friend around the lake. That muscle soreness in my shin? Not so sure it's entirely muscle. It was hurting when I was running but it would come and go in waves. It would be dull for a bit then start to ache a lot, then go back to being dull. It didn't match my stride, no matter if I tried to change it. I was never so happy to end a run at two miles before. I was so sore! I was able to walk okay but the running was out. I went home and rolled my calf (I was having pain there too) and then taped my shin with kineseo tape. I also took a couple of aleve and hoped for the best. I didn't feel it at all the rest of the day.

The next day it was still there, though not as bad. I didn't take anything for it but left the tape on. I figured it couldn't hurt anything. The ache still comes and goes and random but is getting better every day. I'm still afraid to try running on it, but I think I'm ready to give it a go tomorrow morning. Today, a lot of my joints are aching (thanks a lot female hormones) and I'm not sure if my shin is 100% but I'm hoping it's good enough to run on without pain.

August 22-27 update

2011-08-28T12:33:00.000-07:00

I managed to make it out for three runs this week. I feel like my burn out phase is coming to an end and I'm really excited and happy to be just running.

Tuesday August 23rd:
Got up crazy early (for me) and met my friend at Greenlake. She was having an issue with her shoe so we stopped after two miles and walked the rest of the way. This was fine by me. I'd been struggling with my energy lately and this run was the perfect length for that morning. I don't remember feeling particularly tired or anything but I don't remember feeling great about it either. I had forgotten my garmin and so I used the RunKeeper app on my phone. I don't think it's as accurate but it's close enough. Happy I at least ran some.

Friday August 26th:
Got up somewhat early, for my day off anyway, and again met my friend at Greenlake. It was a gorgeous morning. Not too hot, the lake was sparkling in the sunshine, my energy felt good. I asked my friend how far she wanted to go and she said to let her know when we made it to two miles. Again, I forgot my garmin and used RunKeeper, it performed fine for us so at least I still had time and distance, which is all I really need. I let her know when we hit two miles and she asked me if I wanted to sprint to finish off the run then walk back to the car. I said sure, I never sprint. It was fun! We sprinted until we ran out of breath, about .10 of a mile. Not too shabby. I'm starting to think that maybe I should incorporate some short sprints into some of my runs. What would you call that, fartleks? Anyway, I felt freaking fantastic after this run. It was one of the best runs I've had in a long time and reminded me why I love running. I had a ton of energy, I was happy, got a lot done that day too. I couldn't way to go back to Greenlake on my own and do a longer run.

Saturday August 27th:
Got up a little after 8am. Made some oatmeal, had some coffee and then tinkered around on the Internet for a while. I did end up finally making it to Greenlake at about 10:30am. A little later than I originally planned but at least I still got there. It was another sunny day and the run started off really well. There were plenty of shady areas so the sunny areas didn't affect me too much. It was warmer than I would have liked but I kept moving. One I got to about halfway around the shady areas disappeared and I was in full sun. This made me somewhat nervous so when I hit two miles I decided to go ahead and walk for two minutes. I was sipping on my water every half mile also. I ran another mile before I decided that I would only be able to go around the lake twice so I stopped to walk while I ate a gu. I bought chocolate outrage to try and it was really yummy. It really does taste like chocolate frosting but within five to ten minutes or so I was thinking, "holy heartburn, Batman, I should not consume chocolate while running!"

My energy did start to pick up a bit after that, though, so that was good. Of course I was back on the shady side of the lake. I knew that I was warming up a bit much and that I was going to have a harder time in the sun the second time around. Thankfully, there's a little store and I was able to buy a gatorade. I took a couple sips of that then carried it for the rest of my run and I was able to make it the rest of the way back to my car. Total miles was 5.6. Longest run I've done since my last half on August 6th. I stopped to cool down and stretch and drink some gatorade and then I was fine. No dizziness, no nausea, just normal sweaty. Felt amazing.

My step-son had wanted to go swimming and I promised him that we could go to the outdoor pool. Seattle only has two outdoor pools and one is pretty close to our house. I just needed to finish up the grocery shopping first so I got that done then we drove to the pool. I spent an hour in the pool and had a great time but ended up crashing early, lol. I was beat.

I'm sure there will be a couple of early morning runs with my friend this week. I may do an extra run on my own during the week as well as my weekend run. I've already decided on my next half. It's not until March but it's for colorectal cancer funding and that's a disease that is very close to my heart. My step-dad, my dad for all intents and purposes since I don't really know my real dad, was diagnosed, treated for, and is healing from rectal cancer. He had a tumor that was between stage 2 and 3. He under went 6 weeks of radiation and then had to have surgery 2 months after that. He survived and is now doing well. I'm at higher risk for colorectal cancer myself, as is my mother, so I decided that this would be my first race that I would fund raise for. They don't even have a date yet and registration isn't open yet so this is kind of far future planning but better to be prepared than to procrastinate.

South Beach, Heat, and Running

2011-08-16T22:56:00.000-07:00

The Monday after my trail half I started on the South Beach diet. I did one run last week and my muscles felt a little weak but otherwise went okay. I'm in my second and last week of phase one and have been doing very well with it for the most part. My brain seems clearer and my mood and mental energy has definitely improved. I do notice a tad bit of muscle weakness but that's to be expected. Anyway, I decided to run for about an hour today. That's my new thing, running for time rather than distance, at least on weekdays. It just makes sense to do it that way. I started off really slow, trying to warm up. My legs were feeling much stronger than I expected and I kept trying to speed up a bit but I had two things holding me back.

The first thing was the heat. Now, I know to most of you our heat would be awesome running weather. For us, though, it was hot. We are not very acclimated to heat during a normal hot summer but this year we have been well under normal for pretty much the entire summer. We've only seen, I think, 8 or 9 days that went above 80 and I think 83 is the highest we've gotten at all this summer. Up until July we were mostly in 50-60 degree weather so you can see how we would not be acclimated to warmer temps. Today was about 75-76 with a heat index of about 80. Not sure what the humidity was, forgot to look. It felt a bit muggy but not too bad. So, there was the heat slowing me down.

The second thing was my lungs. I have a very mild form of asthma and I take a daily maintenance inhaler, twice a day. That is usually good for me and I rarely have to use my rescue inhaler but I always have it with me, just in case. My lungs have not been feeling quite right for at least a few days and I've noticed that when I take my inhaler I can't taste it. I looked up when I refilled it and it was only about two and half weeks ago and I can hear that there's still plenty of medicine in it. I use an aero chamber to take that inhaler to better ensure that I'm getting the full dose. I don't remember how long I've had that aero chamber but I do know I've never cleaned it and it was very foggy looking. I started thinking that my inhaler was absorbing onto the walls of the aero chamber before it had much chance to reach my mouth. So, I took my inhaler without it tonight, and I tasted it. Success! I also took my aero chamber apart and cleaned it really well. We'll see how it does in the morning.

My asthma is also tied to allergies. I've been having a little increased allergy symptoms so I went ahead and took an allergy pill as well. Hopefully within a day or two the cough will be gone and I'll feel like I can fully catch my breath again. I kept trying to run faster today but every time I did I would run out of breath and start to feel like I was going to have an asthma attack. I did have to take a few walk breaks too, which makes me feel like a failure on a short four mile run. It is what it is and at least I tried and still made the distance. My next planned run is on Thursday so I should feel a difference with my breathing by then.

Grand Ridge Trail Half

2011-08-07T13:56:00.000-07:00

I registered for this race months ago when I had only run one half marathon so far and was looking to do one every month. Crazy, I know. I came across this one and thought it sounded like it'd be a fun adventure. It wasn't until after I had registered that I realized it was supposed to have about 2,000 feet of elevation gain. I trained on trails as much as I could and the steepest ones I could find near my house. I knew that my ass was most likely going to be handed to me on a silver platter and that I would be really slow.

I woke up at about 6:45 and ate my standard oatmeal and banana breakfast along with a cup of coffee that I brought with me for the drive there. Got ready, had everything packed the night before, froze my water bottle, and was ready to go. I got almost half way to the freeway when I realized I left my frozen water bottle in the freezer. I knew I had to have it so I turned around and went back home for. Drive to the freeway, take two. Being fairly early on a Saturday the freeway was clear. Going across the floating bridge was really pretty with the sun shining. I made it to the trail just over an hour early. Perfect. I parked and followed people to where I could pick up my bib. There was no shirt and goody bag for this race. It's a local trail series and there's an option to buy this year's shirt but I opted not to. The race was really cheap since you didn't get a shirt and stuff, which I don't mind. I have plenty.

Got my bib on and left everything but what I needed for the run in my car. Got in the potty line, which moved remarkably fast. Trail people are awesome! They delayed the start of the race by about 10 minutes to allow everyone to get to use the potties, as there's none on the trail. This race was sold out at 300 people so it was pretty small. The director went over the course with us, explaining the trail markers and what direction to turn, etc. We were off and the first half mile was pretty flat and I was feeling good. I've been eating well and hydrating all week so that I would be at the top of my game. Then it came time to start climbing. I walked the hills and ran wherever it was flat or downhill. The first couple of miles there were three women behind me, chatting up a storm, explaining that they were old high school friends. I didn't mind, gave my mind something to listen to other than myself. Those three eventually passed me and I found myself alone. I was alone for most of the race, convince I was in last place. I kept telling myself that it didn't matter, it only mattered that I toughed it out and finished.

The course went up into the mountains a bit and the half marathon course had a long out and back portion. On my way to the turn around point I was often passed by people already on their way back. Just about every single person who passed me said something encouraging. Including a man who looked to be in his 60's, with bleeding knees. I should be giving him encouragement, he was doing the 50k. I love trail people!

I got a point where there was a long, steep, downhill portion. I didn't see a single person on their way back running it. I knew that I would have to eventually climb back up that too. I've already done a lot of climbing at this point and was not looking forward to more. There was one aid station on the course, which you pass by twice. I filled up my water bottle both times. I was sweating like I've never sweated before and going through a lot of water. My visor was dripping and that's never happened to me before. I didn't feel bad though, it was shady and the temps were fairly low. At one point I felt a sharp pinch on my arm and found a large mosquito positioned there. Luckily, that was the only bug bite I received yesterday.

Mile 9 was pretty much all uphill, that steep portion that I had run down earlier. I pretty much walked this entire mile and forced myself to start jogging again when the trail leveled out.

I was never so happy to reach mile 10 in a race before, however, three miles still seemed like a long way to go. I got to where I was coming back down towards the trail that leads back to the finish. It was very steep and my knees were not happy about it. My toe was killing me too. My left foot was really good at kicking rocks and roots and anything it could catch on to make me almost trip. My right foot enjoyed trying roll my ankle on the rocks. My toe is a little sore today but other than that I came out uninjured. I kept thinking to myself that PNW trail runners were a bunch of masochists. Especially the ultra runners. That sh!t is hard!

When I got back to the original trail I realized that it wasn't flat, it was a gradual downhill, which was now a gradual uphill. I was spent. I was tired, my legs hurt, my toe hurt, my back hurt. I kept trying to run but kept stopping to walk. When I realized I had less than a half mile left, I talked myself into jogging the rest of the way and to not finish walking. The finish was a little closer than I thought and as I was coming in they looked up my bib number and called me by name as I reached the finish. Everyone was really nice and proud of me. The seemed really surprised that I chose a half marathon for my first trail race. I finish in 4:03:02. I was hoping to finish in under four hours and I came really close so I'm happy about that. About all they had left for post race food that I could eat was grapes and I stood there for a couple minutes just eating grapes. Then I pottied and headed back to my car.

This was by far the hardest run I've ever done. It was a good way to end this year of racing for me. If I ever do another trail race I may stick to a smaller distance and train a lot more than I did for this one. I had to take a detour for the drive home, due to the Blue Angels doing their annual Seafair show. I did get to see them fly right over the freeway, which I thought was pretty darn cool.

Instead of posting my splits, here's a link to my garmin info where you can see my splits, elevation profile, and the map if you're intereted.

For those who love pics, I knew I'd be doing plenty of walking and took lots of pics. They can be found here.

Thanks for reading, I know it was long.

Last trail training run, didn't go so well

2011-07-30T16:16:00.000-07:00

My trail half marathon is in exactly one week from today. That's right, only seven days to go. I have not done nearly as much trail training as I would have liked but I did at least get some training done. Today my plan was to keep looping through the trails at Carkeek Park for 10-12 miles. Um, right, that didn't happen. Not even close. First off, I left feeling like I should have drank more water and less coffee this morning. I did drink water and brought some along with me so I thought I'd be okay. Secondly, it was hot. Like 80 degrees hot, which for us this year might as well be a record temperature. Third, my eating lately hasn't been all that great. All these things combined made for a very tough run. I was thirsty, low on energy, kept getting side cramps, and sweating my ass off. Well, everywhere else anyway. No matter what I do my ass never seems to decrease in size. I also jarred my ankle a couple times. I didn't fully twist it or sprain it but I did jar it. Not enough to stop me, make me limp, and it isn't swollen. It's just sore and letting me know that it's not happy. Thankfully I have some kinseo tape and that's making it feel better. I did end up making it five miles, which isn't too bad for a regular day but no where near where I'd hoped to be at today. The inclines in this park and steep, there is nothing gradual. Some of the hills are so steep that they built in steps. Needless to say I did a lot of walking during this "run." I'm okay with that. I knew that I would have to do some walking and even had it in my head that walk breaks were going to be necessary to get through a trail half. I didn't do any kind of scheduled walk/run thing. I simply ran when I could, walked when I either needed to or thought I should to not over do it. For the most part this worked out for me. I did do more walking this time that I did last time I ran these trails, but, like I said, there were mistakes. My 24oz water bottle was already more than half gone by the time I made it to four miles also. I was dehydrated. Plain and simple.

This run wasn't a total failure though. Though there were mistakes there were some victories too. Small, but victories nonetheless. This was to be my practice run. I wore what I plan to wear on race day and tried some new things that I decided to try after my last trail run. The first new thing was double socks. Because of the nature of trails, my feet slide around a lot more in my shoes than they do when I run on the road. To alleviate this problem I decided to try doubling up on socks. This worked very well and I didn't feel any hot spots forming and my feet look and feel perfect. I also decided to put my laces through the last hole to give them some extra stability and it worked well. So, that's what I'll do on race. The second thing I did was to wear this running skirt commando. I've only done this once before with a different running skirt and that had worked out well so I didn't feel so weird or afraid to try it with this one. Most of my running skirts are made to be worn without underwear anyway. After getting some good tips on peeing in the woods I came to the conclusion that commando would work best, if the need came up during my race, which is inevitably does during half marathons for me. I wanted to make sure there wouldn't be any chaffing issues in any particularly uncomfortable areas. It was fine and I had even forgotten that I technically wasn't wearing any underwear. My waist pack worked well and my new camera back attached to my waist pack worked out also. Now I'll be all set to take pics during my many walk breaks next weekend.

I was mostly disappointed a afraid that I am going to totally fail at a trail half. However, I decided that even if I end up hiking more of it than I run, it will still be worth the experience. I already know that it's impossible to get a PR, everyone is slower on trails. That's okay. I just need to make sure that I eat very healthy this week and hydrate, hydrate, hydrate! This will also be, most likely, my last race of the year. I accidentally over extended myself one paycheck and then had some other things come up and I need to budget myself for a while so that I can catch up on my finances. Racing isn't necessary for me. It used to be, it used to be how I kept myself motivated to keep walking out the door. I don't need that motivation anymore. Running is necessary for me mentally and I will always have motivation to get out there, race or no race. I think this will also help me to enjoy my running more. No more pressure on myself, no more training plans. Just going out there and running for however long I feel like it and for the pure enjoyment of it. I'm kind of looking forward to it actually. So, this will be my last blog until after my half next weekend. Wish me luck and I'll definitely reporting back with lots of pictures of the beauty of the pacific northwest.

See Jane Run Half Marathon

2011-07-21T21:33:00.000-07:00

This was the first year that the See Jane Run half marathon and 5k was held in Seattle. The start and finish line was at Gasworks Park. The course was a bit weird, it had a couple of out and backs plus a loop, but all areas I was familiar with. I felt very confident going into this race. I knew the terrain, knew where the hills were, and felt trained and ready for this to be my best half marathon of the three.

I got there a little over an hour early and already the parking lot was full. I found a spot on the street not too far away and walked over to the park to find where to pick up my bib and goodie bag. The first thing I found, however, was the bracelets for the champagne garden after the race. I did find where the bib pick up was and got my bib and my goodie bag.

They didn't have my size shirt but said they were on there way and I'd be able to get it after the race. Ok, as long as I get it. I sat down and went through my bag to see what was inside. Nothing too exciting. I put my stuff in the bag and started to walk around and take pictures.
Here's the start/finish line before people started lining up.

I had thought about using the bathroom but the lines were so long I decided that I would just go on the course when I needed to. Here's some perspective of the length of the lines.

Here is a shot I got of the old gas works, where the park got its name.

They did a fun little warm up shortly before the race started. It wasn't really clear where and how people were supposed to line up so there were two lines waiting to start. The start was very disorganized which caused a lot of us to have to weave around the walkers. The start was also not staggered and it was really cluttered at first but it thinned out once we got on the road. The first few miles were pretty boring, my only complaint was that at the turn around point when the faster people were coming back, not all of them were doing a very good job of sharing the narrow path. As a result I got scratched/burned by someones arm band when they tried to pass a group going the other way. Other than the congestion it wasn't too bad at all and I was able to settle into a comfortable pace.
Mile 1-12:27
Mile 2-12:09
Mile 3-11:49
So far, so good. The next three miles I continued to feel pretty good. I knew where the hills were and ran up them just fine. Made it all the way around Lake Union with only two minor setbacks. First, I had to potty, which always takes about five minutes off my time, and two, my timing chip was chaffing the crap out of my ankle so I stopped to tie it to my shoe. I have two scratches on my ankle but it's minor. Here's me around mile five. See, I look good and strong here.

Mile 4-11:48
Mile 5-15:58 <---potty break
Mile 6-12:20 <---small hill

I continued to do well through miles seven and eight. There were a couple more hills around mile eight but not too bad and I pushed through.
Mile 7-11:43
Mile 8-12:54

About this point is where I start to fall apart. From this point on is a struggle and I'm resorting to a run/walk. I just lost my energy. I was feeling great and then I started to get tired and instead of a second wind, which I normally get, I just got more tired. I didn't feel this bad in my first half marathon until later in the race and that one was full of hills. I was determined to finish and lost all hope of achieving the PR that I wanted. Oh well, it's not really about the PR's. Finishing a half marathon is no easy feat, at least not for me. I started to play leap frog with a man and woman and eventually she started chatting with me. Her husband was kind enough to get a picture of me since I always race alone and rely on myself for getting pictures. It was really nice of them. They had offered to get my picture at the finish but I ended up pulling ahead of them and didn't see them again. I was desperate to just get to the finish line and be done. My feet were hurting, my legs were aching, my knee was giving me trouble, and I was just plain tired. Finally, I could see the finish line and gave it was little I had left. Here's me almost at the finish.

Yes, I am done!

Mile 9-12:36
Mile 10-13:01
Mile 11-13:53
Mile 12-13:27
Mile 13-13:27
Mile .1-11:33 <---not much gas left at all.
Final time: 2:48:59

I debated whether or not to even have some champagne but in the end I decided, why not? When was I going to have the opportunity not only to actually be able to enjoy an alcoholic beverage after a race (can't drink beer), but to indulge in champagne, something I would never buy for myself. I got my champagne glass, which was filled with chocolate, removed the chocolate, and got my glass filled.

Here's me with my champagne, happy to be finished.

Here's the shirt (yay, they had my size when I came back!) and the medal.

As it turned out, I woke up with a cold the next day so that's probably why I fell apart the way I did. I still had a good time, despite the rain and our gloomy Seattle weather this summer. This is my third half marathon in three months which qualifies me for Half Fanatics. Woohoo, I'm a fanatic! I have one more half marathon on August 6th. After that I'm going to take a break from racing and just enjoy running.

July 10, 2011

2011-07-10T20:40:00.000-07:00

I'm really trying to get caught up around here and then stay that way. No sense in having a running blog if I'm not going to write about my running. Sorry for so many posts in one day, but hey, at least you get to see lots of pics!

I ran 8.5 miles yesterday but had wanted to do 10. I hadn't been feeling well for a couple days before so it didn't surprise me that I wasn't up to 10 miles. I did want to get some good quality miles before my next half marathon so I decided to do the 5k loop around Greenlake today. I didn't have any real plans for this run until I got there. Originally I was thinking I'd warm up for the first half mile or so and then try a tempo run. A half mile wasn't quite enough and I decided to try making this a progression run instead. I took it pretty easy the first mile and then tried to pick it up for the next two miles. It was 75 with a heat index of 78. Humidity was at 48% but I swear it felt muggier than that by the lake. I bought some new spray on sunscreen that is supposed to be ultra sweat proof and decided to give it a try. I knew I wasn't going to be out there very long but when you're pale like me it doesn't take long to burn. I started to get a side cramp and just kept telling myself to push through it. My diaphragm needed to be re-taught that it could let me breath while running faster than 12 and a half minutes per mile. I used to get side cramps a lot and they would always go away so I wasn't worried. I did a very good job with completing a progression run. My splits were as follows.

Mile 1-12:08
Mile 2-11:34
Mile 3-11:08

I even managed to run the last 0.1 at a 10:42 pace. Because of the heat that I'm not acclimated to quite yet, I was sweating like crazy. My forearms were dripping sweat and I didn't even know they could do that. I came home and had some chocolate milk and a beer while I made dinner. Not at the same time but the beer just sounded really good. I'm not entirely sure that it wasn't the sunscreen that made me so sweaty. I'll keep trying it and see how it goes. It could very well be that it was just a little hot and muggy and I was pushing myself harder than normal.

This run greatly boosts my confidence because this is about where I was last year, speed wise, and after having come back from an injury and a mysterious hip thing, I was beginning to believe that I was never going to be able to run faster. I really should do more speed work type runs like this. It's really good for me both mentally and physically. I really want a new personal record in my next race and now I have more confidence that I'll get it. My next run will be on Wednesday and it will just be an easy 4-5 miles. Then I rest until race day.

Carkeek Park trail run pictures

2011-07-10T20:29:00.000-07:00

This was by far the most challenging trail I have done. Lots of incline. I will definitely be coming back.

Rock & Roll pics

2011-07-10T20:17:00.001-07:00

These were the few pictures I took during the Rock & Roll half marathon.

People starting to line up.

More of the crowd getting ready.

My corral, a little farther back than middle of the pack but that's okay.

Yay, the starting line!

The first band on the course.

Cool decoration within the first mile. It was the only one.

Got these at the expo the day before and used them for the race. I've been using both ever since.

Close up of the medal. I really like this one, it sparkles.

Bib, shirt, and medal.

I know, I'm way behind again.

2011-07-10T12:45:00.000-07:00

I just haven't had the energy to post after my runs lately. I think the warmer temps and not so great electrolyte repleshment hasn't helped much with the energy factor. I have recently started switching to a different brand that has a higher amount of electrolytes and I think they're working much better for me. I'm not so salt craving after my runs and I'm not so wiped out feeling. So, where did I leave off? Oh yeah, I don't believe I wrote about the Rock&Roll half.

Sorry, I don't have pics for this one. I only took a couple on course and haven't captured the official pics yet. I'll make a picture post sometime to catch up. The race itself went exceptionally well compared to my first half marathon. I got up at the ass crack of dawn to get ready to go. The girls were volunteering so they got up really early with me. I ate a banana and starting drinking some water and we were off. Because the girls were volunteering I got a free parking pass, saving me $20 in parking. Win! Unfortunately the parking was a good half mile from where the volunteer tent was. We made it to the volunteer tent, turned in their wavers, said goodbye and I had to walk back to where I parked because that's where all the shuttles were to take people to the starting line.

While I was in line for the shuttle I attached my timing chips and my bib. It didn't take nearly as long as I thought it would to get on the shuttle, seemed they had a pretty good system going. The only issue with the shuttles was that they were school buses and therefore very bumpy. Got to the starting line drop off area and decided to check my bag right away. Then I headed for the potties. There were plenty and the lines weren't too long. I didn't realize ahead of time how long it was going to take for my corral to actually make it to the starting line or I would have waited to go potty. Oh well, no harm done.

When it was time for the race to start we were able to hear the announcers and the national anthem. About 40 minutes later, we were finally off. By that time I was shivering from just standing around. I took it nice and easy to start out with, I didn't want to burn out too early. My goal was to run the entire thing and beat my time from the kirkland half. It was overcast and was looking like it was going to rain but it never did. Overcast and upper 50's is perfect running weather, in my opinion. It didn't seem like it took very long to get to the first band. The bands were pretty spaced out and unfortunately their music faded quickly after passing them so there was a lot more quiet time during this race than I thought there'd be. I was feeling strong and doing well but eventually I had to make a pit stop. I don't know why I can't get through a long run without one. I lost about five minutes standing in line waiting for the potty but what else could I do? I was only about halfway there and knew I couldn't hold it for another seven miles.

The rest of the race went pretty well. The inclines were easier than I expected them to be and not once did I stop to walk a hill which is a huge accomplishment for me. At around mile 10 is where I really started to feel it. My feet were hurting, my legs were getting tired, and I felt I needed the bathroom again. I knew I could make it to the finish line though so I just kept pushing. I was never so happy so see a finish line, not even at the kirkland half. I felt spent and my feet were killing me. Made it across the finish line and somehow managaed to even kick it up a notch. Got my medal, got my picture, grabbed a sports drink and a banana and headed to find the girls. I texted them that I was done and started stretching while I waited for them. They were finishing up their free lunch that was provided for volunteers. All three of us were pretty tired and really didn't feel like sticking around for the concert or to walk around and get samples of stuff. My feet have never hurt this bad after a race and I just wanted to get to the car so I could sit.

Surprisingly, my legs fared well and I was barely sore after this race. My feet hurting was probably a sign that it was about time to retire my shoes. I've done a few more runs with those shoes, one with my new pair that I bought months ago and have been patiently waiting in my closet. Yesterday I ran 8.5 miles in the old shoes and while the run itself went well, it's definitely time to retire them. It happens and the new shoes are exactly the same shoe so it's no big deal really. My next race is one week from today. It's the SeeJaneRun half marathon and I'm very much looking forward to this one. It's on a route that I'm very familiar with, is almost completely flat, and is the race I've been looking forward to as being my best half marathon of the year.

2011-06-17T23:19:00.000-07:00

My schedule for today called for a ten mile long run. I was actually looking forward to it, not dreading it. The Rock and Roll half marathon is next weekend and I knew that my completing a ten mile long run this weekend would boost my confidence. Not so much, as it turns out. The day started off fine. I got up, ate some oatmeal, took the kids to school, and then went to an appointment. I got home, snacked on a larabar and then proceeded to get ready to go run. I couldn't decided whether I wanted to wear a tank or a tee but ended up deciding on a tank in the end. The weather was low 60's but bright and sunny. I'm used to 50's and overcast. I drove all the way down to the beach where I wanted to start my run. I originally wanted to start closer to the beach but at 11am all the parking spots were already taken. Seattle people get really excited for sunshine, even when it's not hot. I ended up parking next to the trail, no big deal, and then realized I forgot my running watch. There was no way I could do my run without it so I got right back in the car and drove home to get it.

Take two, back to the beach, park in the same spot next to the trail. I'd been having slight troubles with my breathing for the last few days but was able to get a refill on my inhaler and this morning I was feeling better. So I thought. I didn't have any trouble breathing on my run, at least not until the end. Everything was going fine, I was too hot at first but quickly adjusted to the warmer temps. One thing I've noticed, I can't seem to get very far into a long run without having to pee. It doesn't matter that I go right before I leave, within a couple miles I have to go, and then I'm fine the rest of the run. I have no idea what's with that or how to fix it. Hopefully the potty lines at Rock and Roll will be better than at the Kirkland half.

I was taking it easy, running nice and slow, maintaining about a 12 and a half minute pace. At mile four I took my first gel. I bought some eGels to try. I like that they have a lot more sodium than GU because I am a really salty sweater. It was right around mile six that I starting feeling fatigued. My legs were getting achy and tired and I didn't know why. I did a 5.6 mile run without any problems just a couple days ago and last weekend I did eight miles without incident. I really struggled for the rest of my run and you can see it in my splits.

Mile 1 12:41
Mile 2 12:32
Mile 3 12:31
Mile 4 12:38
Mile 5 12:44
Mile 6 13:24 <---First walk break
Mile 7 13:45 <---Yep, another quick walk break
Mile 8 13:34 <---Stopped to walk while I took my gel
Mile 9 14:43 <---Struggled to keep running at all
Mile 10 12:56 <---Forced myself to not walk the last mile

That last mile was harder than the last mile of my half marathon last month. Breathing was starting to feel wonky and I was having some serious heartburn. I had run out of my acid reflux medication and it really showed. I've also been not getting as much sleep as usual this week and I think that contributed to having such a tough run. That mixed with warmer temps and possibly a bit of over hydration. Warmer temps, I believe, trick me into thinking I need more water than I really do. I always end up feeling really icky and a little nauseous before the end of the run. Either that or I'm just so used to cooler and cloudy weather that the warmer temps are affecting me. It's not hot, not anywhere near summer weather yet, but we have been below normal for a long time and are just now getting normal temps, all of a sudden.

Afterwards I came home, stretched, showered, and took my husband to run a few errands. We ordered pizza for dinner and it was around this time that I started to feel tired. After I ate I passed out for a couple hours. I woke up not feeling well and had a bad headache. Not sure exactly what caused the headache but I'm feeling really thirsty and my water is not quenching it. I went to the store and bought a Gatorade and took some Excedrin. I'm starting to feel better so maybe I need more electrolyte replacement after my long runs. I'm good at taking the gels during my runs but I don't do much after. I can't drink Gatorade when I'm running, it sloshes around in my stomach and makes me sick. I have no problems drinking it when I'm not being active though so maybe I need it as a recover?

All in all I'm glad I toughed it out and finished the full ten miles, walking less than I really wanted to. If conditions are better for me for next Saturday I'm sure it'll be a PR race. This Sunday I have a 10k but I'm just running it as a training run. I was supposed to run a 10k last month but got sick and I was able to defer my registration for this month. It's a monthly series, and local, and the race director is very accommodating.

Susan G Komen Race for the Cure 5k

2011-06-06T20:27:00.000-07:00

On Sunday, June 5th, I ran the Race for the Cure 5k. I did the women's only 5k. It's the first race to get going and with only women there aren't quite as many people as the coed 5k. The day before the race, when I went to pick up my packet, one of my step-daughters had come with me and decided she wanted to volunteer. That, of course, led to her sister wanting to volunteer as well.

Because this is such a big event the parking lots in the area charge event parking prices so the girls and I took the bus downtown. We got there a little after 7:30 and the first thing we did was get the girls signed up to volunteer. They were told to head to the start line so we all headed over there together. I stopped to drop off my backpack at the bag check and then left the girls for them to go do their thing while I waited for my race to start. Here's a couple of shots I took of the crowd shortly before the race started.

The race got started right on time and we were off. I forgot to start my garmin right away but realized it not too far after the starting line. I didn't really have any specific goal for this race. My speed is still trying to get back to where it used to be before the couple of injuries I had and having done this race last year I knew it wasn't flat. I just wanted to do the best I could and have fun.

Not too long after we passed the start line we went past the EMP. For my non-Seattle friends the long name is, Experience Music Project.

The day was sunny and clear and about 60 degrees. In the direct sunshine it was a little hot for running but last year this race was cold and rainy. I'd rather have sunshine. I took some water at the water stop mostly because my mouth was dry. At the turn around there was a van from a local radio station blasting music to motivate everyone and let you know you were half way there. The second have is where most of the incline is and I did have to stop and walk for a minute at one point, just as we were about to pass the Moore Theater.

This race was tough on me when there was no shade. Usually Seattle is breezy, not this morning. When I passed the water stop again I took a very small sip and then dumped it over my head. I have never done that before and boy, what a refresher! When we came around to the last hill before the three mile mark I was determined not to let this hill get the better of me. Slow and steady I made it to the top of the hill. I had a brief moment of my legs not wanting to work correctly once I made it to flat ground but after a short walk break I was able to pick it up again and finish strong. Total time was 34:30. Slower than I ran it last year but I was better trained then, it was a lot cooler, and we are experience 20 degree warmer temps than what we've been acclimated to for months now. Still, I was pretty happy with how I did overall. Here is my garmin info, if anyone is interested.

After the race I met up with the girls. They were just about done doing there volunteer thing and were anxious to go walk around. We made sure to hit all the booths and to get all the free samples we could carry. We stopped by the Ford booth and got our Warrior's in Pink photo taken.
We got free flip flops from Old Navy, pink of course. We all got our faces painted.

There were belly dancers too. The Seahawks drum band was playing at the finish line, which was really cool actually. This year's t-shirt and bib.

The girls had so much fun that they asked me about volunteering for the Rock and Roll half marathon that I'm running at the end of the month. They are all signed up and the three of us are looking forward to another shared adventure. I may not be able to get them to run with me but volunteers are better anyway. Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed!

Kirkland Half Marathon 5/8/11

2011-05-29T13:30:00.000-07:00

I know that I am very late in writing this up. After the race and the day after I had very little energy and since then I've simply been busy with work and life. I've come down with a cold and can't run for now so I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to update everyone on how my first half marathon went.

It started out with waking up at 5:30am. I ate a bowl of quinoa flakes for breakfast, got myself ready to go and left the house about 6:15. I got there at about 6:45 and had to drive around a bit to find some parking. Found a parking spot, walked over to where the race was and stood in line to get my bib, timing chip, and shirt. I got a women's large, which I always do. They said they run a little small. A little small didn't even begin to describe. I think they accidentally made them child sized. I could barely get the thing on. Anyway, I got my bib and chip and as I was putting my chip on my shoe the zip tie snapped. I had to go over to day of registration area and get another zip tie. Got that handled and walked around for a bit before checking my things and relinquishing my jacket. It was low 50's and sprinkling off and on. I had worn my black t-shirt, my leopard and purple running skirt, and my arm warmers. I felt that I had dressed appropriately for the conditions. As I was walking around a friend that I had met through Runner's World online forums spotted me. I stood with her and her mom for a while and then decided it was time to check my things in. I decided to wear my hydration belt because I like to drink water on my own terms and wasn't sure if the water stops were close enough together. I did take water at the water stops to preserve my water and that worked out fine.

The first mile was mostly uphill. Not the happiest way to start a race.

You can see some people leaning forward. It's hard to do hills justice with a camera. Most of the race was rolling hills. Not too steep and had plenty of downhills to compensate for the uphills. They said they changed the course this year so that it had less of an overall incline. I don't think I would have want to run it in previous years if that's the case. I walked when I needed to, mostly on the uphills. I got into a good pace and the sun even came out from time to time. It was right around mile six that I was warm enough to take off my arm warmers. It was also right around this time that I needed to go to the bathroom. I had stopped at one port-o-pottie and gave up when the line was taking too long. By the next port-o-pottie I knew I'd have to wait. I was getting side cramps from having a full bladder. This line was shorter but it still took away a good seven minutes from my running. This a race people, what the hell is taking so long to drop your pants, do your business, and get the hell out? Next time I'm making sure I use the bathroom ahead of time.

I saw a photographer right around here as well and made sure to try to smile. I think I look pretty decent for being almost halfway there.

The thing I like best about this picture is that you can actually see some muscle in my leg. All this running is actually paying off in some way.

We were wondering around Kirkland and I was totally lost until I came up on something familiar. I've been here a few times with my husband and I knew it was far from where the race started. That really helped to put the miles into perspective for me. Not too long after we passed The Keg, we ended up near the water. I was able to get a few pictures.

Not too long after this we made it to the 10 mile marker. That's the farthest I've ever run before. For the next three miles I was running in unfamiliar zones. I was nervous and excited. My legs didn't really want to stop moving and they wanted to die at the same time. It's like when you're on a bike for a while, you're legs feel funny if you stop. That's how my legs were feeling. There was this old guy who was shuffling along very loudly. He had stopped to walk but started running again when I caught up to him. He was really annoying, to be honest, and I couldn't let him beat me. Thankfully we hit a steep downhill and I was able to out run him. We ended up on what I believe was part of the Birke Gilman Trail. It was pretty. I didn't take any pictures here, I was just trying to get to the finish line at this point. I had less than two miles to go. When I saw the mile marker for mile 12 I was so happy. I knew that I only had 12-13 minutes left. It was the longest mile ever! We came around a bend and people were telling me that I was almost there. Finally, I saw the finish line. I couldn't have been happier. I crossed the finish line, got my medal, and proceeded to walk around a bit. My legs were beat and I was afraid to stop moving. I went back towards to finish line to look for my friend and congratulate her. It was her first half marathon as well. We got our pictures taken, walked around to check out the booths and get some freebies, then I called my brother and my friend and her mom left.

My brother met me at the park and we went back to his place and he cooked me breakfast. We chatted a bit and I played with his dog and then I decided I better head home. The soreness was already starting to set in. I had somehow screwed up my garmin and I don't have any data on my splits or the elevation profile. I can tell you it was hilly and I finished with an official time of 2:56:00. I was happy to finish under three hours especially considering I wasn't properly trained and how hilly it was. The day after the race I ordered a 13.1 magnet to put on my car. I'm ecstatic that I ran a half marathon and I'm already looking forward to my next one!

Core Rock Riot Run 5K

2011-05-02T20:41:00.000-07:00

On Sunday, May 1st, I ran a local event called the Core Rock Riot Run. Core was the name of the main sponsor and I honestly don't know how they came up with the rest of the name but, whatever. This run was on part of the University of Washington Campus. In luei of registration fees, every participant was asked to bring a donation to be made to the Eastside Domestic Violence Program. All donations were to support survivors of sexual assault and relationship violence. I had pledged to bring body lotion but I also brought along a package of toilet paper. You can never have too much toilet paper.

This run wasn't scheduled to start until 11:20am. I liked the part where I didn't have to get up at the butt crack of dawn. The registration table was scheduled to open at 10am and I got there about 10:30. I parked, walked over to the starting line area, dropped off my donation and picked up my t-shirt and race bib. I'm not exactly sure why we had bibs as I didn't see any kind of timing device. Maybe just to show our involvement in the areas where there could be cars? Anyway. I had also acquired a new compact camera that I wanted just to take with me on runs. There's often things I would like to take pictures of to share but I phone doesn't do that great of a job. This race was my practice run with the new camera. Here's a majority of the participants waiting for the lineup to begin.

This is definitely the smallest race I have ever done. I kind of liked it that way. The only thing I really didn't like was the fact that almost all the participants were college kids (as in not much older than my step-daughters) and it kind of made me feel like the old fat lady in the crowd. I didn't let that get me down though. The speaker said a few words, most of which I couldn't understand because the loudspeaker wasn't very loud, and then we were off. This run turned out to be mostly a trail run. I wasn't expecting that but it was a pleasant surprise. It was flat and graveled and had beautiful scenery. I really had fun playing with my new little camera. This was shortly after the start of the race.

Some pretty scenery

That bridge in the back round is one of our floating bridges.

Husky Stadium

At the finish line there were some members of the marching band playing some tunes for all the runners as they came in. That was neat, they played very well and some very recognizable tunes, such as Lady GaGa.

I did much better than I thought I would, with my recent hip issues and lowered running times. I was consistently under 12 minutes a mile which made me happy. Here I am after the race, showing off my new running skirt.

Next Sunday is my big race so be prepared for that post to be much longer and much more picture heavy than this one. Thanks for reading!

Gearing up for my first half

2011-04-16T21:26:00.000-07:00

I had decided earlier this week that I would try a long run this weekend. Originally I wanted to run on Friday but I always have so many errands that it just wasn't going to work out. So, I decided that today was the day. I've been wanting to try a new route and have been thinking about where I could run for the last few days. It came to me last night. I decided that I would start out where I usually do on the Birke Gilman Trail, but when I got to Fremont I would veer off the trail and work my way around Lake Union. I've run around Lake Union once, for a race, and didn't really pay attention to where I was going. I was just following the other runners at the time. I knew from that race that the lake was six miles around. I wasn't sure exactly how many miles it would be from my starting point to the Fremont bridge but I knew it was somewhere between one and one and a half miles so I figured this run should be near nine miles long.

I woke up fairly early this morning, took my pills right away so I could eat sooner. Breakfast was quinoa flakes cereal with a little sugar and chopped almonds. I had to wait at least an hour to digest before I headed out. Had a nice chat with the hubby then decided to get ready to go. I stretched my hips really well before I left, hoping that would help with the hip problem I've been having. I also made myself do a quarter mile fast walk warm up to get my hip loosened up and ready to run. It worked! I started running and felt great. The weather was nice, partly cloudy and a little above 50 degrees. There was a breeze from time to time but it was very welcome. I did struggle a bit in the last couple miles because my leg muscles were beginning to protest. Other than that it was a really good run with very little difficulty. My total miles ended up being 8.6. That's the longest I've run so far this year.

I'm a bit sore already, not sure how waking up in the morning is going to feel but it's a good sore. My muscles needed that. My debut half marathon is only three weeks away and I need to know that I can make it. My legs need to be properly trained to make it. I've had many bumps along the way and training has not gone very well at all for the most part. I'm okay with that though. My only real goal for my first half is just to finish, upright, and possibly with a smile on my face.

A good run, it's about time

2011-04-12T21:47:00.000-07:00

My runs lately have been short, slow, and painful. I've had this nagging hip thing going on. My run today started off bad. So bad that I was taking walk breaks within the first mile. I was trying not to favor my hip but that's pretty much what I was doing. I realized that I had significantly shortened my stride to accommodate the pain I was feeling. It didn't hurt to walk at all, only when I swung my leg forward really. I had planned to run twice around the lake and was seriously thinking of calling it quits after only one time around. Then an idea dawned on me. Maybe I'm thinking too much and not doing. I decided to push myself and just try to run normally and see what happened. You know what happened? My hip pain got better and I fell into a nice, super easy pace. My pace had increased, however, which made me happy. I had to take a couple of short walk breaks due to phone issues but was able to pick it right back up again. I did make it around the lake twice today and my hip feels better after this run than it has after all of my recent runs. Barely any soreness at all, especially after getting out of the car. Usually, after it's rested a bit, I can barely stand on it until it loosens up again. Not so today, yipee! I feel so much more confident about running my first half marathon in a month.

It was a gorgeous day today. About 56 degrees, sunny, and a slight breeze. Perfect! The turtles were sunning themselves on their logs, the rowers were out on the lake, and there were lots of smiles on the faces of the people in general. When Seattle has nice days, they are REALLY nice. It so makes up for all the gloomy days. I was able to run in a running skirt and t-shirt and was perfectly comfortable. I am now looking forward to a quality long run on Friday or Saturday. I can't believe I'm less than four weeks away from my big race!

Trying to make yet another comeback

2011-04-02T19:29:00.000-07:00

This time, at least, I was out for only two weeks. I've been desperate for a run but I've been a good girl and have been letting my hip rest and heal. Before heading out today I made sure to do some stretching before I left and also made sure to do a warm up walk to kind of test out the hip before I got too far. The run started off alright. A little tough at first but the first mile is always tough. It was a long, gradual incline for almost the first mile. Not too bad, I did alright. I wasn't sure how long I was going to run for but I had decided that anywhere between two and five miles was good. I struggled with this run. Not because of my hip, mentally and physically otherwise. My legs felt tired and my lungs weren't cooperating and I kept getting a side cramp. I ended up taking a couple of walk breaks because of side cramps and fatigue. I chalked it all up to being off for two weeks, I know it'll come back quickly. My hip did seem to tighten up more the longer I ran, but it never got too painful, just a little nag. As soon as I got home I strapped my ice pack to it and set about eating a snack and drinking a protein shake. I took some aleve and then took a hot shower. After my shower I stretched really well and I haven't had any hip pain at all. This makes me very happy, and hopeful. My first half marathon is only five weeks away. I think I'll need to do a run/walk then and take it easy, which is fine with me. My only goal for my first half is just to finish, preferably in the upright position.

Another injury?

2011-03-20T10:59:00.000-07:00

I hope not, at least I hope it's only minor and will heal quickly. My hip was more sore than I wanted to admit after I last ran. It's still sore. I did some light hiking on Friday and I felt it the entire time. It's really hurting today so I've decided to go ahead and rest it and wait for the pain to go away before I try running on it again. I'm going to try to do some hip strengthening exercises as well and see if that helps. I'm really hoping this is minor and heals quickly, I've already paid for my first half marathon in May and really don't want to miss it. So, yeah, I'm feeling a bit bummed but I have hope.

Finally, a dry day

2011-03-16T19:58:00.000-07:00

I was going to run around Greenlake yesterday but when I got there I just couldn't bring myself to get out of my car. It was cold. And windy. And rainy. I'm sick of cold, wet, windy runs. I didn't want to do it. So I went home, but not all was lost. I just recently bought a used portable dvd player from ebay. I have two new workout dvd's that I had not yet tried. So, I went into my room, took off my shoes and socks, and proceeded to do Jillian Michael's Yoga Meltdown dvd. It was hard, I couldn't do it all, which didn't surprise me because everything from my hips up is weak. I was glad that I did something. Cross training is something that I really need to get better about actually doing.

Today started out nice. The sun was out, the rain had stopped, but the weather forecast called for more rain and possible thunder storms in the afternoon. Ugh, kill me now. Fortunately, Seattle got caught it what is called a rain shadow. This means that it did rain today in areas surrounding Seattle but it never reached us, it was just all around us. Works for me! My hip was sore again after doing the yoga workout last night but once I got warmed up it wasn't too bad at all. I took it nice and slow and enjoyed the dry weather and lighter winds. I think I ran it the slowest I have ever run that trail but whatever, at least I ran. The first thing I did when I got home was take some aleve and then roll my hip on my foam roller. It hurt like a sonofabitch but I know tomorrow I'll be happy I did it. Not sure how much I'll be able to run this weekend but I'm definitely going to give it another try.

St. Patrick's Day Dash 3/13/11

2011-03-15T20:23:00.000-07:00

I am really bad at updating this blog regularly. I think it has a lot to do with my irregular running schedule, and the fact that I work full time and have a family to take care of. Anyway, on Sunday I ran in the St. Patrick's Day Dash here in Seattle. I ran this race last year and it was a lot of fun, although it was a bit tough on me. I was severely under trained on hills and this race has three inclines. Not huge hills, but hills nonetheless. Total elevation gain was about 250 feet. Last year I had to stop and walk on the first hill because I thought I was going to have an asthma attack and, of course, I didn't bother to bring my inhaler with me. I almost never bring it because I almost never need it. I bring it with me now, just as a safety precaution.

Back to this year. This year I knew the course and knew what to expect as far as hills went. I barely noticed the hills! My training over the last year, especially late last summer and into the fall, has really paid off. These little hills were a piece of cake this year and I didn't run out of breath at all. I could have run this race faster than I did, but I've been having soreness in my hip and decided to take it easy and just have fun. The costumes, as always, were amazing. People really go all out to dress up for St. Patrick's Day. I dressed up a bit more this year too.

My splits for this race were all negative splits, which in a 3.75 mile race is pretty easy to do since the whole second half is back downhill. Last year I ran this race in 47:33. My brother had to stop and walk due to his knee later in the run, which means I had to stop again too. This year I ran it alone and I ran it in 43:05. That's a four and half minute record for this course, and I didn't even race it really. Next year I'm betting I could do it in close to 40. After the race I went by all the booths to find what kind of free stuff I could grab. There was a Geico booth and they had someone dressed up as the gecko so I had my picture taken with him (or her?).

And here is the long sleeve shirt that everyone got. This is the front.

And the back.

I think I'm going to make this race a yearly tradition. Hopefully next year it won't be so wet and I can take more pictures of the enormous crowd of runners and walkers that show up for this event. Thanks for reading!

More rain, more wind, is it spring yet?

2011-02-27T19:43:00.000-08:00

I've decided to repeat last weeks schedule for this week. I felt pretty good on my long run on Friday but I'm not completely confident of moving up my mileage just yet. I have plenty of time to train for the Kirkland half marathon so there's no good reason to hurry my build up. So, today's run was three and half miles. I decided to run instead of take my lunch break at work otherwise I would have had to skip my run. It was quite a bit warmer today but there was rain and wind, the wind chill was at about 36 degrees. The first half of the run went pretty well. Was a little stiff and achy starting out but that all eased up after I got good and warmed up. I got hit with a couple of gusts of wind but it really wasn't too bad. Until I turned around that is. When my watch beeped that I had reached my halfway point, I turned around and turned directly into the wind. No wonder I hadn't really noticed it before. It wasn't super strong, probably only about 10mph, it just didn't mix well with being wet. Thankfully the rain never got very heavy and I wasn't soaked at all. Just wet. My splits were faster today than they have been lately. I don't know if it was the cold but I felt pretty good, no trouble breathing or anything. My pace felt comfortable. Splits were as follows.

Mile One: 11:12
Mile Two: 11:15
Mile Three: 11:12
Mile 0.5: 10:56 (I was in a hurry to finish and put on dry clothes).

Very consistent splits, regardless of the wind. I feel like this was a good run, except that my right calf/shin decided to start seizing up on me hours after my run. I have no idea what that's all about but I hope it doesn't continue.

A lot of firsts lately (warning TMI)

2011-02-25T20:21:00.000-08:00

My running has been getting back on track again and it feels wonderful. Today I did six miles, my longest run yet post injury and it went great! It was clear and sunny but unfortunately only 30 degrees. I dressed just right though I wished I had warmer pants. When I stopped to use the rest room I was numb and almost peed without pulling down my underwear, lol. I wore a long sleeve tech shirt, my running pants, my running jacket, ear warmer headband, and gloves. At some points I felt a little too warm but that was only when I was in direct sunshine and there was no breeze. Otherwise I was pretty comfortable throughout my run. I also ran in sunglasses, which I've never done before. My old sunglasses were too loose but my new ones did just fine. I've never run in under freezing temps before either, actually there have been a few things that I've never encountered while running lately.

The first was running in a wind/rain storm. Never have I run in a downpour and while it only down poured for a few minutes, it was enough to completely soak me. I could feel my socks squishing in my shoes. Then the winds picked up. I usually run on moderate to mild windy conditions but this was a storm and the gusts were up to 45mph. I could hear trees cracking and garbage cans being blown around. When it was at my back, it literally pushed me. When it was in front of me it felt like I was running in place. I still made it through my entire run though. My husband and step son could hear the wind and rain from inside the house while I was running and snickered at me when I got home. I don't mind, I was pretty proud of myself for trucking through it.

The next thing that happened that has never happened before was, to put it plainly, a snot rocket. A failed snot rocket is a more accurate description. Never have I even thought of trying such a thing. I've heard of and seen other runners do it but I thought that would never be me. My sinuses were really hurting on one side and I knew that I needed to blow my nose. Being in the middle of a run there really was no way to blow my nose in the normal fashion. There really weren't too many people around, it was another windy day, so I decided to go ahead and give it a try. I needed relief. I failed. I tried but the wind picked up just then and it landed on the side of my face. I quickly wiped it off with my glove and ran with my fingers together, holding the boogie in, until I reached my car and took off my gloves. They went straight into the wash. The weird thing is after I took them out of the dryer I haven't seen them since. I will always think of them as the booger gloves, if I ever see them again.

Going into even more TMI here. The other day I went out for a 3.5 mile run. My stomach had been acting up a little but I knew I would be okay for the short distance I was running. I went to the bathroom right before leaving and thought I was good to go. I was almost halfway into my run when I started to feel a little gassy. I was alone on the sidewalk so I decided why not let it go? It wasn't just gas, however. I paused a moment, tried to assess the situation, and what did I do? I kept going. I decided that it wasn't bad enough to warrant turning around when I was almost at my turn around point anyway. I was wearing my loose black pants and was thankful that I had chosen them for my run this day. This was also the day that we were supposed to start getting snow. They said a snow storm was heading our way and we were to expect 2-5 inches. On my way back it did start snowing, only a little, but it was snow nonetheless. So, I also had my first snow run. I was neat but I wished it had been a little heavier.

So, these last couple weeks have been quite the adventure. I'm happy that nothing out of the ordinary happened during today's run and I'm worried about what might be in store for me next. I can't believe that I've been running for over a year and all of this just starts happening to me now. I'll just keep doing what I've been doing and run with it.

My longest run in four months

2011-02-19T19:47:00.000-08:00

Today I went out for a five mile run. It was clear skied and sunny but it was only 41 degrees with 20mph wind gusts. I thought I had dressed appropriately but soon found myself getting really toasty. Thankfully, I layered so I was able to take off my long sleeve hoodie and tie it around my waist. I can't believe I ran in short sleeves and was hot in such cool temps and wind gusts. Being in direct sunlight makes a big difference. I'm going to have to break my sunscreen if it's that clear for my next long run.

The run itself went really well. No major issues with breathing or pains. I kept a steady pace and made sure not to push it. I haven't run more than four miles since my injury in October. I actually ran one run that was a little over 4.5 miles so I was sure that I could bump it up to the five mile milestone. I ran two three mile runs this week so I knew that my body was prepared. I was hoping for it to take about an hour. I finished in just 10 seconds under an hour so I was happy with that. It was a nice easy pace. The views on the lake were gorgeous with the sunshine. I didn't stop to take any pictures though, I've already taken pictures of that area. You can see my garmin stats here. Some of the winds felt good and sometimes the gusts were even a little fun. When I was almost back to my car a really strong gust came up in front of me and for a moment it felt like I was running in place. This is still better than my run on Monday where I ran in much higher winds plus rain. I'll take the sunshine anytime.

Magnuson Series 5k 1/15/11

2011-01-15T15:07:00.000-08:00

This was my first race of the year and my first race post injury. I didn't have that bad of an injury but it had me not running for two months. Some injuries just really like to take their time to heal. Anyway, this is a local series that is held every month. It's geared towards fun and fitness and there is usually no more than a couple hundred people. They do 5k, 10k, and 15k runs. Since I'm basically starting over and re-building my mileage, a 5k was appropriate for me.

I got up at 8am, took a shower, dressed, then ate breakfast. I had oatmeal with a banana. The race didn't start until 10am and I usually eat an hour before I run. Well, I usually eat an hour before I do long, slow runs. This didn't work so well for a short, hard run. I'll get to that later.

Got to the park, parked, and picked up my bib. I went back to my car to stay warm for a bit before it was time to line up for the race. It was 50 degrees but breezy by the water. I got my garmin all set up and then lined up. The race got started right on time. It took me a few seconds to cross the starting line, which isn't too bad. They don't use chip timing at all so I started my garmin when I crossed the starting line. The first mile went pretty well. I've run here before so I knew the course and I think that helped me a lot. When we got to a hill, I knew exactly how long it was and that it was the only one so I charged up it. My first mile split was 10:06.

A little after I passed the first mile mark I started to get a side stitch. It wasn't too bad so I kept pushing, trying to run through it. I had to slow down a bit but overall I was still going strong. Then my stomach started to hurt, not just my side. I stopped to walk for just a little bit, less than a minute to get my stomach to settle some and then picked it up again, a little slower. My mile two split was 10:25.

The entire last mile was both a physical and a mental struggle. Part of me wanted to stop and walk because of my stomach and I was starting to feel heavy and fatigued. I kept telling myself that I was almost done and I could make it. When I got to where I could see the finish, a little under a half mile to go, I tried to pick up the pace. I wasn't able to pick it up too much though, I was pretty spent. I wanted to get to the finish line so bad but the faster I tried to run, the more nauseous I felt and I really didn't want to puke. My mile three split was 10:41. You can see that I got slower each mile, I used to be really good at negative splits but that just wasn't happening for me today. My garmin measured the course just slightly under 3.1, my last .05 to the finish was run at an 8:56 pace.

I was wheezing a bit and didn't have my inhaler with me (dumb not to bring it, I know, but I forgot it and usually never need it), so I walked around and cooled down until I caught my breath. I've never run a 5k in under 32 minutes before so I'm extremely happy with this race. Even though I've been racing for almost a year I'm still making mistakes and learning. Today I learned to eat much lighter before 5k's, or eat earlier. During my time off I learned the importance of strength and cross training and I think all the strength training I did in PT really helped me to get my PR today. All in all a very good day. Also, here's me in my new leopard running skirt! Thanks for reading.

Here's the link to my garmin info if anyone's interested.

Garmin info

I'm still running

2011-01-09T13:09:00.000-08:00

I've just been forgetting to blog about it because, to be honest, it really hasn't been all that exciting. I am doing very well and trying not to push myself to far too soon. Last weekend I even managed to complete a four mile run. I wasn't sure I could do that just yet but I did. I haven't pushed it that far again, yet. I want my two and three mile runs to feel easy again before I try to start upping the miles. Yesterday I had a very nice three mile run. It wasn't too much of a struggle but it wasn't super easy either. It was perfect. I decided to park by the beach and run the trail that starts across the street. Here are some views I caught yesterday. It as a pretty nice day, as far as winter in Seattle. Just under 40 degrees, sun shining, no complaints about that.

Today I'm going to run the 3.1 mile loop on the outside of Greenlake. It should give me a pretty good idea of how I'll do in my race next weekend. My first race of the year and my first race since I injured myself, I'm nervous and excited. I don't expect to get a personal best, I just want to have fun and complete it.

Making a comeback!

2010-12-17T21:48:00.000-08:00

I've been diligently going to physical therapy for seven weeks now, working my way back to running without injury. The last couple weeks I've had no pain or issues whatsoever. I had tried my first run/walk outside with the new shoes I had bought. I did intervals of two minutes running and one minute walking, just like I had been practicing on the treadmill at physical therapy. The next morning I woke up with the same type of groin pain that started this whole mess. Although, to a much lesser degree. I decided that those shoes were just bad for me. I was able to get the new version of my old running shoes on sale and knew they wouldn't cause me any problems. I decided to give them a try and I headed to the lake and decided to try upping my intervals. I did five minutes running and one minute walking. It went really well and wasn't nearly as difficult as I thought it would be. No pain the next day either.

Today I went to physical therapy and let my therapist know that I had upped my intervals. She was very happy to hear that and even suggested that next week I up the intervals to ten minutes running and 30 seconds walking. She wants me to work on not needing the walk breaks since I never used to take them before the injury. She also said that she'd like to see me one more week and establish a home program. Christmas eve is officially my last day of therapy, therefore declaring me healed and ready to hit the roads again!

So, today I did another romp around the lake, this time with a friend. I did the 5:1 interval thing again and this run was even easier than the last one. I haven't lost as much fitness as I had thought. It is getting a lot easier to get back to running than I thought it would. Even my friend felt that this run was pretty easy and she hasn't been running much lately at all. I'm gaining my confidence back and it feels incredible. I'm planning another run on Sunday and that will be three runs in one week. I haven't done that in almost two months! Just in time for the new year. I made a goal for 2011 to run a total of 800 miles and to run a half marathon. I have a few half marathons to choose from but I have one that I'm more keen on than the others. I will be careful to build back my mileage slowly as to not injure myself by trying to go too far too soon. All in all I'm very pleased and am planning to run a 5k on New Years morning.

Color me blue, my first injury

2010-10-31T18:16:00.000-07:00

I can't run and I'm not thrilled about it. I took my new shoes out for a test run/break them in and was feeling good and ended up running almost 6 miles that day. The next day I woke up sore but didn't think much of it. The day after that I was still sore but it's common for me to be more sore two days after activity so still, I didn't pay it much attention. Three days later, no change, no running, still limping. A week later and I finally decided to make a doctor's appointment. His diagnosis: groin strain. Prognosis? Three to four weeks. I got a referral to physical therapy and went for my first appointment last Friday. I haven't been running in two weeks now. My appointment went well, she found my sore spots pretty easily. My adductor muscles are very unhappy. The angle of the sidewalks that day must have strained my left leg, coupled with new shoes that my muscles weren't used to and, voila! My first real running injury. No more half marathon next month. Thank goodness I hadn't registered and paid yet or I'd really be upset.

The physical therapist wants to see me two to three times a week and hopes to have me back to run/walking in two to three weeks. I have to take many steps backwards but that's okay. I wasn't okay with it at first. Hated the thought, actually. I was disappointed that I couldn't finish my goal of running a race every month this year. I was disappointed that I couldn't run the race that I've been working so hard towards. I was just generally bummed that I have to sit around and rest and not run at all. I'm mostly over it now. Things happen and it's okay that I didn't meet my racing goal for the year. I only came up the idea to keep me motivated and to have something to look forward to with my running. The races don't matter. I just want my body to heal and to get back out on the road. I really enjoy the time I spend alone, passing away the miles on my own two feet. It's relaxing in a way. It's my meditation, my therapy, my anti-depressant. I miss it, but I'll have it back again. I just need to be patient and listen to my body and not push it. Now would be the perfect opportunity for me to establish a weight training routine. I know I need to gain strength and we have weights and a bench so I have no real excuse not to. I would help me avoid injury in the future and would even improve my running. Maybe I'll start tomorrow morning and just do arm exercises a couple times a week until it's okay to do leg exercises. I'm not even supposed to ride a bike yet. My therapist is going to put me on some sort of cardio machine next time I come it. Not sure what it'll be but we'll see. I'm really glad that I chose a sports therapy clinic. They want to help me get back to running as fast, and as safely, as possible. I'll update my progress and hopefully you'll be hearing stories of running again in the very near future.

Another 10 miler under my belt

2010-10-17T12:25:00.000-07:00

This has been a very good running week for me. I actually got in all 3 planned runs and one them was a hilly run. Friday is typically my long run day but before going running my husband accompanied me to the Brooks Outlet store for their yearly truck off-loading sale. They were advertising factory seconds (meaning they have blemishes) for only $29.99. That's a steal for a good pair of running shoes. I got lucky and found a pair that I really liked and seem to fit well. I knew better than to take them out for a long run the first time so I left them in the box when I got back home and proceeded to get ready to head out for my long run.

This weeks long run was supposed to be 11 miles but my running has been inconsistent and my last long run was 9 so I decided to play it safe and stick with 10. It was a beautiful day. Sunny and about 58 degrees when I left. I almost wore my new long sleeve shirt but talked myself out of it and I was glad that I did. There was a slight breeze coming off the water but not too bad. My goal was to run between 12 and 12:30mm. On shorter runs I'm usually between 11 and 11:30 so for a long run I decided about a minute slower per mile was appropriate. It was a bit of a struggle at first, but it always is. Overall the run went very well. Somewhere around mile 7 I was really starting to feel my legs getting cramped. I knew then that I'd be sore the next day. It wasn't bad enough to get me to stop or slow down at all, just noticed the fatigue. At mile 8 I stopped to use the restroom and fill up my water bottle. That little break seemed to do me good and knowing that I only had two more miles to go I tried to pick up the pace a bit. I think I managed to get close to 11:30mm for the last couple miles.

All in all I was very happy with this run. Nothing major happened and my mind felt so good and clear. I was a little sore but not too much. The next day I was still feeling good and proceeded to decorate my house for Halloween. That was fun, I love Halloween. Today I'm going out for 5.5 miles. Another sunny near 60 degrees day and I'm going to give my new shoes a test run. If they start to bother me at all I might cut my run a bit short but I think they'll be fine.

Slow and steady, hot and sweaty

2010-09-25T20:35:00.000-07:00

Today I was scheduled for a long run of 9 miles. The weather was gorgeous, but a little warm for running. It felt a little strange to be putting on sunscreen when it's almost October. The temperature when I left was 71 degrees with a heat index of 76. Thankfully the humidity was only at 56%. I started off nice and slow and planned on trying to keep a steady pace between 12 and 12:30mm. I ran on the Birke Gilman Trail, which is mostly flat and very scenic. I did end up taking a couple of short walk breaks due to the heat but overall I was very pleased with this run.

When I get to about the 2 mile mark is when I hit Gasworks park. This is where I use the facilities, if necessary, and where I refill my water if needed. It's a very pretty park with spectacular views of downtown Seattle. Next time I'll get some better view pictures.

Here's a picture of one of the views I get to look at when I run on this trail. This is just over 2 miles into my run.

About 3 miles or so into my run I run past this weird piece of art. It's simply called The Wall of Death. I tried to research it a little and all I could really find out about it is that it was a piece of art that had promptly been forgotten about once it was approved to built by the city. People apparently used to skate board there but now it's all but hidden from any main road and you pretty much have to be on the trail to see it all. It does illustrate the randomness of Seattle though.

When I go for longer runs on this trail I end up winding through part of the University of Washington's campus. It's really a very pretty campus, very woodsy, old architecture. I run right past the Husky Stadium, from a bit of a distance. It's pretty to see up close, usually I see it from the freeway at least a few miles away. There's a big statue of a football player in the front that I think is kind of neat too.

On my way back I happen to run past the Fremont bridge just as it was coming down. I tried to get a picture of it open, I know not every city has draw bridges and even though I've lived here for 20 years I still think they're neat. Hey, I moved here from the desert, anything that has to do with water is neat to me. Anyway, here's the picture that I did get. This is also where Lake Washington turns into the canal that ends up going through the Ballard Locks and then out to Puget Sound. I run along the canal every time I run on this trail and it never gets old or ugly.

I ended up running a total of 9.18 miles today. I had taken that detour through Gasworks park on the way back which upped the mileage slightly. I did pretty good at maintaining a steady pace. I had a couple of slower miles and those were the miles in which I took my walk breaks. My splits are as follows.

Mile 1: 12:02
Mile 2: 12:08
Mile 3: 12:48
Mile 4: 12:28
Mile 5: 12:43
Mile 6: 13:48
Mile 7: 12:19
Mile 8: 13:30
Mile 9: 11:56 (I tried to pick up the pace for the last mile)
Mile .18: 2:04

If you'd like to see the map and details of my run you can do so here Garmin Connect

An adventure of sorts

2010-09-17T15:20:00.001-07:00

Today I had decided to drive to where I could run a section of the Seattle Half Marathon route. Specifically, I wanted to see a hill that I was told was one of the worst hills in the route. I parked about a quarter mile down the street from the hill so that I could have a chance to warm up a bit before running up the hill. I also just got one of these from my wonderful hubby!

From Running

I turned on the garmin and started off. It didn't take me long to get to the first hill. It was a bit steep, but not too long. I was feeling it when I got to the top though. I tried to keep running but ended up needed to stop and stretch. Here's a view of the first hill.

From Running

From there I continued on the half marathon path. I ran up and down another hill, but not as steep, and I didn't stop! I had to use the bathroom so thank goodness there was a gas station at the bottom of the second hill and they let me use the bathroom. That done, I continued on the route, making a turn towards the Arboretum. When I got to where I supposed to make my next turn I quickly decided against it. It was a one lane road with no sidewalks and I'm not that brave. So I just kept going along the same way. Not too much farther the sidewalk ended and a path took over. There was no sidewalk on the other side either so I hopped on the trail. At this point I had no idea where I was going but that was okay. The trail quickly veered away from the road and I was greeted with this view.

From Running

It was a perfect day. Not too cloudy, in the 60's. It was beautiful and I was having a good time just getting lost in the trails. If you're going to get lost on trails there aren't very many places as pretty as the Arboretum. I did start to go down a trail that got really narrow and seemed like it was moving away from the regular trails. I could see part of the 520 floating bridge and then saw a HUGE tree that was uprooted and had fallen over. This is what our windstorms can do.

From Running

As I was running through the trails I came across this tree that looked like it was snaking around the other trees. Thought it was neat looking so I stopped to take a picture.

From Running

It didn't take me long to realize that I was heading back towards my car a little earlier than I had wanted to. So I kept going. I ended up on a dead end street and had to head back towards my car again but before I did I came across another steep hill. This one was steeper than the first one and after a quick internal debate decided to go ahead and try it. At this point I was about 5 miles into my run so I figured it was good training to run a hill when I was already a little tired. I tried to get a picture of the hill but it's hard to see how steep it really is. I took this pic after I reached the top.

From Running

My plan for today was 6 miles and I didn't want to stop short so I decided to run the part of the half marathon route backwards. It was a run with a view! I could see both floating bridges and I could see the buildings of Bellevue across the water. The houses along this road were amazing. This was definitely a very rich area. I first ran by a members only tennis club. Then came the nice houses, then came the mansions. I ran by one that had a huge circular driveway with a huge stone fountain in the middle of it. This house was the size of an apartment building and had a perfect, unobstructed view. Lots of Lexus cars in this area too. I did manage to get a picture of what I'll be seeing when I run this area during the race. The picture doesn't do it justice though, in real life it's much prettier.

From Running

I was feeling good and decided to go ahead and make this a 7 mile run. I got back to my car and felt pretty good about this run. The hills were hard but not as hard so I must be starting to get better at them. It helps me feel more confident about running a hilly first half marathon and still get a halfway decent time. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed this post. I really like taking mini breaks to take pictures of the things I see when out running so hopefully I'll be doing this more often.

Iron Girl 10k 9-12-10

2010-09-12T19:34:00.000-07:00

This morning I ran in the Iron Girl series and I ran the 10k. I was hoping for a PR (aren't we always) and knowing that this course was really flat I knew that I actually had a chance for a PR. My results are 1:05:46. 102/157 division place. 404/640 overall.

My husband kept trying to steam roll me this morning so I got up a little earlier than I had planned. Not by much so it worked out. Made my coffee, had my oat bran and banana, and got ready to leave.

Arrived at the race an hour early. Got lucky and didn't have to park too far away. Walked around checking out the booths and just trying to stay warm. The lines for the porta potties were insane. It looked like it would take me an hour just to get the chance to pee. Okay, I can hold it, I don't really have to go that bad and there are bathrooms around the lake if I really need to go. Tons of people there. I went to where the 11mm signs were and stood there and waited. Close to starting time there were so many people crowded in that I was actually starting to feel a little clausterphobic and couldn't see how I would be able to run a good pace with this many women.

The race got started a little late. Someone sang the national anthem (she was awesome!), then we heard "AFLAC!" and we were off. Started my timer as I crossed the start line and people were actually moving pretty well.

They had part of the street blocked off for the race so that gave us more space and people started thinning out. During the first mile a girl near me tripped and fell. A bunch of people stopped immediately to see if she was okay. She was and there were plenty of people there so I just kept going. Mile 1 was 10:51. Whoa, doing better than I thought.

During mile 2 there was a girl on the ground and a fire truck and ambulance were coming up to her. She wasn't bleeding and was awake and aware so I'm not sure what was wrong with her but this is the first time I've seen injuries and such at a race. Mile 2 was 10:28. Trucking right along.

Going in to mile three I started slowly passing the people that started off too fast. There was a DJ along this area and cheerleaders cheering us on. I started feeling like I needed to use the bathroom but wasn't urgent so I just kept going. Skipped the water station, not wanting to slow down. Mile 3 was 10:06. Holy cow, I didn't know I was capable of going that fast!

Mile 4 I really started feeling my bladder and it actually started to hurt so I knew that I would need to go soon. Came up along a bathroom but when I saw 2 women waiting for I decided to just keep going and hit the next one. I really want a PR! Mile 4 was 10:10. Still doing exceptionally well for me.

Going into mile 5 I knew that I was not going to make it to the finish without a pit stop. I've never had to stop for the potty in a race before and I was worried that it would slow me down too much. Came up on the water station, slowed down to drink a cup and then the bathroom right around the curve. No wait, thank god. Did my business then tried to catch up to where I was before the pit stop. Mile 5 was 10:53. Even with the small break it's still a very good pace for me.

Starting to feel tired now. Legs are feeling heavy and breathing is getting kind of hard. I've run farther than this before getting tired so I wasn't sure what I had done wrong. I wasn't keeping track of my splits so I had no idea at this point that my pace was as fast as it was. I stopped to walk for just a minute to better catch my breath then started back up again nice and easy. I had my inhaler on me but didn't want to need it. I could hear the finish line so I tried to pick up the pace, knowing I was almost done. Mile 6 was 10:14. Not bad considering how sluggish I was feeling.

Coming up on the finish shute now, trying really hard to push it but not able to sprint the way I normally do. My weaving made my mileage end up at 6.31, according to my runkeeper app. As I was getting closer to the finish shute I checked my phone to see where I was at. 1:03:xx, no way. I knew at that point that I was going to PR by quite a bit so I gave it my all that last .2 mile. My pace for the last .2 was 9:24.

Ran over the finish line, clock says 1:06:xx. My last 10k was 1:08 so I knew that I did really well in this race. Stopped my app at the finish line and it had me at 1:05:48. The only thing that bothers me is that I think I could have done a little better if there hadn't been so many people. And what's with people not looking behind them before they cut in front of someone who is coming up on them? I can't tell you how many times this happened. I'm trucking along, coming up on someone at a faster pace than they're going, getting ready to pass then BAM, right in front of me, almost tripping me. Also, if they had planned for having that many women at this kind of event and had more porta potties I wouldn't have had to take a pit stop mid race. Still, I did much better than I anticipated so even with the minor issues I'm extrememly happy.

Thanks for reading, if you made it this far I applaud you. I tend to ramble a bit. Oh, and I received my very first piece of hardware!

Happy finisher!

Everyone got these cute plush ducks. It has a matching medal and yells aflac when you squeeze it.

When the mind and the body don't connect

2010-09-05T21:23:00.000-07:00

My running plans have changed slightly and I finally got around to making a new training schedule that was to start today. On my schedule for today was 4.5 miles with hills. I planned a loop around my neighborhood that fit that criteria and set off just before 5pm. I was feeling a bit fatigued and crampy before I left but I thought that running would help. When I was a teenager exercise did wonders for my cramps. I started off up two steep hills, each a block long. The first one went okay and by the time I got to the top of the second one I was starting to feel my asthma. I decided to turn there instead of trying to run another block up. I slowed my pace to where I was sort of walk/hopping rather than a real jog until my lungs started to feel better. I picked up my pace and continued on my route.

I ran into a few more hills, none as steep as those first two blocks, but of varying lengths and inclines. At about 2 miles I hit a very steep decline and when I got to the bottom I started to get a cramp on one side. It wasn't a normal side cramp and I tried to run through it and breath it out but it just kept getting worse and I had to stop and walk. The whole run I'd been fighting to urge to walk, thinking that my period was just making me feel sluggish, and I ran through that but this cramp was something else. Didn't take long to realize what type of cramp it was. I have GI issues and this was a very painful trapped gas cramp. Those are the worst. Once I felt better I started jogging again but it didn't take long for the pain to come right back. I don't think my insides were happy with the bouncing. So I walked, and grimaced, and tried to not let all the people at the park notice me. Once I got to where no one was around I was able to, how do I put this, relieve the pressure a bit. So, I tried jogging again and this time the pain stayed away.

When I got to about 3.5 miles I noticed that my left hamstring was feeling kind of funny. I didn't pay it too much attention because I often get little aches, pains, and cramps when I'm running and they just go away. Not this one, it cramped up on me so hard that I had to stop immediately and stretch it out. It felt like a charlie horse. I walked it off a bit and when I didn't feel anymore pain I tried running, yet again. I made all the way to my street before my stomach started to act up again. I walked the last two blocks home and got to stretching right away. Not too long after that my stomach realized that we were home and promptly led me to spend some time in the bathroom. I ended up running 4 miles instead of my planned 4.5, mainly because of my stomach.

My body felt like it was rejecting this run almost from the moment I left my house. My stomach continued to feel sick and I started feeling nauseous so I took some aleve and ate a bowl of cream of rice for dinner. I'm feeling much better now and even though my body hated the idea of running today and tried, quite successfully, to get me to stop, my mind feels much clearer. I haven't been feeling real well mentally lately and now I feel normal again. Usually when I run my mind and my body feel great, like they accomplished something as a team. Tonight though, my mind feels great and my body feels like it's trying to punish me. All in all I'm glad I went out there and pushed myself to do what I did.

Lake Union 10k

2010-08-22T11:32:00.001-07:00

Official results are not posted yet but according to my runkeeper app I ran this race in 1:08:xx, which is a PR of about 5 minutes!

I made some major mistakes this race but it all worked out. I ate something for dinner last night that I knew I shouldn't have eaten yet did it anyway. I also decided to try my new med this morning instead of waiting to see how I'd react. Got up about 5:30 and about 10 minutes into my shower I was not feeling very well at all. My stomach was gurgling (you know what that means) and I was really nauseas. As soon as I was dressed I went and made my cup of oat bran with a banana, hoping that it would settle my stomach and make the pukey feeling go away. It did eventually, but not until after I had to run to the bathroom before even walking out the door. Please don't let me have any more problems is what I was repeating to myself as I walked out the door.

Got to the venue at about 7am and picked up my timing chip. It was only about 54 degrees and raining off and on. There was also a breeze coming off the lake that did not feel very nice at all. The race got under way at 7:30 and because we were mostly on sidewalks they had us go in waves. I'm glad that they did that because it was already pretty thinned out that way. When we made it to the first draw bridge I started to freak out a little. Those things are scary and they bounce when cars drive across them so it was hurry up and get across! There was a girl ahead of me that saw me coming up on her and starting picking up her own pace. I find it funny when people do that. I'm just trying to beat my own times, not actually race anyone. Anyway, We hit mile one right before this bridge and my time was 11:49. Not as good as I was hoping but I was under 12mm so I was okay with it, knowing that I get faster as I go.

The next couple miles were great for me because it was on a stretch of the Birke Gilman trail where I do most of my runs. Very familiar territory so I tried to pick up the pace a bit here since I knew the terrain so well. Miles 2 and 3 were 11:09 and 11:14. That's pretty darn fast for me, I'm feeling pretty good right about and starting to close in on some of the people that had passed me earlier.

Coming up on mile 4 was another draw bridge so another sprint to get across! I hate those bridges, I don't even like driving over them very much. It was in mile 4 that they threw in a couple hills. I made it up the first couple better than I expected and coming up on the 3rd hill I walked a bit. It was a steep hill but only about a 1/2 block long so it didn't slow me down too much. Finished mile 4 in 11:19. Still under 12mm so I know now that I have a really good shot at a PR.

Miles 5 and 6 were pretty uneventful. When I got to mile 5 I started to really push myself, realizing that not only was I going to make my goal of 1:10:00 but I was going to beat it if I pushed. Remember that girl that passed me after the first draw bridge? Yeah, I not only caught up to her but passed her doing into the finish. These last two miles I really started passing quite a few people and was really happy that I'm naturally reserved at the beginning of a race and have extra energy to push it at the end. I'm not used to passin so many people, it was fun! Miles 5 and 6 were 11:15 and 10:41. According to my math the last .1 took me about 2 minutes but I forgot to stop my app right away so it was probably just under.

I'm extremely happy with this race. It's a huge PR and considering the troubles I had in the morning I ran a really good race. I started to get chilled on the way home and had to stop by the store so I had DH get a pot of coffee going so it would be ready for me when I got home. I felt like a drowned rat. It's better than the alternative though, I'll take the cold, wet weather over heat and humidity any day. Anyway, thanks for reading.

Starting week 10

2010-08-09T19:34:00.001-07:00

Today officially started week 10 of half marathon training. I can't believe I'm only four weeks away from my ultimate goal! And, I actually started a week off running on the right day and not screwing up my planned schedule the way I seem to do every week. I did't run the full 5.5 that was on the calender today though. I haven't slept well for the last two nights in a row and it's that time of the month so it's almost amazing that I ran at all. I almost decided to push it off but told myself no more of that or I'll never be able to finish my half marathon in just four weeks. I didn't really have time for a longer run either so I decided to go back to my original stomping grounds and run a lap around the outer loop at Greenlake. It was nice to be there again, I haven't run around that lake in quite some time. I still wanted this run to be beneficial to training so I decided to really push the pace and see how well I could do. I can keep going for more miles but pushing myself to go faster for any of those miles is something I don't often do. I set a goal to try and run the entire loop at a 10:30 pace. I had some troubles with my phone when I first started so my first mile was much slower than I planned. My first mile split was 10:55. I really tried to push it once I realized that I was close to my goal pace, I think I pushed a little too hard and had to stop and walk for a minute but my split for mile two was 10:34 so I'm pretty happy with that. It was also very humid for us today. Temps were low, only 64 degrees, but the humidity was at 81%. I felt like I was wheezing the entire time but kept pushing on regardless. The ground was a little uneven for that last mile which I think was what slowed me up a bit, my split for mile three was 10:45. I tried to run as fast as I could once I could see the parking where my car was and the last .19 was run at a 9:06 pace. I felt sick and shaky when I got to my car, a sure sign that I really did push myself. I've never run three continuous miles under 11 minutes a mile before. I've done splits that were fast like that but I've never kept it up. I'm so close to being able to hit that 10:30 pace! Also, my lungs were not happy with me today. Pushing them to work harder, plus the humidity, plus the fact that I was trying to wean myself off of my steroid inhaler just made me feel icky. Even an hour after my run when I was showered, rested, and eating I felt like I couldn't catch my breath and was coughing. My chest was literally burning. So, I took my inhaler and will go back to taking it regularly again. Wednesday I'm really hoping to do the nature trail twice around. It's really pretty there and I know it will be one heck of a workout with all the hills, yet gentle on the joints. We'll see. I really have to get to work super early to be able to pull that off.

2010-08-07T11:17:00.001-07:00

I have kept up my training schedule about as well as I've kept up this blog. However, I am still progressing on my mileage and getting ready for my half marathon, which happens to be just over four weeks away. Instead of running three times a week I'm averaging only two. My runs are still getting longer and I'm progressing regardless of keeping to the planned schedule. I'm very happy with my progress and I'm gaining more and more confidence about being able to run in a half marathon. The last two weekends in a row have been new milestones as will the next three weekends. Last weekend I ran my first seven mile run and yesterday I ran eight. Can you guess what next weekends miles will be? Anyway, let's talk about how I've done on these longer runs.

The Seven Mile Run
This run started off great. It was a little warm but not too hot and things were going along just fine. I had my water with me and was jogging along at a nice slow pace to make sure I'd be able to make the distance. When my application chimed that I had reached six miles I smiled and told myself, this is officially the farthest you've ever gone. I was getting pretty tired and my pace was slowing for the last three miles but I kept moving, determined to make it. I finished my run in 1:36:55. Slower than my usual pace but I was okay with that. I was totally bonked though. My feet were hurting, my calf started cramping about a half hour after my run, I was really wiped out and having a hard time recovering. I decided that it was time for some on the run nutrition. Six miles is my max for running on water alone, I discovered with this run. The next day I went to the sports store and picked up some energy gels to try that were both gluten and dairy free. I already know that I can't run with solid food in my stomach. Generally I have to wait 2-3 hours after eating before I can run so I knew that getting real food to snack on while I run probably wasn't going to go over very well. I was also unsure of chewing without choking while running. So, energy gels it is. Couldn't hurt to at least try right?

The Eight Mile Run
I was a little nervous about this run, especially considering how poorly the seven mile run had ended and how it left me feeling. I was armed with my gu's though and was confident that at the very least I'd be able to pull of another seven miles. I bought four flavors of the gu's to try and didn't know how many I'd need so I packed all four of them in my pouch, filled my water bottle, and off I went. I had to use the bathroom and was already feeling a little tired at mile two so I went ahead and took my first gu at that time. It was vanilla bean flavored, and although not too bad tasting the texture was something to get used to. It didn't make me gag or anything so I knew that these had potential for me. My run only got better after sucking down that little foil packet of energy. My pace increased for every mile after that second mile. I had originally decided to try taking another one after about 2-2.5 miles but was still feeling pretty good when I got to 4.5 miles that I decided to wait another half mile and make it an even three miles between gels. It worked great. I had plenty of energy and stamina, I wasn't slowing down at all. In fact, every mile after mile two only got faster, for the rest of the run! How do you get faster as the miles go by? Shouldn't it be the other way around? I ended up finishing my eight mile run 44 seconds faster than I had run seven the week before. My average pace was 12:00 and the pace for the the last few miles was around 11:30. I was amazed that I could keep up my normal pace for such a long time. Energy gels on long runs from now on for sure. The other flavor I had was triple berry, which I did like better than the vanilla but gave me bit of reflux. Nothing that I couldn't handle or that slowed me down, but still a difference. I still have espresso and strawberry banana to try on my next run. Also, my feet didn't hurt yesterday, I didn't feel completely wiped out at all. In fact, I had plenty of energy for a day that ended up being a busy day for me. I'm so happy to have found something that works so well for me without having to experiment with a bunch of stuff that might not have gone over so well. Now I'm really looking forward to next week's nine miler!

Swedish SummeRun 10K

2010-07-25T16:28:00.000-07:00

Short version, 1:15:11. Placed 157 out of 185 females, placed 49th out of 52 in my age division. Lots of hills.

Long version:

Today I ran the Swedish SummeRun, which benefits the Marsha Rivkin Center for Ovarian Cancer. The center was founded by Dr. Saul Rivkin after he lost his wife to ovarian cancer. Dr. Rivkin also happens to be an oncologist.

I woke up at 6am, started the coffee pot and took a shower to wake me up. Had a banana and a protein shake then poured a cup of coffee and headed out. The drive there was uneventful with very little traffic, they had a parking garage for the racers for free for the race, which was really nice since it was near downtown. I went and picked up my bib, timing chip, and t-shirt and then back to my car to put my t-shirt away. It was sunny and 61 when I got there at 7am. Not bad weather at all. Everything was well organized and they even had and aerobic warm up led by an instruction about 10 minutes before race time. They placed volunteers with pace signs to get everyone to line up according to pace. This is the first race where I've seen this done and it was nice to know where to go. The race got started right at 8 and off we went. The first 3 miles were mostly uneventful. Mostly flat, quite a few downhills which made me nervous about the trek back. Some of those hills were pretty steep. Sure enough shortly after mile 3 I hit my first big hill. Made it about halfway then had to stop and walk. It was a pretty run, the road ran through a really wooded area and it was really pretty and quite. Right about this time my runkeeper app lost it's signal. As soon as I got to a flatter area I started running again. That did not last long, I could see a hill that was the steepest yet coming up. No way I'm making it up that so back to walking. Right around 4.5 miles it flattened out again and I really tried to make up some time. I was doing about a 9mm pace (super fast for me) when I turned the corner and there were the walkers. Lots of weaving, dodging, and yelling excuse me. They took up the whole street so I moved over to the sidewalk where I got stuck behind a kid on a skateboard (who was part of the 5K walk). He had turned and saw that I was behind him but that didn't stop him abruptly stopping and me almost mowing him over. I think he realized he got too far ahead of his parents. Glad I didn't knock him or me over but it was really annoying. There was only one more hill to climb and then I saw the sign for the 6th mile. I knew I was almost done so I really tried to pick up the pace for that last 0.2. Came in at 1:15:11. Not a PR but considering the hills I'm not displeased. I took pictures but my computer won't let me upload them.

After the race Dr. Rivkin was presented with a check from the race's main sponsor in the amount of $50,000. It was pretty neat to see how surprised he was. Not only did this company sponsor the race, they made a huge donation to the cause. Dr. Rivkin walked the 5K with his family also, which I thought was pretty cool. A very dedicated doctor, that's for sure. I didn't stick around for the awards ceremony.

On my way home I decided to stop for a treat. I went to the store to get myself a mint mocha and when I went out to my car to drive home it wouldn't work. My brand new car was suddenly dead. Nothing worked, not the locks, the engine, it just wouldn't do anything. Called AAA and they tried to jump it and it still wouldn't do anything at all. I called my sales rep and he told me to have it towed to the dealership and he would have a loaner ready for me when I got there. Thank goodness it's all covered under warranty. And, not only will my insurance reimburse me for my towing cost, the dealership will as well. I just went to the dealer yesterday to get my plates. Frustrating to say the least. By the time I got to the dealership I was starving. I finally made it home and cooked breakfast for me and my family. It's been an interesting day, that's for sure. Well, this report got longer than I expected, if you read it all, I applaud you.

Week two of half training complete!

2010-06-20T15:50:00.000-07:00

Minus one run, the one I talked about in my last post. I did run on Wednesday though and took my new hydration belt with me. It was much more comfortable that I thought it would be and I'm very happy with it. I had to tighten it a couple times but other than I didn't have any problems with it and I was easily able to reach around behind me to grab the bottle and put it back. I was worried that it was going to be really awkward to do that but it really isn't so I'm happy. I ran my scheduled 3.5 on Wednesday and had a bit of trouble. My running application crapped out on my at about 3/4 of a mile. Luckily I've run this part of the trail before and new the distance pretty close. I knew that it would be about 1.75 miles when I got to the locks so when I got to where I was to turn around I set a timer on my phone to time me for the second half of my run. That way when I was done all I had to do was double the time to know pretty close to how long it took me to run. I was able to manually enter a map on the website and I think it came to slightly under 3.5 but it was really close so, good enough for me. Other than that it was a pretty good, easy run, although there wasn't much of a breeze coming off the water that day and I was a little hotter than I like.

Today I got up and decided to go for my five mile run before the kids got here. I was up at 9:30 and left the house shortly before 10. I knew that it would take me about an hour, maybe slightly more, so my goal was to get back home by 11. I headed out on a route that has a couple of inclines. One only a few blocks long and the other almost a mile long. On the long incline I did have to stop and walk for a couple blocks but then I picked back up again, knowing that I would soon be on the downhill. I ran the rest of the way without needing to stop and walk. It felt great! The weather was cool and misting which was perfect for running in. I even made it to the park that over looks the water. If it had been a nice day I would have stopped to take a picture but on a cloudy, grey day there really isn't much to see. I got home about five minutes before 11, beating the kids, starting making some coffee and then the kids walked in the door. I took a shower and then started on father's day breakfast, eggs benendict. Now we're all just resting and taking it easy and I'll start on father's day dinner in a little while. Next week my mileage bumps up a bit. Instead of 3.5 miles the first two runs it goes up to 4 and instead of 5 miles for my long run it goes to 6. I'm a little nervous but I've run 5 miles a couple times and I've run 6 miles once so I feel ready for the increase. Since I ran on Sunday my next runs are scheduled for Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, and then I'll get back to my Monday, Wednesday, Friday routine.

On to week two

2010-06-15T19:35:00.000-07:00

Monday was supposed to be the start of week two of my half marathon training. I didn't run. Thought about running today but didn't have time so day one will just have to be skipped. On Saturday I did a bunch of gardening and on Sunday my sinuses were giving me fits. Thinking it was just allergies I kept going on about my business but didn't do too much gardening on Sunday. Monday they were still no better and I was just generally feeling run down and decided that perhaps I had a bit of a cold rather than allergies. My allergies don't get that bad anymore and I only forgot to take my meds one day. So, that explains why I didn't run. I did order a waist hydration pack though and I'm really looking forward to trying it out. That will get my butt out and running tomorrow for sure. I've tried it on, figured out the best position for it, and even filled up the water bottle and jogged around my house a bit to get a feel for it. Here's the front. It includes a little 5oz flask that I will be using to put my coconut water in. In the pouch I'll put my little energy snacks. Don't have any idea what those will be yet because my long runs aren't long enough to need anything like that but eventually they will be.

Here's the back. The bottle is a 24oz bottle that has a fancy no spill spout thingy that you have to squeeze to get the water out. I guess this is to insure that it doesn't look like you're wetting yourself as your water splashes out onto your back at a slow pace. Another pouch in the back that has a little clip and pouch to keep your keys safe. The mesh also means that I can put my phone in there and thread my headphones through it.

I'll report back when I've tried it out and have a better idea of how I like it. So far though I think it will be great.

Week one of half marathon done!

2010-06-12T12:56:00.001-07:00

My first week of half marathon training went pretty well, considering. Sunday I did the Race for the Cure and at the time I thought it was going badly but it turned out that I ran really well. Wednesday I was scheduled for 3.5 miles, which I completed but barely. It was one of those runs where I had to constantly combat negative thoughts about wanting to give up. I kept telling myself, "you can do this, it's only .4 miles longer than what you did on Sunday, it's no big deal, keep going." It was a really mentally tough run. My legs felt a little tired too. Hell, my whole body, including my mind, just wasn't into that run. But, I did it nonetheless and was at the very least proud that I overcame the lack of motivation and finished my run without giving up. I thought about giving up and walking more than once but was able to talk myself out of it.

Yesterday I was scheduled to do 5 miles. I wasn't sure I'd be up for it so I just headed out hoping to do anywhere from 4-5 miles, depending on how I was feeling. At about 1.5 miles my iphone app lost gps signal and I no longer had any way of measuring my distance. I just picked a street that I thought was close and turned around there, hoping that when I got home and mapped the route that it would be close to 5 miles. It was, it mapped out at 4.48, so I was only about a half mile off. It was a good run, definitely made up for Wednesday's run by far. It wasn't raining at all and I got to wear the new outfit that I got for my birthday. My new running socks did great too. Hopefully as my distance increases those socks will continue to do well and never give me blisters. Next week I pretty much repeat the same regimen. Except that there won't be a race involved.

Susan G Komen Race for the Cure

2010-06-06T16:52:00.000-07:00

Woke up at the butt crack of dawn, otherwise known as 6am, stumbled out to the kitchen and made some coffee. I had set out my clothes the night before and had packed my backpack with everything except my water bottle. Braided my hair, put in my contacts, poured my coffee, double checked to make sure I had everything, and then shoved a cupcake into my mouth before heading to the bus stop. Left the house at about 6:20, it's raining. I decided to take the bus to this event because it's downtown, it's big, and parking is expensive. The bus ride down was uneventful. I get there and I have absolutely no idea where to find the timing chips and the bag check trucks. It's alright, at least I'm familiar with Seattle Center and I was about an hour early so I had plenty of time to figure out where everything was. I located where to get my timing chip, which was a new kind to me. You wrap it around your ankle like a bracelet instead of attaching it to your shoe. Anyway, at this point I'm reluctant to relinquish my hoodie so instead of checking my things I decide to walk around to all the booths and see what's there. A backpack full of goodies and 15 minutes until start time later I decide it's time to give up the nice warm hoodie and check my bag and head over to the start line.

The race got started right on time, 8:15am. My goal for this race was to get as close to 31 minutes as possible. I honestly didn't know if I could run it that fast but I was determined to try. Then things started to go wrong. First of all, my running application that I use I had set for target pace so I could try to keep myself as close to 10mm as possible. Not once did it give me an update. Not my pace, not how far I'd gone, nothing but dead quiet in my headphones. I felt like I was going a little fast but I just kept at, wanting to hit my goal. Then came the first incline. It wasn't a steep one, but one of those long, gradual ones. I think it lasted for about a half mile. I ended up having to stop and walk for a minute or so until we started going downhill. The downhill was a nice break, by passed the water station and made it to the turn around. Now it was time to go back up that downhill, which was a little shorter, but steeper than the first incline. I made it about halfway up before having to stop and walk again. My lungs are really not conditioned to hills, though I do have a plan for that. Since this was my second walk break I lost all hope for my goal, I was pretty sure I wouldn't get a PR on this one either. So, I make it to the top of that hill and now we're on the downside of the first incline. Thank god! I'm feeling heavy and want the race to be over at this point. Someone that had already finished was cheering the rest of us on and letting us know we were almost there. We turn around the corner for the home stretch, only about a two blocks to go, and holy cow! Do you see that hill? Why would they put the finish line after a hill like that? This hill makes the other two inclines look like boogers. So, slowly up the hill I go and by the time I get to the top I can hear my own wheezing. But, I can see the finish line so I try to find a higher gear. Yep, still have some more fuel in me. Wait a minute, does the clock say 32 something? Found another gear and booked it as fast as I could to that finish line. I was wheezing and couldn't talk. The volunteers were wanting my timing chip and all I had to do was prop my foot up on their crate and they removed it for me, how nice of them! Got my bottle of water and started to try to find my way back to the bag check. Oh crap, I forgot to stop my running app. I know that time wasn't right, but it did at least map me and give me my splits so even though it wasn't giving me audio cues it was still doing its job. All I knew was that the clock read 32:?? when I crossed, which made my day considering the hills and walk breaks. I was also soaked because it rained on us the whole time, before and after. At least it wasn't heavy rain.

My official time? 32:38. Not my goal but pretty close and it's a new PR of over a minute so I'm very happy with this race. Splits were as follows.

Mile one: 10:09 (I've never run a mile that fast before)
Mile two: 10:07 (What would this have been without walk breaks I wonder?)
Mile three: 10:33 (Obviously losing steam but still going strong)
Mile 0.1: 12:24 (that steep hill, remember?)

I never did see any mile markers for this race so I had no way of judging my distance except for the turn around. That threw me off a bit but obviously not as much as I thought. Wednesday I start my half marathon training, until then I'll rest a bit. Oh yeah, picture. Only got one, me and another girl took each others pictures before the race.

Magnuson Series 10K!!

2010-05-29T13:49:00.001-07:00

I was a bit nervous about this race because my longest training run was five miles, but I kept telling myself that it was only one more mile and I could make it. I slept pretty good last night, didn't go to bed too early but I felt I had enough sleep. Woke up at 7:30 and went straight to the kitchen to get some coffee going. I poured some cereal into a bowl, went to get my milk and, crap! I didn't buy any on my last grocery trip because I hadn't been using it. Okay, now what? I have to eat something beforehand. So I grilled up a couple of slices of turkey bacon and fried myself an egg. Good enough. Took a shower, got my running clothes on, smeared on some body glide (first time using it), finished my coffee, filled up my water bottle and out the door I went at about 8:30.

Got to the park about 9:00, the race was scheduled to start at 10:00. Went and got my bib and then went back to my car because it was freezing by the lake this morning. Raining and windy and just barely 50 degrees. Thankfully the rain quit for the most part about 15 minutes before race time. At that time I got out of my car, put on my headphones and reluctantly took off my jacket. I went over and placed myself about halfway through the pack. The race was started right on time and at 10am we were off. This was a 2.5K loop so I had four laps to do.

I started off great, not too fast. At about the half mile mark my app told me that I was doing a little over 12mm, which was about where I wanted to be for this race. Right after that was the hill. It wasn't a long hill but it was a bit steep. I ran it without too much difficulty and felt proud for not walking it. First mile, 12:18.

At about the two mile mark came that hill again, I conquered it again, although a little slower this time. Mile two, 12:46.

The third mile went pretty uneventful, I knew that at that point I was about halfway there. I was feeling pretty good, I was in a good groove with my pace and breathing and just wanted to sustain that for the next three miles. Mile three, 12:03.

At about the 3.5 miles mark, than stupid hill again. I made it up the first incline but just didn't have enough to make it up the steep one, so I walked it. Thankfully it wasn't too long. I tried making up for it on the downhill, ended up making up for it and then some. Mile four, 11:55.

Coming up on mile five I knew that I was about to pass what was my longest distance yet. I was still feeling pretty good, my legs were starting to get a little tired but they just kept on moving as if they had a mind of their own. When I hit the five mile mark it was that damn hill again. I didn't even have it in me this time around to make it up the first incline so I walked for a little longer to get up this hill. Mile five, 12:28.

After I recovered from the hill I knew that I only had a little over a mile to go. I was still able to breath pretty easy so I really tried to pick up the pace for this last mile. I was worried that my legs wouldn't be able to pick it up but they did, at least a little bit. When I got to where I could see the finish line I really tried to give it all I had and started sprinting (sort of) towards that finish line. As I crossed the finish line a volunteer had his hand out and was congratulating everyone as they finished. Mile six, 12:10.

The official results aren't in yet but according to my phone I finished in 1:13:48. I remember seeing 1:13:?? on the clock so that's pretty close. My goal was to make it in 1:15:00 or less and I did!

I really like these races. It's put on by a local running club and is pretty small, a couple hundred people compared to the thousands at other races. Everyone there is really supportive, no matter what level you're at. They have people stationed throughout the course telling everyone what a great job they're doing as you pass. Some of them even high five you. When I got to the finish and went for the water, the water volunteer also congratulated me. It was a really nice atmosphere, where everyone is friendly and just wants to share in the joy of running. No pictures, unfortunately. I was alone for this race and it was a really gray and icky day.

I slacked off, again.

2010-05-23T21:18:00.000-07:00

I haven't run since my epic five miler. I had planned to, all week, but it just didn't happen. Today I realized that I had to get my butt out there. I've got a 10K coming up in a week and I can't expect to finish if I don't practice. Just like any other sport, if you don't use it you lose it. So, I packed all of my running clothes and gear in my backpack and decided to go for an easy two miles after work today. Turns out, it wasn't so easy but I'm glad I did it. My knees have been sore and now they're fine so I think they were trying to tell me something. They don't like the inactivity. It wasn't too hot but it was a little on the humid side with not much breeze today so I did sweat a bit more than usual. I was also wearing an extra layer under my shirt because they were calling for rain and my shirts are white. I wore a tank top underneath just in case so that I wouldn't be giving away a free wet t-shirt show. It was a pretty uneventful run, being only two miles, so there really isn't much to report on this one. Just trying to hold myself accountable to doing it at all.

One run, two milestones

2010-05-17T19:36:00.000-07:00

I had originally decided that I would skip my Saturday run and start again on Monday. When I woke up this morning I decided to put my running gear in my backpack in case I felt okay to run after work today. I had to work extra early today and it had the potential of wearing me out, but it didn't. Work went well and I decided to go ahead and try for my long run a day late. My 10k is in about 2 weeks and I need to know that I can do it. My last longest run was four miles and I missed the run where I was supposed to bump it up to four and half. Originally I decided that I would do my four and half mile run today but when it came time to actually run I decided, what the hell, why not go for the full five? I've never run that far before. The weather was pretty good, a little humid but not too hot. I had plenty of time before I needed to be home for dinner so I decided that if I still felt good at about the two mile mark that I would continue and go for that number five. I made myself go slower than I felt I needed to. I felt like I was going slow as molasses but as it turned out I wasn't going that much slower than any other run and had to make myself slow down a bit more. I finally got into a comfortable pace of about 12 minutes per mile. My breathing was fine, no issues running out of breath at all. The stars were all aligned and both times when I hit the extra long red light I made it at just the right time and didn't have to stop at all. Towards the end my legs were starting to feel a bit tired, but my lungs were still doing great. After all was said and done I had run my five miles in one hour and 29 seconds. So, not only did I do my first five mile run, I also ran my first one hour run! I feel so incredible right now. My legs are already starting to stiffen up a bit but that's to be expected and is nothing I can't handle. I do however think it's time to invest in some body glide. Running for an hour left me with a little chafe burn.

Right on schedule for once

2010-05-13T20:35:00.001-07:00

This week I have actually done all my scheduled runs. Well, so far there have only been two, but still, I did them as scheduled and that's pretty good for me. My next run is scheduled for Saturday and then I think next week I might change the days I run back to Monday, Wednesday, Friday. It would just make sense to make my long run days on Fridays and then I can always count on Saturday to be a rest and relaxation day before going back to work on Sunday. Anyway, my first 10K is scheduled for May 29th, which is only a couple weeks away! Yikes, I don't feel ready. I have only run up to four miles so far and a 10K is a little over six. Depending on how I feel on Saturday I'll try to go for five miles, otherwise I'll do four and half. Hopefully I can do five, that would be really exciting and would let me know that I could definitely be able to do just one extra mile for that race on the 29th. If that goes well then I officially start my half marathon training the first week of June.

Today was another one of those beautiful Seattle sunny days. It's the first day we've had this year that was in to the 70's. It felt hot as hell compared to the 50's and 60's I'm typically used to running in. Today my schedule said to do only two miles. I don't follow the schedule exactly and usually do a little more or a little less than the plan tells me to do, depending on where I run and how I feel. I had a really busy and exhausting day at work today and just wasn't up to doing much more than two miles, but I knew I needed to run regardless. So I drove down by the beach near where the Burke Gilman Trail begins (or ends, depending on how you look at it), parked my car right next to trail and headed out. It was hard at first. It felt like the sun was blaring down at my face, even with my visor on. I guess I'm more used to cloudy weather than I thought. I knew from experience that eventually everything would click and the running wouldn't feel so hard anymore. It usually takes me at least a mile before my body and my lungs get into rhythm with each other so I pushed on and once I got used to it the warmer weather wasn't that bad. On my way back to my car, when I knew I was only a half mile away from being done, I tried to see what I had left in me and kicked up the speed a bit. I keep running at about the same speed every run and I'm trying to get faster but getting under that 11 minutes a mile for any length of time is ever elusive to me. I'm sure I'll get there eventually and consider I used to run closer to 14 miles a minute I'd say I've improved quite a bit from when I first started running. I ended my run in just under 23 minutes so that was close enough to my goal and I was happy with it. I got into my car, grabbed my water right away, rolled down the window and headed home, happy with myself for my progress this week.

Greenlake

2010-05-11T20:09:00.000-07:00

This is the lake that I run around whenever I talk about my runs around the lake. It's only about a mile from my house and work and is very convenient. This is where I did the C25K program and where I ran my first race so it has a special place in my heart. It has two paths. An outer path, mostly gravel which measures 3.2 miles and an inner path, paved, that measures 2.8. Usually I run the inner path but today I decided to do the outer path to get a little extra distance in. It was a gorgeous day. Sunny, about 65 degrees, little bit of a breeze, a perfect afternoon for a run. I tried to up my pace a little on this run but a side stitch kept trying to creep up on me every time I tried to push it a little. I still did pretty good though, about my usual pace for the shorter path, so I was happy with that. I ditched my headphones and ran the whole thing without music or stats updates. It was kind of nice to just run.

Here's another view. That little island there is called duck island. It's a bird habitat that humans are not allowed on. Except for probably a few trained parks dept. people to help maintain it but otherwise that little island solely belongs to the birds. One of the things I like about this lake is the birds. When I run in the morning there's always a great blue heron either sitting in the water or out on a dock. There are ducks of many varieties, seagulls, cormorants at times, even the occasional bald eagle. If you go at dusk there's even bats. It's really a nice little spot in the middle of the city. One of these days I want to get a small camera that I can take bigger pictures with on my runs. My current camera is too big to run with and my phone makes small pictures. Hope you get to enjoy them anyway.

Some weeks are better than others

2010-05-02T09:59:00.000-07:00

And this week was not one of the better ones. At least not in terms of running. I didn't run at all this last week until Friday. I just didn't have the energy to run until then. I was worried all week and it just wore me out. When I woke up on Friday though I almost immediately knew I wanted to go run that day. I got a hold of my running partner to see if she could go but she was busy so I headed out on my own. I decided that since I hadn't run all week I would just do a nice and easy 3 miles in my neighborhood. The weather was perfect. Sunny and warm. I took it nice and easy and when I got home I felt go good, I really needed that run. I've been feeling menatlly better ever since. There's a couple of sayings that I've come across that fit me perfectly. Running, it's cheaper than therapy. Running is my prozac. Hahaha, that's exactly how I feel. Running really helps me to calm and clear my mind. Even my husband has noticed a difference since I started running.

Today I'm planning to try for 4.5 miles. My last long run was 4 miles so I'm bumping it up a bit. I can't believe I only have about 3 1/2 weeks to get ready for my first 10K. That distance seems like a lot right now but if I keep doing what I'm doing and just add a half mile every week to two weeks then I should be able to run that far. If things don't go well I can always run the 5K instead but I really want to run the longer distance. I'm going to need to start carrying water with me soon too. My runs are starting to get close to that one hour mark and pretty soon I'll be running for over an hour on my long runs. I already have a running water bottle picked out and I hope to be able to afford it with my next paycheck. It's less than $20 so I should be able to manage it. Here's a picture of what I want.

As my distance increases and I start training for a half marathon I'll look into buying a waist-pack that carries 4 bottles but for now I think this one is perfect and has really good reviews on Amazon. Anyway, that's it for now. Wish me luck on my run today!

Bad run or learning experience?

2010-04-26T22:06:00.000-07:00

Saturday was my day to go out and run four miles. This is my second time trying that distance and since I had run a 5K race the weekend before I had decided to repeat four miles. This four mile run did not go as planned. Not at all.

Lets back up a little, I think it'll help you understand in the end. Friday night my husband and I decided to kick back and drink a few beers. A few beer for me and I'm slightly tipsy. I usually only drink once or twice a year. On Saturday morning I had my coffee and then went to get my allergy shots. When I got back home I made breakfast for the two of us. I let my stomach digest for a couple hours before deciding to head out for my run. Instead of filling up my water bottle on the way out the door I grabbed one of the gatorade's that I bought over a month ago. I figured I might as well use them up. So, on my way to my running location I took a few swigs and called it good. Turns out, not so good. About five minutes into my run I have to pee. This never happens to me when I'm running, I always go before I leave the house. I know that I'm about a mile away from a public park, and therefore a public bathroom, nothing I could but hold it until I got there. So, I make it to the park, it's not exactly a park but it has a visitors center and a bathroom, which of course, had a line. Fortunately I only had to wait about a minute. Did my business and I was on my way again.

I get to my two mile mark and turn around. About a quarter mile past the bathroom my stomach starts rumbling. That uh-oh kind of rumbling. I was hoping that it would turn out to just be gas. The rumbling did eventually stop and I felt a bit better. I started to get into that zone where running feels effortless and you feel like you could go on forever. That zone was quickly washed away by heartburn and series of burps. Am I back to my car yet? As I get closer to where I parked my car I realize that my running application has not notified of my last half mile, which I'm sure I had passed by that point since I could see where my car was. For some reason my running application dropped my gps signal and was no longer tracking me. At least I knew my distance and it was still keeping track of my time. When I got home I was not feeling very well. A little nauseas and hungry so I ate some nuts and drank some water. Still felt off and weak for the rest of the day and somewhat into the next day.

So, what did I learn from all of that? If you drink alcohol the night before, make sure you properly hydrate yourself before going out and making yourself sweat. I also learned that gatorade is definitely not for me. At least not for running. A hot day in the summer when I'm not exercising or maybe gardening, then it would be okay, but not for running. I also learned that if my running application quits working, make sure I exit out of the application before heading home. I had just stopped my activity, so I thought, and somehow on my way home the gps picked my up again and began tracking me as a drove home. It ended up saying that I ran almost six miles in a really funky, and not possible, route. I have it set to automatically update my facebook and by the time I got home I had already received compliments on my run. I corrected the run, let everyone know that it was wrong but thanked them anyway, and re-posted the correct route. Tomorrow morning I'm planning my usual run around the lake so there shouldn't be any issues.

Magnuson Series Earth Day 5K

2010-04-17T13:53:00.000-07:00

Today I ran my third race ever which happens to be my second 5K. It was a local race, maybe a couple hundred people there if that much, at a park next to Lake Washington. It was cool and cloudy with rain off and on. I had trouble sleeping last night, falling asleep actually. Maybe someday I'll be able to fall asleep easily the night before a race. I woke up at about 7am but didn't get out of bed until about 7:30. I took a quick shower, made some coffee, and ate a banana before heading out to drive to the park. On the way there it was sprinkling a little bit not too bad. It was about 53 degrees out which to me is perfect for running. I got to the park a little early, which I was thankful for later when the parking lot filled up. I went and checked in, picked up my bib and shirt, then went back to my car to wait until it was closer to starting time. I ended up visiting the porta potty twice prior to the start, something I've never done before but that's what I get for drinking coffee. No big deal really. I warmed up a bit and then lined myself up towards the back of the pack. The race got under way on time and it only took me 20 seconds to cross the start line.

For the first time every, I did what everybody says not to do. I started off too fast. Within the first half mile there were a couple of hills that I was not prepared for, especially after starting off too fast. I pushed on though and ran the first mile at a 10:55 pace. I was really hoping to run about 11 minutes a mile so I was happy to see that even though I started off a bit fast I was able to settle towards my goal pace.

The second mile was mostly uneventful. No more hills, the terrain switched between pavement, gravel, and grass. My average pace for mile two was 11:06. A little slower but still pretty close to my goal pace. By about this time I was starting to feel like I wanted to slow down and I had to keep telling myself that this is a race, not one of my regular runs, and I should push myself. My mantra the whole time was I have a goal, I can do this.

The third mile was pretty flat, just like the second mile. I could see the finish line but got fooled. I thought I was almost there but then the race course took a turn away from the finish line. Dang it, still a little ways to go. For some reason the last mile felt like the longest mile I have ever run in my life. It felt like it went on forever and ever. But, then I saw the finish line again, and this time I was running towards it. I really tried to pick up the pace here but my lungs were having a bit of trouble. My average pace for mile 3.1 ended up at 11:47. It didn't feel like I had slowed down that much. My legs actually felt fine, it was breathing that slowed me down but I'm okay with that. The clock time when I got to the finish line was 33:42. Pretty darn close to my goal time and a PR! My last 5K took me just over 35 minutes to complete so I'm really happy with todays race. I'm running the 10K at this park next month and now I know the route and what to expect.

After the race I had some water, carrot sticks, and a myoplex shake. This 5K was to celebrate Earth Day and every participant got to take home a tree sapling to plant. Western hemlocks were the trees they were giving away today. After I grabbed my tree and stretched a bit I decided to just head to my car and come on home. My husband and step-son were waiting for me and I cooked breakfast for the three of us. Now I feel like it's nap time. Here's the new shirt I got.

A Beautiful Spring Run

2010-03-29T22:21:00.000-07:00

I have run three times since my last post. Last Sunday my goal was three miles around the neighborhood, I ended with 2.94. Close enough for me. The day was exceptionally beautiful. All of the stars were aligned for that run. It was sunny but not too warm, the birds were chirping, spring blooms were abound. I ended up on a side street where for one block, both sides of the street were lined with blooming cherry blossoms.

As I proceeded to run down the sidewalk I was lucky enough to run underneath a canopy of blooming cherry blossoms, the ground almost looked like it snowed.

I was a bit slower than usual on this run but that has a lot to do with the fact that I tried to plan my route to include some hills and inclines and those slow me down. To give you some idea, I started off at 184 feet and by about 1 1/2 miles I was at an elevation of 343 feet. That's a big difference! The good news is that it was down hill on the way back. Need to work on hills though. All in all this was a really great run. Also, I don't know why my pictures are coming out so small, all of the pictures on this blog were taken with my phone, which I have not updated, so I don't know what the deal is. I don't have a small enough regular camera to run with.

On to my next run. Tuesday afternoon I went out for a short run of 2 1/2 miles. I needed to stop at the store after my run so I decided to try a different route this time. The grocery store I frequent just happens to be on the Burke Gilman Trail. So, I parked at the store, ran on the trail, ended back at the store, got my stuff and went home. I also discovered that I really like running this trail. It's a little boring at first, going through a somewhat industrial area, but then you end up right next to the canal and you get to follow the canal until it reached Lake Union. It's beautiful, and I got to run right underneath a draw bridge and a very high bridge. As a matter of fact, I was just down hill from the troll under the bridge. It was another bright, sunny day, and being by the water gave me a bit of a breeze that was wonderful. I also ran a little faster than normal on this run, which always gives me encouragement.

Now we come to Saturday. I enjoyed running on the trail so much last time that I decided to do it again. But farther this time, 3 1/2 miles. This counts as my long run. As the weeks progress my Saturday runs will become longer and longer. I just started a 10K training program and plan to run my first 10K in May. Anywho, this run brought me all the way to GasWorks Park and back. Mostly along the water. With the sun being out I had bought myself a spiffy new visor to help keep the sun off my face and got to try it for this run. I still have to get used to something being on my head but other than that it worked great, I'm happy I got it. Not too much to report on this run, it went pretty well, my pace was a little faster than normal. Until I came upon the longest red light in the world. Then I hit it again on the way back. Next time I'm remembering to pause my running app so that it doesn't go against my overall pace.

Tomorrow is my next scheduled run and depending on how bad the weather is I just might have to do it on the treadmill, which I don't want to do because the treadmill is like the most boring thing in the world. Oh well, gotta do what you gotta do. If it's not raining too hard and if the winds calm down then I'll tough it out and get a little wet. But if it's pouring and windy, forget it. Even the treadmill is better than that.

Decisions, decisions

2010-03-20T22:11:00.000-07:00

I know it's a bit early but I have a potential dilemma. For September. I was originally thinking of training for a half marathon the day after Thanksgiving. I'm not so sure I want to do that, because well, it's the day after Thanksgiving. The day that you traditionally eat too much and stay up too late. I did find another half marathon in September that I wouldn't mind doing. But, there's another race I want to do in September that is only six days after the half. Why do I want to do both you ask? One of them gives you a medal. I really want a medal. The half after Thanksgiving gives you a medal but the timing isn't my favorite. I don't know if I could do both. I suppose, if I did the half and then just did the 5K that shouldn't be too much. I don't know. I'm going to start training and see how I'm doing. If I feel like I could do the half then I'll go for it and maybe forgo the medal. It's not necessary but I really want one.

Better Late then Never

2010-03-19T10:19:00.000-07:00

It's been almost a full week since my last race and I'm just now getting to this blog. Sometimes life gets in the way but that's alright. So, anyway, my last race was held on Sunday March 13, 2010 and the event was the Henry Weinhard's St. Patrick's Day Dash benefiting the Detlef Schrempf Foundation for Autism. It was a 3.8 mile course that went from Seattle Center to the Aurora bridge and back. There were over 15,000 participants that day, runners, walkers, strollers, etc. The first two waves were the timed ones. The first wave had award categories and the second wave was just for people that wanted to be timed without awards. That's the wave I ran in. I knew that I wouldn't be close to winning any sort of award but I still wanted to be timed. Here's a view of the crowd, from my short height.

There really wasn't any way to determine where to go for pace so we just kind of followed the crowd of people that were wearing the same color bib numbers as we were. The organizer's did get the runs started on time and at 8:40am the siren went off for us to start. Here's my brother minutes before the race began.

The whole first half was pretty much uphill. I'm really not conditioned to inclines and felt my asthma starting to kick in, of I didn't have my inhaler with me, so I stopped and walked a bit to fully catch my breath and not have to worry about having an asthma attack. Once I felt confident that my lungs were okay we picked it up again. On the way back down the incline my brother's knee started to hurt him so we walked again for a bit. We passed the mile marker for mile number 3, which was the first and only mile marker I saw that day, and realized that we were less than a mile from the finish line so we decided to run the rest of the way back. We made it to the finish line and I stopped my phone application to get a rough idea of what our time was. 47 minutes and 43 seconds. About a 12 1/2 minute per mile pace. Not too bad, that's pretty close to my usual pace and considering that we walked a couple of times I was really happy to see that because that means that when I was running I was faster than my usual pace.

The finish line was a traffic jam from hell. Too many people in too small of an area. One sidewalk for thousands of people doesn't work very well. I was dying for some water and wanted to hurry and get to the booths but the massive amount of people around me meant that we were going to get there as slow as possible. Finally we made it though. Some some bag piper's marching around and playing, everyone was either dressed up or at least wearing green. It was a fun race and I'm glad I didn't push myself too hard. We found the booth that I wanted to find and picked up a free copy of their magazine. My brother originally wanted to go into the beer garden (what's an Irish themed run without beer?l) but the line was so long that my brother decided it wasn't worth it. We decided that there were just too many people and not a good enough reason to stick around so we started back towards our car. Not before snapping a couple of pictures though.

Here's me after the race followed by my brother and I together after the race.

All in all it was a very fun race and one that I just might do every year from now on.

Thursday February 25, 2010

2010-02-27T11:42:00.000-08:00

I had skipped my run on Tuesday, due to the lingering soreness from gardening on Sunday. I didn't skip Thursday though. Mostly uneventful. My running partner and I met at Greenlake at six am like usual, however we did manage to beat our best time. We made it around in 33 minutes, pretty good for the two of us that early in the morning. We're going to try to keep increasing our speed until we can get to around 10 minutes per mile. That's our goal anyway. I had taken some pictures once on a walk around Greenlake but I must have accidentally deleted them because I can't find them anywhere. I wanted to share how pretty that little lake it early in the morning. Maybe next week I can snap a couple of pictures. Today I'm scheduled for 3.5 miles which I'll have to do later because I had a big breakfast not too long ago and I have to pretty much run on an empty stomach to avoid the dreaded side cramps that I'm so notorious for getting. Not sure what my route will be today but I'll figure out where I want to go in the next couple of hours. It's not as nice today as it was last weekend but I'm thinking of maybe doing a different section of the Burke Gilman Trail. Maybe the part that is on Lake Washington, however, the Lake Union part of the trail is closer and provides excellent views of downtown. Decisions, decisions.

I registered for my second race on Thursday. March 14th I'll be running the Henry Weinhard's St. Patrick's Day Dash along with my brother. This one is about 3.8 miles and they close part of a highway for us, on a really high bridge, so that should be fun. There is a beer garden at the end after the race. I don't drink but my brother is looking forward to that. I guess you can't have an event that has anything to do with the Irish without some type of alcohol right? There will be other festivities too.

Couldn't have asked for a nicer day

2010-02-20T18:52:00.001-08:00

I had a really busy day scheduled for today. Between basketball games, cooking, dropping a kid off at her friend's house, and sitting in traffic my day was pretty much filled up. I made sure to include some time for running though. Today was supposed to be my first day increasing my mileage and I didn't want to miss it. I had decided this morning to try a new route. I decided to drive down to the beach and run on the Burke Gilman Trail a ways. It was so beautiful out, beach, blue skies, near 60 degree weather, bright sunshine, what more could I ask for? I was able to maintain a pretty decent pace too. I tried to run a little slower since I was going further and it worked out great!

On my way back a train came rolling by on the tracks above me to my right and as I was looking up at the train there just happened to be a bald eagle flying over head. Near enough I could see some detail, at least enough to be sure it was a bald eagle. I love where I live. The only thing I didn't like was the traffic trying to get out of the parking lot due to how busy the beach becomes when the weather turns nice. I think if I do the beach run again I'll do it earlier in the day before the rest of the city wakes up from their Friday night partying.

Two for one

2010-02-18T18:58:00.000-08:00

I meant to blog the other day but ran out of time so I'm blogging two events in this post. We'll start with Tuesday. Tuesday morning my running partner and I were supposed to get up early and run around the lake. We were both too tired so we decided to put it off until Wednesday. I was feeling really draggy all day Tuesday and when I got home from work hubby was taking a nap so I decided to use that as an opportunity to get some running in. I didn't want to do a full run since I would be running in the morning so I decided to do an easy mile and then some hills. One nice thing about living in Seattle, hills are not hard to come by. I just have to go a half a block and I have three grades of hills to choose from. Anyway, so I jogged around the streets by my house until I had made it a mile. Then I started at the bottom of a medium grade hill, not too steep. I ran up it then walked back down. Did this three times. Not too bad, could feel it in my hamstrings and my butt but I wasn't in pain or too out of breath so I decided to do one more hill and try out the steep one. Each of these hills is a block long and according to google maps they are about 82 meters. I did my last run up the medium hill and then just sort of stared at the steep hill, wondering to myself if I really wanted to try running up it. Yes, I did want to try, at least once. So up I went and about 3/4 of the way I started to really slow down and wimp out. My butt was starting to scream. It was a pretty steep hill. Someday I will conquer it, but it is not this day. So, satisfied that I did some sort of workout I went home and stretched and then the hubby and had dinner and did some shopping.

Wednesday morning, we were going to get up early remember? Yeah, that didn't happen, again. It's so hard to drag yourself out of bed when you know it's cold and dark and you have to go out there. Much easier to stay withing the warmth and comfort of your bed and blankets. We agreed that we would either go during work or right after. I had to run a work errand that lasted a couple hours and when I got back my partner had decided that she didn't want to go running after all, she wanted to go home and make sure she was all ready to go for her trip. Okay, fine. I'll make Wednesday a rest day and run on my own on Thursday. So that's what I did.

Thursday = today. I got to work shortly after 8, early for me, I'm usually there closer to 9. I had all my running gear packed in my backpack and told my husband that I was going to run the lake after work and would be home a little late. Got off work at 4:30, changed into my running skirt, tank, and t-shirt, and headed out the door. The lake I run around is very close to my home and work. Five minutes tops to get there. Not so today, lots of traffic on the roads, had to wait through two rounds of one light before I finally got to go through it and then there wasn't much for parking. Sunny and near 60 brought a lot of people out I guess. I was able to get a pretty good parking spot in the third lot I drove into. Turned on my running application on my phone and off I went. I was a gorgeous day out and I was so happy to be in shorts and t-shirt for running. I hate to bundle up when I run. I had set my application to give me my stats every five minutes rather than at each mile. I don't know if it was that or the hills or just that I'm getting stronger but when I finished running around the lake and realized that I had done it a full FOUR MINUTES faster I just about crapped myself. I couldn't believe it, I've never made it around that lake that fast before. I even passed other joggers for the first time ever. They were two women jogging slower than me and they were the only ones I passed but that's okay, I'm very happy with that. Hope I can keep it up. Tomorrow I have to work a half day and do some grocery shopping but I only had cross training planned for tomorrow. Since I can sleep in a bit I'm thinking maybe I'll do yoga tomorrow before work. Saturday I increase my mileage to 3.5 miles. Wish me luck!

In other news, I was talking to my brother today and I was telling him about my goal to run a race every month. I started to tell him about the ones that I found for each month and he told me to plan to sign him up for them too! How cool is that? I have someone to run every one of my races with. I did find races through August and I'm thinking about making three of those 10K's. After my race next month I'm going to start working on increasing my distance so we'll see how I'm doing but I plan to try my first 10K in May. Lets hope I make it.

Love 'em or Leave 'em Valentine's Day Dash 2/13/10

2010-02-15T21:22:00.000-08:00

On Saturday I ran my first race, a 5K! It was so much fun and I'm looking forward to more races in the future. The night before I ate fish for dinner and took a nice hot bath to try to get myself to sleep well before having to get up at 7am on a Saturday. Sleep did not want to stay with me last night though. I was up before my 7am alarm but stayed in bed where it was warm until then. Got up, washed my face, put in my contacts, ate a small breakfast and had some tea. Got my running outfit on for the race. Since it was a Valentines themed race I wore a pink shirt, black shorts, and knee high socks that had hearts on them. Pulled my hair back into a ponytail and waited for my friend to come pick me up.

8:20am, we get to the lake and the race doesn't start until 9:30. There is no parking spaces left so we created one and sat in the warm car until about 8:40 and then we decided to go check everything out. This was the first race for both of us so we had a good time taking in all the sights and goings on around us. Lots of people dressed up for Valentines Day, it was really fun to see. It was about 46 and overcast, a little chilly but good running weather. Here's me before the race.

When it finally started to get close to time to start we wandered over by the start line and moved back. I didn't want to be up in front where the 5mm mile people would trample this poor 12-13mm penguin. The race did not get started at 9:30. Not sure if this is normal or not but they finally blew the horn about 9:35 and we were off. Well, sort of. There were about 3,000 people all trying to start running at the same time, except for maybe a few hundred walkers in the back. It was more of a walk to the starting line. Once we crossed over the starting line the crowd really started moving and thinning out a bit and we were able to actually start running.

The first mile we were running near the highway and a truck honked at us all. Then, to avoid the highway, we moved down onto the inner path of the lake. Not a very wide path so it was good the crowd has thinned out by then. They made heart shaped mile markers and when we made it to the first mile people were cheering. My time for the first mile? 12:29. About what I expected. That's about my usual pace so I was happy with that. I was glad I wasn't slower and my first mile is always the slowest while my body is warming up. About that time the race moved back off the path and into the street. Traffic was only moving one way as the other lane was closed off to us runners. It stayed overcast but didn't rain, which I was happy about.

My time for mile number two? 11:12, woah, how'd that happen? I didn't even realize that I had sped up that much in the second mile. Not a bad thing, it just surprised me. Through the last mile my legs started to feel a little tired. Maybe from inadequate sleep the night before? Or probably because I was speeding up without realizing it but my legs were taking notice. I just ignored them and kept on going. When I saw that we were getting close to mile number three and the finish line I started to really pick up my pace. Didn't know I had it in me but I really wanted to hurry to that finish line. My time for mile number three? 11:00. I don't think I've ever run a mile that fast before. I didn't get a split time for the last 1/10th mile but I don't think it was more than a minute at most.

As I was approaching the finish line, so were at least 30 others and I had to slow down and walk the last foot or so to touch my foot to the timing pad. Not the way I would have preferred to finish a race but it is what it is. The clock when my foot hit the pad read 36:16 but because it took me a couple minutes to get to the start pad I knew I had run faster than that. Then we had caught up to a hundred or so other runners who had recently finished before us and got stuck in a traffic jam trying to get back around to where the booths, and water, were. We cut out of that line and went straight for the water table. We picked up a protein shake, my partner got a piece of organic bread and a donut, I tried to find the larabars but there were just so many people in such a small area that it was hard to find anything. We picked up some fruit and I grabbed a couple copies of NW Runner and then we'd had enough of the crowd and decided to head back to the car and home.

Right after my friend dropped me off, I jumped into the hot shower before the chills could set in and then I made a nice big breakfast for DH and me. It was really fun, and my friend that doesn't even really like running, had a good time and wants to do it again with me next year. Maybe next year we'll run as a team and do some sort of costume like we saw others do. I'm officially hooked on races and I can't wait for my next one on March 14th!

I Still Got It

2010-01-30T17:58:00.000-08:00

I didn't get a chance to write about yesterday so I'm a day late. My running partner got sick and cancelled yesterday morning's run. That's okay. I slept in and then decided to go on my own. I drove down to the lake with the intent of going nice and slow and try to see if I could make it all the way around. At the very least I wanted to be able to make the 2.5 miles that I had scheduled for myself. I was very happy to learn that I can still make it around that lake. So, not only did I run 0.3 miles more than planned, that slow and steady pace I thought I was running turned out to be faster than I realized. My average pace was about 12:30mm. I thought for sure I was over 13mm maybe even 14. So, I had a terrific run yesterday. It really helped me get past a mental barrier I hadn't even realized was there about making it past 2 miles. I am now confident that I will be able to finish my race in 2 weeks.

My running partner is back!

2010-01-28T18:24:00.000-08:00

My co-worker and I went for our walk and stopped by a coffee shop for some tea. On the window they had taped an advertisement for the 5K race that I'm doing in a couple weeks. I pointed it out to her and told her that's the one I'm doing. She started thinking about signing up and doing it with me. She had asked yesterday if we should try to go running again in the mornings. Of course I said yes. Well, she decided that she did want to sign up for the race so we ran down to the running store to sign her up! Then she tells me, now we have to go running, now I have motivation to get back into again. Exactly! That's what I like about signing up for races, instant motivation and a good way to keep you on track. I'm so happy, I have my running partner back and someone to run my first race with. Today was a good day. We'll see how we do tomorrow morning, our first scheduled run.

So I want to be runner

2010-01-24T21:04:00.000-08:00

I suppose you could say that I am technically a runner. I try to go out for regular runs of at least two miles. I used to do two to four miles but have slacked off over the winter. I can still do a mile but not quite two. I'm working on that though. To help with that I went ahead and registered for my first race! I needed some kind of fire under me to get my ass out of bed in the mornings, or just out the door whenever the opportunity is there. I started with the Couch to 5K program last July. I graduated C25K in October and kept it up for about a month. Then I got hit with a minor ankle problem, then the holidays were upon us, then I was planning my wedding. Needless to say I didn't run much at all for a couple months. To get myself back to where I was I developed my own training program. Two actually. The first one is to get me back up to running 5K for my race coming up in February. Then I start working on building up to 8K. I have another race in March that my brother is going to do with me and it's almost four miles. After that maybe I'll work on 10K. We'll see how it goes. I've already learned to take baby steps when it comes to running. If you push yourself too far too fast you end up hurt.

I created this blog as a way to log my runs and to hold myself accountable. Blogging about running just didn't seem to fit in with my regular (journal) blog. It needs it's own space and deserves its own attention. This will also help me to keep track of what I did right before and good run and hopefully teach me what I did wrong before a bad run. For example, the other day I got up, had coffee, dinkered around the internet for a while, then ate breakfast. I can't run on a full stomach so I did laundry and puttered around. Then I had a snack, or two, I was hungry. Before I knew it my chance to go for a run was almost gone so I got ready and ran out the door. I think I must have had too much food in my stomach, or else I drank too much gatorade before leaving, because I had the worst side cramp of all time. It took me a good four blocks of walking to get rid of it and it came right back when I started running again. So, I'm going to try to make sure to run on emptier stomach and not so much liquid, at least not right before I go out the door.

Here's what my training plan for this last week looked like. (Jan. 17-23)
Sun: Strength/weight training. I worked on conditioning every muscle in my body.
Mon: 2 mile run. I ended up doing 2.2 miles on the treadmill, 30 minutes total.
Tue: Cross training. I didn't do any exercise today, was just too tired and so I took the day off.
Wed: 2 miles scheduled. I rested again this day. It was my first week back to work from vacation and my feet were killing me.
Thu: Scheduled rest day
Fri: 2 miles scheduled. I did 2.07 miles total outside. This was the killer side cramp run, but at least I did it.
Sat: Scheduled rest day.

This week is pretty much the same thing. I have yet to do my strength training but I'll get it done before I go to bed. My goal for this week is to not skip any days like I did last week. I'll run at work if I have to. Maybe.