Ugg

My computer crashed this week. Luckily, I have a good church with folks willing to lend a helping hand seeing as how I'm technologically challenged. I hope to be back up and running by Sunday.

I'm going for 11 miles tomorrow morning. I'm a wee bit nervous about is since that's the farthest I've attempted since I ran the 1/2 back in April. The weather is supposed to be cool and perfect so I have high hopes. I'm going to try the gels tomorrow instead of the beans and see how I do.

Speaking of half marathons....I signed up for another one on July 28th. It's a tune up race for me, to see if these tempo runs are doing what they're supposed to be doing. I'd like to go sub 2:15 this time.

And that's about it for now. Who knew - the ghetto computer actually works! I'll post more interesting stuff when I have my own computer back. Have a good weekend!

Let's go for a ride

Today is Sunday which means it is cross-training day. I've mentioned before that I'm not crazy about the idea of cross-training but I'm willing to give it a shot if it will improve my marathon training.

So, today I dusted off my old mountain bike, strapped on my cheep helmet I picked up at Walmart last week and, feeling like a total spaz, went out for my first ride.

The first half wasn't too bad, mostly because it was all downhill. I smiled to runners as I passed them and ignored the other bikers because this is the ritual I'm so used to. To my surprise, the runners ignored me and the other bikers smiled and said "Hello". I realized there is an unwritten code of conduct out there on the trails; bikers acknowledge other bikers and runners acknowledge other runners and that's the way it is.

I got to my turn around point and marveled at how fast I was. You see, I biked the same route I run and what normally would have taken me nearly an hour to run only took me 28 minutes to bike. My my, how swift. I hopped of my bike and couldn't believe how sore my but was. Ouchie!

The ride back home, much to my dismay, was almost entirely uphill and I started wondering who's bright idea it was to go on this ridiculous bike ride anyway? I considered jumping off and just running. Running is so much easier! But no! The point was to give my running muscles a break and use other ones, right?

I crawled up the last hill with the bike in first gear, you know, the one where you can pedal really fast and not go anywhere? My legs were all wobbly as I hitched the bike to the back of my car to make my way home, but I was pretty pleased with myself nonetheless. I never thought I'd be biking and I sure never thought I'd enjoy it.

But OWIE! Now I know I'll be sore tomorrow!

Yikes

Your registration has been successful!

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Whelp, folks. It's official. I've paid up and everything. I did some serious praying before I hit "submit" and now it's go time.

Tempo

I attempted my first ever tempo run today. I say "attempted" because it was pretty awful. Not in terms of effort, mind you, I was out there working my butt off. But more awful in the way of ability.

Wednesdays are my sorta-long days. The first week of training they start out at 5 miles and work up to 10 over the course of 18 weeks. Ten miles in the middle of the week is a big deal for me. Ten miles was my long run during my training for the half so to now be doing that on a Wednesday seems pretty ominous. But I am stepping up to the challenge. Oh yes, bring it on Wednesday Ten Miler.

I'm veering off course. Back to the tempo run. I decided that I want to incorporate some speed work into my training this summer. It's by no means mandatory and I've promised myself that if I ever feel like I'm getting overwhelmed or feel like I can't recover, I won't have any qualms about nixing the speed work. However, I'm feeling pretty good and I want to see what will happen if I try this. Plus, it spices up and otherwise typical 5 miles in the park after work.

I've decided to do my tempo runs every other Wednesday (on my sorta-long day) so I can have an adequate warm up, run for a few miles at tempo pace, then plenty of cool down which will total my scheduled miles for the day. So today, 1 mile warm up, 3 miles at tempo pace, and 1 mile cool down. I have to say that it 5 miles went by in the blink of a second but it was also much harder than I'd anticipated. Also, I think I started out way too fast. Here are the splits:

warm up mile: 11:00

mile 1: 9:23
mile 2: 10:47
mile 3: 9:32

cool down mile: 11:30

Not very good. I was all over the place. I had intended to run 3 steady 10:00 miles and look what I did! I went out way too fast and crashed at the second mile!! I had sort of an emtional breakdown at the second mile which was odd because I usually let go of whatever emotional baggage I'm carrying around while I run. (There's a pun in there somewhere, isn't there? Like my emotional baggage is too heavy to carry with me while I run so I leave it in the car? Bad, I know.) The last mile wasn't too bad but it was still about 30 seconds too fast. Geesh. I need help! I've read up on how to do this tempo thing but it's a lot harder to do than read! I reckon I'll be sore tomorrow.

LSD

Another good run this Saturday. I did 9 miles and started at 7am, before the trail got too crowded. This week, I bought one of these, only it's black and was less expensive. I like the fact that I didn't have to carry a water bottle in my hands and I had plenty of room for my ID and even my cell phone. I did not like the fact that the bottle kept coming loose and flying off my backside. Tweaking may be in order.

If I can be bothered later, I'm going to post a picture of my toe. The nail is now a weird brownish/purplish color and I'd like some opinions on what I should do about it from some of you more experienced runners. Don't worry, I'll give you fair warning in case anyone is squeamish about toes.

Also, does anyone have any good ideas where I could buy some mace? There's been an incident recently on the trail I run and I'd like over-protected rather than under. Better safe than sorry, they say!

Happy miles....

Desperate Measures

In the middle of my miserable 5 miler this afternoon, I had to make an emergency pit stop. And not the easy #1 kind either. Imagine, if you will, having to make a mad dash to a port-a-potti in the middle of the park on a hot summer afternoon with 90% humidity. Now imagine you step up into said port-a-potti, trying to touch as little of it as possible with your body, and notice the service list states the port-a-potti has not been serviced in 5 days. Five days of sweltering, steamy sun beating down on this damp, stinky, germ-infested little room. Now also imagine a lack of toilet paper and a sweaty runner who still 2.5 miles from her car.

Awesome.

In other news, I think I might be on the verge of losing my first toenail. I've been bragging to all my non-runner friends about it like it's a rite of passage. They all just look at me like I've completely lost my marbles.

And I'm in love with my Garmin. I'm getting better at knowing how to use it and boy does it keep me honest. It's humbling, really. But also satisfying to be able to know the exact mile I ran in 9:30 (yay) and the exact mile where I crashed and ran a 12:32 (boo). It's a fun little gadget. The only thing that worries me is that I'll become too dependent on it and lose all the fun of just going out for a run "naked" and losing track of the time and miles. I'm afraid I'll become too competitive with myself and push too hard on days I'm supposed to be going easy.

And last, but certainly not least, it's hot outside. It was 91F when I went out today and I thought I was going to die. I may have to re-think getting up at the butt crack of dawn and getting my run in before work or doing it late in the evening. I can't keep running in this heat. It's absolutely miserable!!!

Say hello to my new best friend...

Perhaps running out at buying this little number was a little indulgent and impulsive but....gotta have it. Most girls I know spend their down time at work shoe shopping online. Me? I've had my eye on this little beauty for months.

Now, if only I could figure out how to work it!

Saturday, in the Park

I've been meaning to update this blog more frequently but the times I feel most inspired to write, I strangely find myself at work and should be working. Plus, my computer at work is really ghetto - I'm not sure it's internet capabilities could handle blog posting.

That being said, I've had a pretty good running week. That is, until I headed out the door this morning. Monday, I had the 5 mile race (btw, I'm still happy about my time and not beating myself up at all for not breaking 50 minutes - not at all), Tuesday I did an easy 3. Wednesday I wanted to get another 5 in but it ended up being closer to 4.5. And, as a side note, I need to find a better 5 mile route. The one I currently run has a really awkward turn around point and sometimes I cut the run short because it's just easier. Marathon training starts on Monday so NO MORE SHORTCUTS. Anyway, Thursday was an unscheduled rest day but I needed it and Friday, easy easy 2.5 before my LSD 8 this morning.

Bringing me to a grand total of 23 for the week. I'm pretty happy with that for now.

Back to what went wrong this morning. First of all, I've not been eating well at all this week. There's no particular reason or excuse for it, I just did and I think I paid dearly for it today. I had zero energy and just felt heavy and weighed down. The second thing I did wrong was get started too late. Now that it's smoking hot outside with humidity through the roof, I have to start these long runs as early as possible. Otherwise, I'm toast by the end of it. I didn't start today until 8.30 and by the time I finished I think the tar was melting to my shoes. Thirdly, because I overslept, I ate late and didn't allow enough time for my bagel to settle before the run started. Ugg. Fourth (yes, it keeps going), I was not properly hydrated before the run so I stupidly tried to make up for that fact during the run and ended up getting one mother of a side stitch. This caused plenty of walk breaks during mile 6 and the reason it took me over an hour and a half to finish 8 lousy miles. And fifthly (is that a word?), I ate a couple sports beans when I didn't need them at all. I had them with me "just in case" and thought I should eat them before I felt I needed them. I think they just contributed to the side stitch and my drinking way too much water.

And this, dear readers, is how not to run a long run.

Did I mention that Monday begins marathon training? I'm using a combination of Hal Higdon's Novice I & II training programs. It's an 18 week program but I've factored in an extra 2 weeks in case of injury or whatever else might cause a set back. After what happened during my training for the Half this past winter, I want to prepare for the unexpected. I've done Higdon's plans before for other race distances and found that I can actually stick to it and do it. That in and of itself is reason enough for me to keep using his plans. I say I'm doing a combination of the two Novice plans because the II plan looks like it has some pace runs. I'm not exactly sure how I'm going to do these just yet but I'll figure something out. I am a marathon beginner so my goal is to finish strong on race day. However, I'd also like to finish strong under 5 hours. In order to do that, I'll need to get a smidgen faster. He has Sunday's listed as cross training days but to be quite honest, I hate cross training. I might do a little yoga here and there, but ultimately, I'm doing this because I love to run. I understand his reasoning for cross training (using other muscle groups and all that) but ugg. I'll give it a go and see how it works. This might be strength training day for me as well. Oh, and my gym closed (bummer) so I have extremely limited access to other means of cross training. See, this is why I love running, you lace up your shoes and you're out the door. No gym required.

Well, that's enough stream-of-consciousness babble for one stormy Saturday afternoon. 20 weeks from tomorrow, I want to call myself a marathoner. Welcome to the jungle.

Happy miles!