Achieving unrealistic running goals since 2008

The "Unrealistic Part"

2010-08-16T15:58:00.001-05:00

Maybe it's not so unrealistic anymore.

What used to be unrealistic was me just running a marathon. Now the unrealistic part that I'm achieving is running faster.

The past couple weeks I've been doing interval training. Mostly I run/walk at 3/6 mph. But sometimes I kick it up to run 7 or 7.5. That's big for me. When I first started running in 2006 for the Couch to 5K program, I was running at 4 mph.

Today's run was:

5 minutes walking
2 minutes running, 1 minute walking, repeat 7 times
5 minutes cooling down

31 minutes, 2.25 miles total

It was a great run!

I have a race!

2010-08-15T20:10:00.000-05:00

Kind of like I have a dream, only a lot sweatier.

My family and I have won lottery tickets for the Aramco Half Marathon! Hubby (yes, he's now my hubby!) and I debated a lot about how to train. I loved running with HoustonFit, but the downsides are its just too freaking hot outside, and when it does cool off, they still meet really early in the morning. Plus, when you have someone to run with, it's a lot easier to stick to your own schedule.

So, we will not be joining a running club. I have developed a plan myself, combining HoustonFit, Galloway, Hal Higdon, and the Couch to 5K program.

Today was the official start, although I've been running 2-3 miles on a pretty regular basis lately. Today's run was 2.65 miles long (2.5 plus cool down, 32 minutes total). I ran 19 of those minutes at 6 mph (on the treadmill) and then 13 of those minutes at 3.5 mph (walking on the treadmill).

We are also in for the Texas Independence Relay again, and I'm hoping to do the Gateway to the Bay Triathlon.

8 Miler with Bay Area Fit

2010-01-02T10:45:00.000-06:00

This Saturday David and I got up and went for a run with Bay Area Fit. It was a 8 mile out and back course, but David still got lost :)

I had a really good run though. Sometimes it's tough to run alone because I think about Dad and how much of a running inspiration he was for me, and then I get a little choked up.

But I ran the 8 miles in just under 2 hours! No stopping!

Remembering....

2009-12-18T07:47:00.002-06:00

I've been absent from blogging, and wanted to post quickly in remembrance. My dad passed away November 8th, 2009. He was my inspiration for running, the whole reason I run marathons was because I knew that if my dad could do it I could. Thanks Dad, I miss you.

Two for the price of one!

2009-10-26T11:42:00.001-05:00

I'm getting a bit spoiled by the cool weather. Sunday was significantly warmer then recent, so instead of getting up super early to run, I opted to sleep in instead. However, I did get to the gym in the afternoon, and stayed on the treadmill for an hour! I ran about 4.5 miles:

400m walking at 3.5 mph
4 miles running at 4.5 mph
400 m walking at 3.5 mph

I actually ran out of time...at 60 minutes the treadmill automatically starts a cool down phase. :) Oh, and what helped me not get bored on the treadmill? Thankfully at Crew it's never very crowded, so I was able to plop down right in front of a TV, get the remote all to myself, put on the Men in Black movie, AND set up the large fan directly behind me. Oh, life at a gym is plush.

This morning DF and I got up to go to the gym. I started with a mile run:

400 m walking at 3.5
800 m running at 6 mph
400 m walking at 3.5

Then I moved on to lift weights.

Bicep curls at 10 lbs each arm
Over-the-head triceps at 20 lbs
Shoulder press at 10 lbs each arm
Chest Press at 10 lbs each arm

I also caught up with the cardio cycling instructor. She teaches a class M W F at 5:30 am. My mom does cardio cycling, and I think it would be a great calorie burning, cross training exercise.

"Easy" run

2009-10-21T22:43:00.000-05:00

Hopped on the treadmill last night to complete an easy run. Turns out, as one could imagine, that unless you are doing tempo or interval training, treadmills are really boring.

400 m 3.5 mph
2000 m 4.5 mph
400 m 3.5 mph

So close to 2.25 miles. My calves were pretty tight the whole time, which might be a treadmill thing? After wards I went a did some weights:

15 lbs, over the head triceps
10 lbs, each hand bicep curls

I did the weights on Sunday too at home. Gotta start working on those Obama-mama arms I want to show off in my wedding dress!

Changing seasons brings....

2009-10-18T11:21:00.000-05:00

sunburns, longer runs, more sleep, more running company...

Yay! This morning when I woke up (at 7:15 am) it was 54 degrees out! Perfect for a run, if not a bit cold.

DF and I headed out for the run a bit before 8. He biked while I ran. I covered a little less then 12 miles. I drank a lot of water (a gallon!) and ate 4 Gu packets. I def got tired out towards the end, but it felt pretty good.

However, I was exhausted afterwards! I really need to get back to mandatory nap time.

My course was out our block the long way and then around W. 11th St Park and then all the way up the White Oak Bayou Trail and back. It was georgeous out, and eventually got pretty sunny...I'm not quite burned but my freckles multiplied.

Yay! I'm officially tapering. I have been thinking about doing the Koala and Luke's Locker Half, but it's just so time consuming and I dont want to be a zombie all day Sunday (we're carving pumpkins!)

Tues 13th

2009-10-13T20:33:00.001-05:00

Another night on the treadmill.

400 m 3.5 mph
400 m 4.5 mph
400 m 6 mph
400 m 3.5 mph
400 m 6 mph
400 m 3.5 mph
400 m 6 mph
400 m 3.5 mph
400 m 6 mph
400 m 3.5 mph

Total: Approximately 2.5 miles

Didn't run this weekend because I was supposed to run Sunday and woke up to pouring rain. Oh, laziness, you win again.

Tues 6th run

2009-10-06T21:31:00.000-05:00

Hopped on the treadmill:

400 m 3.5 mph
1600 m 4.5 mph
400 m 3.5 mph
800 m 5 mph
400 m 3.5 mph

Total: approximately 2 miles

Long run!

2009-10-03T10:09:00.000-05:00

I had a GREAT long run this morning. Today is a big day (engagement and birthday party tonight) so I knew I didn't want to get up really early to go running with HoustonFit. So I set the alarm for 6 am and DF and I went out. His foot is still bothering him, so he biked alongside me! I ran about 9.7 miles, and then added on another mile of walking (warm up/cool down). It went great. I only took walk breaks for logistics (water breaks, stoplights, etc) and DF was able to help out by keeping me company and safe (and he biked home to refill my water bottles!). It was also lovely out...very comfortable. My most enjoyable run in a long time.

I think I did it in 2:36?

I've been so bad (and yet so good!)

2009-09-30T22:47:00.000-05:00

Soo I'm behind in posting....but don't worry, the posts will be coming! However, I have been pretty good, and I made a major milestone today. It's the end of the month, and that means September's fitness challenge is over. DF forfeited the run (he has torn a ligament in his foot). I proceeded on the run anyways and guess what??

9:59

I ran a mile in less then 10 minutes (just barely :) )

It's about time for a long run

2009-09-26T10:53:00.001-05:00

Today I met up with HoustonFit for the first time in, oh, forever.

They were scheduled to run 10 miles, which I figured might be a little much for the first time back. However, the route conveniently ran right by my house, so If needed home was a short walk away. I met up with the slowest group of runners (14:45 min/mile goal time), which was actually really good because the full fall marathon group just doesn't HAVE a slow group. So I'm always the back of the pack, and usually by myself half way through the run.

I didn't do the 10 miles, obviously, but I did do 7. I did walk more towards the end, but mostly I kept up with the 5/1 or 11/1 strategy. It was a good run. It was hilly (T.C. Jester's green belt) so my butt was feeling it by the end because I always made a point to speed up over the hills.

Next week, HoustonFit is doing 12. It's interesting looking at the training schedule, because the Fall group is not training for just one marathon...it's New York, Chicago, San Antonio, Koala Half here in Houston, etc. So really there are several "peaks" in the training program. I dont think I'm going to do 12. I think I'm going to do this:

Oct 3 - 10 (HF does 12)
Oct 10 - 8
Oct 17 - 12 (HF does 6)
Oct 24 - 10 (HF does Koala Half)
Oct 31 - 9
Nov 7 - 6

It feels weird to think about tapering already. At least I have learned from this experience that a lot (A LOT) of training is mental. I may not be physically there, but if I keep it mental I can make it.

Very short gym trip

2009-09-24T20:36:00.000-05:00

I certainly allow my mind to wander a lot when I run, but on this particular trip to the gym, my mind was wandering too much.I was so focused on a wedding related issue we've been having that I wasn't enjoying my run, so I kept it short and sweet.

5 minute walk T 3.5 mph

500 m run at 4.5
500 m run at 5
500 m walk at 3.5
500 m run at 5.5
500 m walk at 3.5

Then I did some small abs work: the plank and the superman.

Late night gym

2009-09-17T22:38:00.000-05:00

DF and I headed out to the gym tonight, way later then normal (like 8:30). Instead of running we got on the stationary bikes, and I biked 5.91 miles in 30 minutes. I thought it was cool till I saw DF had done 13 or so.

Blah....

But over to the stretching area were I did 10 pendulums and then held the bridge for 60 seconds, all done 3 times. Pretty good. I like the bridge, it has a different kind of burn feel associated with it.

We've added a "negatives" category to our challenge. We're avoiding sweets! Today is day 5 of no sugar (other then in my hot tea, because I don't want to use imitation stuff that may or may not have harmful side effects).

I've also really been working hard on my fruit, veggies, and water intake. I've switched to fruit for breakfast and salads (albeit meaty salads) for lunch. As a result, I'm down 3 pounds this week! I know most of it is water weight, but its always nice to see the scale go down.

I'm back!

2009-09-15T21:40:00.001-05:00

Yay, we made it to the gym tonight!

I was on the treadmill for 35 minutes:

5 minutes walking at 3.5 mph
7 minutes running at 5 mph
6 minutes walking at 3.5 mph
5 minutes running at 5 mph
5 minutes walking at 3.5 mph
4 minutes running at 5 mph
1 minutes running at 6 mph
4 minutes walking at 3.5 mph

Then I went over and did some core work. DF and I tossed a medicine ball around, swinging it from side to side to work our obliques. I did 10 situps, followed by a minute (damn!) of the bridge, repeated 3 times.

Hola!

2009-09-11T06:32:00.000-05:00

Just a quick post to say we're back from Costa Rica...

2 things:

1) I'm sick.... :( stuffy nose, sore throat, clogged sinuses. It's inevitable after flying.

2) and most importantly, BF is now...DF. I guess that would be blogger lingo for Dear Fiance. So excuse me while we celebrate...

End to July/August Fitness Challenge

2009-09-03T20:55:00.001-05:00

Sit ups in 1 minute
Amy 22 27 22.73%
BF 56 58 3.57%
Running one mile, in minutes
Amy 11.08 10.63 -4.06%
BF 7.7 6.3 -18.18%
Push ups in 1 minute
Amy 22 31 40.91%
BF 30 38 26.67%

Fruits: Amy - 2.06 BF - 2.00
Veggies: Amy - 1.72 BF - 1.31
Water: Amy - 52.72 BF - 50.49

As I said, BF won the weight challenge (not showing you the stats on that!). So I won the fruits, veggies, water, sit ups, and push ups. Woot!

It will be interesting to see how much better we do when we actually work hard (i.e. are injury free).

P.S. my toe was fine during the run (I had it bandaged, which was a bit annoying). However, I stubbed it while working outside tonight.

Race plans

2009-09-03T17:27:00.000-05:00

Ok, so here's some updates:

San Antonio: Dropping back to do the half. That means I have NO marathons scheduled.

Hill Billie Relay: Canceled for 2009.

BF and I have gotten a membership at Crew Gym, so we're going tonight to finish our July/August fitness challenge. I won all three food challenges, and BF won the weight challenge (I didn't lose any) so I just have to win one exercise challenge to win, and I think it will be the mile run, assuming my toe holds up.

Toe update

2009-08-25T20:03:00.003-05:00

Friday night before bed I was thinking about the run for Saturday. I had printed out the map and wrote out the directions. I go to check on my toe, and it's been draining and gone through the bandage. BF and I looked at it, and both voiced concerns about exacerbating the toe and
causing more damage. I countered with us already being behind in training. He suggested switching to the half marathon. Either way, we both decided there was too much drainage to run.

Today was my supposedly final follow up appointment. They cleaned it again (ow ow ow) and I talked to the dr about how it still bothered me and often drained through the bandage (like that morning, if I hadn't had the Drs appointment I would have had to change my bandage anyway
thanks to a pink spot starting to show). The doctor prescribed some antibiotics and sent me on my merry way.

Will I run this weekend? We will see. BF is out of town this weekend and we finally got a gym membership, so I may go to the gym on friday to try to crank out a mile on the treadmill and then bike if it's too painful. I'm starting to feel falling out of shape, which is not a
nice feeling.

Am I going to run the SA full? 11.5 weeks to go from rusty and injured to 26.2....

My toe is unhappy

2009-08-16T16:40:00.004-05:00

Saturday was supposed to be a 10 miler. I was looking forward to a (relatively) easy run.

Friday I went to the podiatrist (actually his assistant) and they cleaned up my wound.

Got up at 5 on Saturday and barely made it to the run on time. We are walking and I can feel pain in my toe. I run a couple of paces, and it feels better so I'm sticking with the run. BF goes off to join his group and I start the run letting the groups catch up.

And it's rough. I can feel the shoe bending and hitting the wound. BF catches up with me and we decide not to exacerbate things.

It was a good thing we did. I got home to soak and redress the wound and it was bloody. I also had just wrapped it without applying the cream, and thus got cotton stuck to it.

So I'm back on the injured bench - for now. I moved my next follow up appointment to a Monday so if they do clean it will be after my run.

I am going to have to adjust the next few runs to make up for two runs off.

Poor toe!

2009-08-10T12:15:00.001-05:00

Ok so it's not that bad. Friday I had an ingrown toenail fixed. It started bothering me the night we went to L.A. I'm no stranger to ingrown toenails. As well as being a symptom of running, they are also genetic. My dad and my brother have had them (and my brother does not run).

The podiatrist took care of mine Friday, and so I skipped the 15 miler with HoustonFit. BF and I tried to get up on our own this morning to run it. We planned a 5 mile loop to do. We got up at 4 am...and did one loop. It's really just too freaking hot to run. We decided to do loops because that allows us to refill water and fuel with certainty, but the disadvantage is it's easy to quit.

Looking at the schedule for a while, We've got an 18 miler coming up. Unfortunately I have class that starts at 10 am that day. I'm not sure if I should run less in order to get back in time (we do have another 18 miler scheduled). I do know that doing it on my own is not an option, because it just won't get done.

Anyway, I have a follow up with the Dr on Friday, but I should be up and running soon!

L.A. Fitness

2009-08-03T20:39:00.001-05:00

In the quest for OUR gym, BF and I tried out LA Fitness.

Pluses:

It's huge compared to the other two we've tried
It has a pool
Two classrooms
More machines
Bigger locker rooms

Cons:

Crowded, despite it's size
Most expensive of the 3
Is a big gym really a good thing?

Overall, I just don't think it had the feel that we liked at Crew.

But we worked out to get a feel for the place. I started by walking 400 meters at 3.5 mph and then running 400 meters at 5.5 mph. The pace felt good and comfortable, which was nice. However, as I went on, I developed a side stitch that was really bothering me. Plus my shins were sore, so I hopped off the treadmill and went down to stretch. I tried to stretch out my abs, but that's when I realized that my lower back was what was sore.

I went off to do some weights. I started with the abs machine at 80 pounds, then I did biceps, triceps, and a chest press all at about 40 pounds.

By the time I got done with that BF finished his 2 miles and I was hungry and my pre-existing headache was getting stronger, so we opted to call it a day.

I realized when we got home that my toe was bothering me. Now I'm a bit worried because it might be an ingrown toenail (a lovely fate for runner's toes). Hopefully it will get better before the 15 miler this weekend!

12 mile run with Houston Fit

2009-08-01T10:40:00.000-05:00

The 12 miler today was difficult, but I'm showing improvement. I ran
nonstop until the first water stop, which was about four miles. I was
the back of the pack, but I kept in sight of the group ahead of me. I
stopped longer then they did at the water stop though while I
refilled, so I got farther behind. But at the halfway point was
another stop, and I stopped and stretched. I went on, and I could see
a runner ahead of me, one that wad in the group ahead of me but had
fallen behind. Fortunately a couple blocks later I realized we had
both missed the turn. Basically 10th street changed names and it
wasn't noted in our directions. But I figured it out thanks to the
iPhone and flagged the woman in front of me down and kept going. It
was slow and steady, and I think a lot of people had a miserable
time. But thankfully it was not sunny out.

Probably around mile 10 my hip flexor started to get sore. Very sore
to the point that I was almost limping. I could also feel the centers
of my feet getting raw, as they had blistered last week.

So I walked the rest in and finished in about the time I expected. I
don't think I'm taking enough electrolytes, because I only had about 2
Gus during that run as well as maybe 12 oz of Gatorade. Something to
work on.

Redheaded runners!

2009-07-27T20:21:00.002-05:00

Thanks to my mom, I found this new blog! Woot redheads! While reading the blog, I found this site: http://www.shabbyblogs.com/

My new background is "Good Luck Charm" cause who doesn't need a little good luck at the races??

After reading through the blog, I got to thinking about how cool it was that she meet up with fellow bloggers to run. It's a cool thought, but for me, it presents two problems:

1) I'm so slow, its a burden for other people to run with me (BF loves me, so that's why he puts up with it)

2) Where are all the Houston Bloggers?

Speed Training and Core

2009-07-27T11:47:00.000-05:00

Had another great morning at the gym! I started on the treadmill:

400 m 3.5 mph
400 4.5
100 5.5, 100 4.5, repeat 8 times
400 4.5
400 3.5

Total: 2 miles, 27.36 minutes

On to core!

The bridge for 30, then relax. Metronome for 14 counts (5 on each side). Then repeat 3 times.

Plank for 10 seconds, Hard Superman for 20 seconds. Repeat this 3 times.

Pretty great weekday workout.

10 Miles with Houston Fit

2009-07-25T12:53:00.000-05:00

This morning we got up and finally joined Houston Fit for a 10 miler. I was obviously the back of the pack, but had a very nice girl running with me for part of the run. She was behind me towards the middle and ended up getting picked up by the sag wag. :(

It was, as usual, hot out. I was def the last one in, but I'm not too worried about it because I know that will my speed training and with the weather cooling off I will get fast(er) again.

Tempo run and core workout

2009-07-23T18:07:00.000-05:00

I did something amazing today. I got up at 5:30 to go workout! Ok 5:45, and was out the door around 6:15, but it was close!

I packed up work clothes the night before so I could shower at Crew and then go straight to work. I hope that soon I'll be able to get up at 4:45 and attend the 5:30 cardio cycling class, but we'll see.

To start I warmed up with 400 meters of a 3.5 mph walk on the treadmill (4:15 minutes). Then I kicked it up for a warm up jog and did 400 meters at 4.5 mph (3:20). Kicking up into the tempo pace, I ran for 1200 meters at a 5.5 mph pace (8:10). Then back down to 400 meters at a 3.5 mph pace. (4:15)

Total: 1.5 miles (20 minutes)

Movin on to the core:

Held a plank for 7 seconds, relaxed for 15 then held the plank for another 7 seconds. Then I did the superman (the hard one with both feet and hands) holding for 10 seconds, then relax for 15, then hold for another 10. Repeat this 3 times.

Move on to the bridge. Hold for 20, then relax. Metronome for 10 counts (5 on each side). Then repeat 3 times.

Showers at Crew are pretty decent. I made a mental note of things I needed to bring for next time. BF and I are going to put together a "gym" bag so that we can be prepared in the morning to go workout.

Sunglasses or no sunglasses?

2009-07-23T12:03:00.000-05:00

A benefit of not wearing sunglasses?

No Ryan Hall tan line. Or wait, is that a good thing?

Fitness Challenge Research

2009-07-22T18:21:00.001-05:00

Using my new "race pace", I recalculated my V dot. Now that I have a better way to control my pace instead of just guessing, I'm going to try to use this information more effectively. Here is a handy link to explain how you should use the V dot information.

So basically for tempo (threshold) training, I need to hold the "hard" (read: uncomfortable) pace for an extended period of time. For speed (interval) training, I need to use short bursts of speed. Interval training increases your VO2 max (the rate at which your body consumes oxygen) while threshold training builds up a tolerance to lactate build up in the muscles (basically building up your pain levels, in a nicer way of putting it).

So, according to my Vdot above, I should be running I training at 5.3 mph, and T training at 4.9. It seems slow, but that article says a lot about how it is counter productive to run faster then that.

To calculate your own V dot.

Now, moving on to the core workouts!

I'm not going to talk to much about this, because I think the article explains it pretty well. Ignore the title please (I hate stuff that promises that you can lose weight or get in shape fast). The important pages are 2 and 3. Page 2 shows you where your core muscles benefit you as a runner, and page 3 shows you moves to do (without equipment) that can strengthen those areas.

So this is my plan. It's actually kind of stupid for me to post this, because I am giving BF the information on how to beat me in our challenge, but I think that's ok :) He will be a worthy opponent no matter what.

Fitness Challenge is on! and Crew Gym

2009-07-21T21:42:00.002-05:00

Getting more workouts in then just my long run has always been a challenge for me. BF and I are trying to fix that two ways:

The first is getting a gym membership. This will help for a variety of reasons. One is that I won't be able to use the excuse that it's too hot out to run/bike. Granted I'll still be sweating my butt off, but at least it will be in air conditioned comfort verses the 100+ degree weather. I will also be able to do more cross training, with classes and weights. My mom is really into spinning, and now that shes supplementing it with running, she's seeing great changes. I'm hoping that knowing how fast I'm going will help with speed training and tempo work. Also, I need to be doing a lot more defining of my muscles in order to get into the shape I want to be.

The second method is to get a little competitive. BF and I have decided that we are going to have 3 categories, and over the next 6 weeks (till September 1st) we will see who can improve the most in each category. So our goals are set as:

Running 1 mile
One minute of push ups
One minute of sit ups

So if I increase the number of sit ups I can do in one minute versus what the BF can do, I win!

So tonight we headed over to Crew Gym on Washington Ave between Shepard and Durham. We got the tour and the whole speech on the costs and benefits and stuff. It is a very clean gym. The weights and machines are well organized. We went at 6 pm on purpose to see it at rush hour, but it wasn't very crowded. There are two upstairs areas that look down into the main room - one for a stretching area and one for cardio. After the tour, BF and I were both able to hop on treadmills right away (although the first one I got on didn't work).

Man has technology changed. I haven't had a gym membership in a few years, if you don't include my school gym. When I was growing up I belonged to the South Shore Harbor fitness center down in League City (I loved their indoor track, although my parents certainly didn't get their money's worth out of my membership), and when I lived in New Haven I was a member of two gyms (a Bally's and then one small local one, where I took kickboxing). The small one in New Haven had individual tvs on each treadmill, which I thought was pretty neat. I used to go first thing in the mornings and run and watch VH1 (cause that was the time that it actually had music videos on).

Now, each cardio machine at Crew allows you to plug headphones into it and watch any of the 4 tvs above you. That's kind of a step down, especially for someone who is near sighted and refuses to wear glasses. But, there is also a plug for your ipod, so that you can charge it and control it on the touch screen! Pretty cool. The touchscreen itself is pretty nice, and allows you to 'watch' as you go around a track. Finally, the treadmill has a USB port, and at the end of your workout, it asks if you want to download your workout information to your thumb drive. I haven't tried any of these yet, but I'll report back when I do!

So to start I cranked the treadmill up and started a run.

400 m at 5 mph
400 m 6 mph
400 m 4 mph

Bathroom break. When I popped back upstairs, BF informed me he finished his initial mile run, so I hopped on the treadmill and tried to get my best mile in.

400m 6mph
300m 5mph
200m 4 mph
400m 6mph
100m 5 mph
100m 6 mph
100m 7.2mph

Nice little simulated "sprint" towards the finish. I didn't think I would pick back up to 6mph again at the end but I did. That led me to a 11:05 minute mile! Def the fastest I have ever attempted to run a mile.

So in total, that was 1.75 miles in 20:20 minutes.

FYI, BF smoked by at somewhere around 7:45 minute mile. That's why we're going by percentage increase. :)

Moving on, BF and I helped each other do the push ups and sit ups. BF opted to do crunches instead of sit ups because of chronic upper back/shoulder pain. I opted for push ups on my knees instead of on my toes, because, well, I'm a wuss.

In the one minute allowed, I got in 22 push ups, and then 22 sit ups.

So we'll see how this goes! Right now the gym membership is a 3 day pass to use in the next 2 weeks. It would be wise for us to shop around elsewhere, so we'll see!

8 miler

2009-07-19T11:07:00.000-05:00

We're gearing back up! BF and I went for a run this morning. We were out the door at 6:10 and headed off to do 8 miles. We ran down TC Jester, took a right on Washington, and weaved west and south until we hit memorial. Down Memorial to Picnic Lane and back!

It's nice that we're closer to Memorial now, because I think there will be more opportunities to exercise.

The run was hot, and we walked a majority of the way back. But there is a nice little hill on TC Jester for us to go over, and in fact, we actually saw a guy biking the hill, u-turning, and biking back up. Repeatedly. Now we know a place close to home to do hill training.

Sometimes I get a little down on the fact that I'm so slow. But then I think about all the people I started HoustonFit with last year, and how many of them actually made it to the full marathon. And here I am still chugging along. Go me!

Now we are caught up with Houston Fit, and will be running the 10 miler with the fall group next weekend.

Registered

2009-07-17T12:46:00.000-05:00

Just registered for the Aramco Houston Half Marathon!

I feel so rusty!

2009-07-11T13:50:00.000-05:00

Well, it's been two weeks since we've run, and we figured it's about time to get back...in the shoes.

Today is also the orientation for HoustonFit's Houston Marathon season.

So we got up early and drove to memorial park to run. We started out going counter clockwise around the loop, but I think next time I'll try to remember to run clockwise because if you stay to the right, you're on the inside. It's a lot easier to go from the inside to the amenities around the park.

It was a little bizarre getting back into running. All of our lessons we had learned were out the window: get up early, use the bathroom first, wear sun protection, etc.

So we wanted to do two laps, but that wasn't going very well, and we wanted to make it to the orientation on time, so we just did one (with too many breaks).

The HoustonFit orientation is great, and totally motivating. It was especially interesting to hear it now, with two marathons under my belt, and to understand how completely true everything they say is.

Hopefully we'll be back into things quickly now that we're running with HoustonFit.

Seattle Rock N Roll

2009-06-27T16:36:00.000-05:00

This whole extended weekend has been wonderful. Seattle has been chilly (and I forgot to pack a sweater!), we've had delicious food, and we have spent time with both of our families!

Race day! Up at 5:30 to eat some breakfast (I had a spinach feta pastry and split a cream cheese one with the BF). We were dressed and out the door. Gear: black nike knee length shorts, houston marathon finisher's shirt (representing!), astros hat, and fule belt. I made gu/water mixes with 6 gus. While on the drive, I slathered sunscreen on my face and arms.

The marathon started at 7 am, but there were 37 (37!!) corrals for runners, and in the spectator's packet, it estimated what time we would cross the start based on our pace. And man, it is a good thing they did that because traffic was a serious problem. Our navigator (BF's Dad) took a back road, which was brilliant for passing the miles of cars and school buses shuttling people in for the race. Our back roads were still pretty packed, to the point that people were getting out and walking. We got to the runner drop off, which was probably a quarter mile from the start.

BF and I split up to go run our own races. I stopped to use the bathroom and still made it to my corral in time. There was the typical DJ "Hey Corral 22, let's make some NOISE!!!"

I started at about 7:45 am. The first couple miles were through Tuwkila on access roads. Man was traffic backed up. At mile 2.5 we hit a very residential area, which was really nice to run through. Scenic, and a large portion was sloped upwards. At mile 5 there was a steep downgrade, which kinda got the "WEEE!!!" feeling out of me. We got views of the water up until about mile 6, when we passed Seward Park, and then the only think between the road and the water was a small strip of land. There were even people in boats cheering.

Arond mile 7 we saw a bald eagle! It was like they planned it or something....

At mile 7.5 we also hit the first Gu station, which had run out. They were, however, passing out ionized salt. I gave it a try, but I think in general in my training I need to be more conscience of my sodium intake. When I run with coconut water, I don't think I consume enough, esp in the Texas weather, which might help me control my slowdown in summer. By the way - the water stations were HUGE. Many, many tables with lots of volunteers passing out water and cytomax (no idea what it was but it tasted better then gaterade...unless it was warm). There were also cheerleaders every so often cheering for us. And of course, the bands. But unfortunately you can barely here the bands and maybe catch a minute of a song.

Just after mile 9 there is a turnoff. First you run up a VERY steep hill, but it's so brief. Marathoners turn right, half marathoners turn left. Guess what's on the right?

I-90. We're running on the interstate that stretchs from Seattle to Boston. That I've driven portions of over a hundred times! More importantly, they closed it off!

The Lake Washington Bridge is about 1.5 miles across and it is very low to the water. It actually is a floating bridge. Pretty neat. You know what was not neat? The SUN! There was no shade out on the interstate, and no cloud cover out in Seattle that day. A hat just doesn't do it against the glare off the water, so I think I need to learn to wear sunglasses when I run. Or ever.

At about mile 11.5 we meet back up with the halfers. Together, we went through the Mt Baker Tunnel which was very weird. Very little breeze through the tunnel and an odd feeling of solidarity.

If I remember correctly, after that is was up on overpasses again until we hit downtown, and the halfers peeled off. From downtown, we headed north. We took the Alaskan Way Viaduct, and then through a tunnel, and back to ground level. Aurora Ave was kind of Main St USA feel to it. They closed off all 6 lanes across, but we were supposed to run on the middle four lanes (two for each direction). The problem with that was the trees shaded the outer lanes, so once again we're on a major cement road with no relief from the sun. It was also almost all uphill. At this point I'm pretty much power walking the whole thing. I passed the BF just before mile 17. And got a kiss! :)

At about 18.5 I saw his family and mine. They both had the Rock N Roll signs, which was pretty cool, and how they found each other seeing as how they'd never meet. BF's brother even ran a bit with me up the top of the hil to the turn and back down.

We come back in the exact same way into downtown, but we pass by Quest Feild, and staying on the Alaskan Way Viaduct, we run through...a train stockyard. NIiiiice Seattle.

Then back in to the finish, which was a very nice sloping off ramp, where you could pick up your speed and build some momentum to at least look halfway decent crosing the finish line. My time? My clock time said 7:39:15, which I knew to subtract about 45 minutes from. My chip time was 6:51:59. With a time limit of 7 hours, I took it nice and easy to come in just in time again!

Here are the times:

5 Km	45:07
10 Km	1:30:41
9 Mi	2:11:00
Half Way	3:16:19
30 Km	4:41:29
24 Mile	6:12:42

Nothing impressive, but I got out there and I ran my second marathon. BF had a tough time too, with cramping especially. He finished in 5:36:27, very good for his first marathon.

I think it will help us to train with HoustonFit for San Antonio, and also to train seperately. I think the BF will do much better when he doesn't stop down his training runs so that I can keep up with him.

Post race enjoyment: Chocolate milk, some tortillini with the fam, and then tonight: sushi and sleeping!!

Hills at Hermann

2009-06-10T22:04:00.000-05:00

We couldn't join HoustonFit for hill training yesterday, so instead we went to Hermann Park after work and run up and down the hills in front of Miller Outdoor Theatre. It was tough. And boring. But the BF stuck with it for a full half hour, and I was very impressed.

Workouts like hill training really make me regret the decision to do Seattle. I will feel like I am quitting if I drop to the half marathon, even though I am not very well prepared for the full.

We'll see. I have some thinking to do.

I think I have mentioned it before but the BF and I have registered for San Antonio Rock N Roll, which is the training program we're doing with HoustonFit. I had wanted to do a January marathon, like Bermuda, but Bermuda is the same weekend as the Houston Marathon. My mom wants to run the half, and I would like to see her do that. But I'm just not too excited about other races in January. So I may shift gears a bit and focus on some smaller distances again (anyone done the 3M Half Marathon??), plus we have the Texas Independance Relay in March, and that should be an interesting time. So we'll see (again).

10 Miler - the last one from here

2009-06-07T11:58:00.000-05:00

Today's run was a pretty simple and enjoyable route - a 10 miler that started near my apartment and went to the rice loop, the hermann park loop, and then west on Rice to Weslayan and back. It was a great day for a run, although hot, so we took it nice and slow. I normally don't enjoy the end of the run, in this case from buffalo speedway to Weslayan and back, but I do enjoy that stretch because it is a very pretty residential area. We also pass baseball fields, and a pomegranet tree!

Why is it my last one from here? I am moving! Things are going to be extremely busy the next couple weeks, so I may not have much time to post about my runs. But I will be back up and reporting byt he time Seattle rolls around! It's in 3 weeks!

I wasn't sore yesterday....

2009-06-03T22:34:00.000-05:00

but I am SORE today!

Didn't run today but power- walked for an hour and ten minutes around Rice U. Ok maybe not power-walked. Maybe more like my-dog-is-pulling-on-the-lease-and-dragging-me-at-a-slightly-higher-then-comfortable-pace-walk.

But I could really feel my shins during this walk. They are tired and need some recovery time. They're going to hate me after Seattle.

Hill Training with HoustonFit

2009-06-02T23:54:00.000-05:00

I am very sad to admit that while I was a Houston Fit member last year, I never participated in runs other then Saturday runs, and I only met up with HoustonFit runners a handful of times for runs. In the start of my training, I was more inclined to run in the morning, and HoustonFit met at 6 am, not enough time for me to clean up and head out for work. So I did lots of runs on my own, and a few meeting at 5 am in Memorial.

I also NEVER did hill training. Ever.

Things change though, thankfully. After work the BF and I met with HoustonFit at Jackson Hill and Memorial to do the first installment of a 4 week hill training program. We ran over the pedestrian bridge, and then down the trail to Shepard, where we stopped and discussed. The head coach, Felix, who just happened to be the leader of the 6 hour pace group during my first marathon, had marked out in the grass a course for us to run as many times as we could in 24 minutes. It was like a snake, making ribbons up and down the hills. I made it through my first loop, and then stopped to stretch my super tight calves. It helped, and I got through another half loop before the time was up.

It was definitely very difficult. Which makes me worry a lot about running 26.2 miles of hills in 2.5 weeks. I think I could have done a lot better planning out training. But, the goal i to finish (in time, 7 hours) and I think I'll be able to manage that.

This did drive the BF into a hills kick, and he's determined to do as many hill workouts as possible between now and Seattle.

Last training run for Seattle

2009-05-25T20:00:00.000-05:00

Today the BF and I pulled off something I NEVER thought I would do. We got up at 3 30 am to go out and run.

We hit the start around 4:20 am and picked up our run. Last time BF and I discussed how many people we thought we'd see at certain spots on our run. Rice loop, FYI, there were 3 people out (including us). The other was also a runner. Hermann park was a different story, and it was probably something I should have thought about earlier. We saw about 7 or 8 homeless people around the park (and probably many more that I didn't see). Fortunately it was quiet out, and we passed and were allowed to pass in peace and quiet.

From the loops we headed up Dunlavy to West Grey, where we stopped at the 24 hour Walgreens to refuel and use the restroom. We also passed Luke's Locker. We saw a TIR team member. I wish I had remembered that it was Monday doughnut runs with Houston Fit, but I forgot.

From West Grey up to Shepherd, left on Memorial down to the park. We went around the loop and ran into many more Houston Fitters. FYI - don't bet on how many people you'll see at 8 am in Memorial on a Monday holiday. Too many to count. Back down Memorial for another stop and refuel at Starbucks.

From Memorial we took our pretty normal route down Troon, Lazy Lane, Inwood, Riveroaks, and then weaving down towards Buffalo Speedway. Once again I felt pretty crabby towards the end. BF becomes a serious optomist towards the end, which I guess is a good match to keep me sane towards the end.

Next time packing food miht be a good idea. BF ate a muffin at starbucks. I remembered how much I enjoyed eating Fig Newtons during HoustonFit long runs, so maybe next time I'll stash some of those in my belt. I don't remember eating too much in the marathon. Maybe the addrenalin keeps your mind so focus on what you are doing your body doesn't get hungry.

As with the 17 miler, I am walking a lot more then I used to. I am really looking forward to starting HoustonFit runs, thanks to the atmosphere on the runs (although I will not be running with my normal coaches. I'm not even sure they're going to join us when the regular HoustonFit season starts).

I'm not particularly looking forward to Seattle, because I will not have the support group that I had during the Houston Marathon. This will be a challenging race, and I am very glad the time limit is 7 hours. I wish they had better pace groups though! As far as I can tell the pace groups only go up to I think 4 hours. Anyone else aiming for 6 hours??

Ode to old (and new) shoes

2009-05-23T16:10:00.000-05:00

In preparation for Seattle, BF and I decided to buy new shoes to break in this weekend. Good bye old shoes, I put 259 miles on you running, and you served me well!

FYI, new shoes (Gel-nimbus 11) are a lot prettier then the old ones (Gel-cumulus 10, in orange):

Traveling: Troy NY

2009-05-18T13:17:00.000-05:00

This morning I am posting from lovely Troy NY. I am up for my little brother's graduation, and I am using this opportunity to get some stellar hill practice in...or to try.

My fabulous running buddy is here! We're setting off to explore my alma mater!

When I put together routes, I like to use walkjogrun.net because I can save the routes that I use, and I end up using ones near home quite often. Also, I can look up other people's routes. The downside about it is that there is only a manual option, unlike g-map pedometer that has a running setting (follows the shortest route possible while staying on the streets using the proper flow of traffic for a runner) and a biking setting (ditto, but biking traffic laws). So, for example, when I use walkjogrun to map my run down allen parkway into downtown and then back up memorial, I end up using hundreds of dots, which often causes to the system to slow down. Not so good.

Anyway, the point of the story is I looked up other people's routes on walkjogrun and found a long run that went into the back of Troy NY out in the country. I thought that would be scenic so I combined a route through campus with this route, headed down route 2, then a right on Troy Country Club Road, and another right on Pawling, a road I am familiar with. The course was set to cover 10 miles, and be pretty damn hilly.

However, upon turning down Route 2, we realized there was no adequate sidewalk, and not nearly a wide enough shoulder. So we decided to turn back and make up a bit of a route. There was enough sidewalk going the other way for us to make it down to Pawling (the three roads form a triangle). Our route ended up being little more then 7 miles, but hey...we're on vacation.

Quick 10 Miles

2009-05-10T13:02:00.000-05:00

Just a quick post to write we did 10 miles this morning...uneventful run on a regular route....off to house hunt!

Sneaker Milage

2009-05-03T12:46:00.000-05:00

241.85 miles since December.

18..er....17 miles

2009-05-03T00:33:00.000-05:00

BF and I had a tough run today. We did not get up nearly early enough to set off for our run. It was hot and humid. We took an unexpected half hour break. I wussed out on the last little jig to give me my 18th mile.

We started by doing about half of the rice loop and then headed up Dunlavy to West Grey. We timed it well, so we were able to stop in at the first day of HoustonFit's Fall Marathon training program. I didn't count on the speech starting then, and so we stood around for about a half hour. It did give us a good chance to use the restrooms and refuel. So as the group headed off for the 3 mile run, BF and I split up to talk to our coaches and introduce ourselves. It was basically a "Hey you probably won't remember me, but We'll start running with you in about 5 weeks."

At this point we were about 6 miles in to the run. We ran up Dunlavy to Allen Parkway, where we took a right and went down the trail into downtown and back up Memorial. Overall it's a nice run because it's one of those areas in town where there are always people out. One BIG negative - the water in the water fountains tasted awful.

Finishing up by going through River Oaks I got hungry, thirsty, and pretty much drained. We stopped at the corner of Buffalo Speedway and 59 to refill our water bottles at the gas station. Something to note was that although I really enjoy coconut water way more then I enjoy gaterade, it's not so good warm. And I had filled up all of my fuel belt with coconut water when we started off. Being picky, I only drank 3 8oz bottles before it got too warm. The water at AllenParkway was almost unbearable to drink. So at the gas station I dumped out all my bottles and refilled. We trudged on, but I ewas not feeling up to it anymore. So BF left me to go run half a mile off Buffalo Speedway and then come back, while I trudged home. Slowly.

But it was 17 miles. And it could have been worse.

I actually didn't nap. I've been awake all day after that, which is pretty amazing. But tiem for bed now, as restless as I'm feeling hopefully I can calm down and sleep.

A New Approach to Track

2009-04-29T21:50:00.000-05:00

So due to my serious suckage at track, I've been not looking forward to going again. When I whined, the BF said if it's too hard just don't do it. Do whatever you can.

So I showed up to track, and while the rest of HRTC was doing 800 meter intervals, I did 4 100 m sprints. I just did 2 miles total. But if I'm going to start all over, that's a good place to start.

Traveling

2009-04-25T15:46:00.000-05:00

This weekend the BF and I are in NOLA for Jazz fest (amoung other things). W've been slacking on our running. BF was sick last weekend, so for obvious reasons I didn't want to get out of bed and run by myself (at 6 am).

So today we started Audubon Park, and ran along the Mississippi River for a while. If you know the park, we went along the zoo till we got to the other side of the park, then came around, with some detours into the neighborhood. Then we ran down St Charles St for a ways. I think we did between 6 and 7 miles.

It was not the run we needed to do, but it was still a run. Considering we'd driven in last night after I got off work, it was pretty good.

Track

2009-04-15T23:44:00.000-05:00

So I am a wuss when it comes to track. Today's workout was supposed to be sets of 800 at an I pace. EIGHT HUNDRED!!

I did 300s. And not well.

2.25 miles total.

Oh it's getting hilly!

2009-04-13T23:22:00.000-05:00

Seeing as how Seattle's course is dotted with more hills then I care to think about, BF and I are starting hill training. Nothing major, because, let's face it, we're in Houston, but enough that maybe I won't die.

My apartment complex has a couple of 3 story garages. They are staggered floors, so the slope goes up half a story and then is flat along the length of the garage and then goes up half a story again...you get the picture (hopefully)

So we started with a 10 minute easy run around the complex and then went up and down the stairs twice. At first I wanted to push it but then I realized how much my calves are still recovering from the 15 miler, and that put an end to things. We jogged around the complex again to "cool down" (I consider a real cool down sitting my butt on the couch). There was definitely a lot of tension in my lower legs, especially on the exterior muscles (I think it's the Peroneus Brevis Muscle and Extensor Digitorum Longus Muscle). I even iced my lower right calf after wards. Hopefully hills will get better.

Oh, and I registered for the San Antonio marathon November 15th! HoustonFit will be in high gear then, very exciting!

So close to 15 miles!

2009-04-11T13:56:00.000-05:00

Woke up this morning to head out for our first REAL training run. Up until this point, BF and I have just been maintaining our distance (although it is maintaining at the half marathon distance) but now we start to up our mileage. Today's goal was 15.5 miles.

We started by going to rice and running half the loop over to Hermann park. Around Hermann park, back onto the rice loop and then up to Bissonnet, Shepherd, and then all the way up to kirby. From there went down Troon (which is by far my favorite 1/4 mile of running in Houston). Follow Troon to Lazy Lane, River Oaks, and down Buffalo Speedway. We were supposed to make a zig zag at some point, but I couldn't remember exactly where, so I made it up. When I got back and plotted the actual course we ran I was only 2 block off. TWO BLOCKS! And those 2 blocks cost us 3/4 of a mile. Damn. Maybe next time I'll remember my own damn route.

Otherwise it was a good run. It was slow, but I stayed well hydrated and fueled. I drank 40 oz and had 3 Gus, plus a sample size larabar! So no getting hungry for me. It was pretty warm, which we're going to have to get used to for the Seattle Rock N Roll, but as far as heat goes, we'll have all those wusses who train in beautiful and cool places like Seattle beat.

Next weekend is a short(er) run...maybe 10 miles? We will have an 18+ run coming up soon though, EK!

Track practice: back on the wagon for real now!

2009-04-09T00:14:00.000-05:00

Since I don't have any races until Seattle it is a really good time for me to get back on the horse with speed workouts.

The assignment for today is a little hard to write (I had to get coach to explain it to me):

warm up
repeat 2-4 times:
2x equal time run 200m and walk break
1x equal time run 400m and walk break
cool down

so what I did (since I do not have the mental capacity to remember my stopwatch so often):
1600 m warm up
200m run
100m walk
200m run
100m walk
300m run
good walk, water, and stretch break
200m run
100m walk
200m run
100m walk
400m run
400m cool down

Speed training is SOO hard. I know that I can run really slowly for a long time, and really quickly for a short time (when we do sprints I open up a can of whoop A) but running at an uncomfortable level for a longer distance then 200m is HARD.

Enough whining. The great part about track practice was it was quiet. There were not many people there, so it gives the people that are there a more 1 on 1 experience with Coach Storey.

Stay tuned - he told me in a few weeks we are going to have a 7-mile gut buster speed workout. FUN!

Total miles: approx 2.5

Relaxed 8 miler

2009-04-04T12:10:00.000-05:00

Today we did a nice and relaxed 8.2 mile run - out to the Rice and Hermann Park loops. It felt pretty good after the Angie's Half, and a good simple run in between!

BF and I love to run through this area. The houses are all unique and interesting (not to mention expensive). The running track always has interesting people to watch for. I love to see parents out there with their kids, even young ones in strollers. I know Houston is one of the most overweight cities in the U.S., but some people are seriously pulling their own weight around here, no pun intended!

Good luck to all in the Lone Star Tri tomorrow! Go HRTC!

Sneaker milage

2009-04-02T19:54:00.000-05:00

Just thought I would tally up my miles on my sneakers and see how I'm doing. The result:

186 miles since early December.

Angie's Half Crazy Half Marathon

2009-03-29T14:40:00.000-05:00

One of the best things about running is how much you can learn from it. Or how much you can choose to ignore it. Several things I learned during this race. Number 1 may be TMI so just skip right by it if you don't want to know.

1. GI problems

Most runners out there know that nutrition is really key. If you go to the Runner's World website, there was a discussion about embarrassing running moments. I would say maybe 30% of those are head on into inanimate object type of situations. But probably 60% are GI problems. I won't go into details, but they're pretty funny. So my situation is that my GI system behaves a bit like a petulant child on a road trip. "Are you sure you don't need to go to the bathroom?" "NO I don't have to go!!!" 8 miles later...."Mommy I have to go to the bathroom!!!" damn it. So you pull over and find a decent bathroom. It must be the pressure or something because now you don't need to go. So frustrating!

2. Track the milage on my shoes

By the end of the run, the ball of my left foot was hurting. I've had these shoes since a month before the marathon, my 21 mile run. Time for a new pair.

3. Running on empty!

This one I should know better. Before the TIR I even made a note about it in the blog if I'm not mistaken. By mile 7 of Angie's I started to get hungry. I didn't have any Gu on me. There were some things available on the course, such as cookies (handed out by Wonder Woman no less), bagels, and pretzels. But Gu is so good because it's quick.

4. Water/Electrolytes

This is something I should know too. Angie's only had drinking water available every other mile. And I know that running with coconut water works very well for me as an electrolyte. I have the technology, I should use it.

5. No matter how cold it is in the morning, you will be too damn hot later! It was so cold when we woke up, I wore long sleeves. I don't think I've ever been in a race where I was cold at the end.

So overall, I was disappointed because I was expecting a PR on a fast and flat course. But, it is a learning experience. It also made me more aware of how well I did in Austin.

Chip time: 2:50:07

Pace: 12:55

Oh well! Next time.

Now the BF and I look ahead. We are currently signed up for the Seattle Rock and Roll Marathon on June 27th! That is going to be exciting, because BF grew up in Seattle and it will be his first full marathon!

Other then that, there is more on my mind:

My best friend (who ran the Disney in 2007 i think?) wants to run San Antonio Rock N Roll the day after her birthday! We're down. Not only are we down, but we get an extra medal for running two Rock N Rolls in one year!

Bermuda is my goal for next year.

BF and I will be joining HoustonFit again to train for SARNR and Bermuda.

The TIR. Again. Possibly. As in a team mate from this year and I are putting the deposit down. So I guess that's a definite.

Lots on the horizon!

Lost in suburbia!

2009-03-26T22:36:00.000-05:00

Not really. West U is hardly suburbia. But we did get lost. Usually we take a right, and I decided to be daring today - we would go left instead and use another 2 lefts to make a rectangle. Well - that 2nd left brought us to a major supermarket and street, and then we couldn't cut across to make the rectangle smaller, so instead we had to go all the way back up to the turn and come back the way we came. So instead of a 45 minute run it was 57 minutes, and 4 miles long. Not that I'm complaining. It seems lately like I have more time during the week, so a longer run during the week is completely acceptable!

Opps

2009-03-24T15:33:00.000-05:00

Quick run today with the BF. Made the mistake of wearing my old sneakers though. Man what a difference in my calves. Just a quick run around West U.

2.5 miles

35 minutes

Out of town again, long(ish) run

2009-03-22T19:29:00.000-05:00

This weekend I am still out of town, but this time with the boyfriend!

We went on a run together, but a run that didn't go so well really. I was wearing a new shirt, which quickly proved to be not smart, because my midsection got all itchy. We turned around and I changed shirts, and we kept going. Nothing majorly special on this run. About an hour, slow pace, about 5 miles.

Next weekend is Angie's Half!

Out of town and on the treadmill!

2009-03-17T23:22:00.000-05:00

This week I am out of town for work. I *slightly* get to sleep in due to the fact that I don't have to make breakfast and my hotel is a few minutes away from the office. I have been enjoying it and when you combine that fact with the new daylight hours, I have not been running in the morning.

However, we got out early today, and since it's up in the 80s, the best option for a run was indoors at the hotel gym. Joy!

But it was a good 30 minute run, I picked the pace up quite a bit (I raced the guy next to me, I won!). Hot and sweaty, but exercised!

Running leg 35 again!!

2009-03-15T17:11:00.000-05:00

Today the BF and I took off to try to find out where I missed the turn on leg 35 last weekend. The plan was to run from Memorial park along Memorial, going on the trail at Shepard and following it until downtown. It is actually a very neat little path, one that I didn't realize existed. The path goes under memorial, and around various parks and into a little "river walk" type area downtown.

We passed under Memorial the first time, and we both heard the distant rumble of thunder. Now, it is always a good idea to run in the rain, because most races are not canceled due to weather. However, in Houston Fit the attitude is that thunder and lightening are big no-nos. We continued on, hoping the weather would stave off for a bit. We made it all the way to downtown, noting where I missed the turn, and then it started to POUR. We debated for a while about whether to continue or not, but the rain showed no signs of letting up. We got a ride back to our car and called it a day...sadly.

Recovering from the TIR

2009-03-11T21:49:00.000-05:00

I have to say, I am def not as sore from the TIR as I was from my marathon, but I am def WAY more exhausted. The lack of sleep combined with almost 19 miles is killer! Working hard on catching up!

TIR weekend!

2009-03-08T22:10:00.000-05:00

The TIR is here! Our team gathered in Gonzales, TX Friday night, to celebrate Texas Independence and this cool race we're about to start. As we were due back in Gonzales around 5 am this morning, we went to bed early. The 14 of us only had 3 hotel rooms, so we crammed in on the floor any way that we could. Good thing for air mattresses.

Saturday morning started off with the prologue, an approximately 1 mile run around downtown Gonzales. From there, MyPhuong broke off from our group to run leg 1.

The runners for legs 2-6 piled in the van to go meet her at the end of her run. She made it look so easy, and ran in comfortably. Trisha left for leg 2, another great run.

Here's where I picked up: leg 3. Leg 3 is the longest leg of the course, with 8.78 miles on hilly gravel roads. The wind was blowing, and the gravel was a new experience. It made the road tricky. You never knew where your foot was going to land. I was passed up by a lot of people (not a surprise). However, as hard as it was, it was a beautiful run through the Texas countryside. Lots of buttercups! There were some spots where the signs had blow away, but thanks to the fact that there was always someone within view, I didn't get lost. But man was it a tough run. At the end, as I could see the exchange ahead of me, I felt like I was stuck in place...running but not getting any closer (Monty Python reference).

Legs 4-6 went well. Leg 5 ended in Shiner at a brewery! Dad kicked butt on that leg, finishing the 2.45 miles in 20 minutes. Mom ran leg 6, and did great. After leg 6, we packed up our stuff and headed to Gonzales to grab food. We had delicious BBQ at the Gonzales Food Market. No showers were available, but we heard about some showers in Flatonia. We went there, and ran into the other van, who shared some awesome kettle corn with us! Flatonia had a very cute market going on right at the exchange there. The VFD was hosting the showers, which were great! They were outdoor (which detered some people) and cold, but hey, we got clean! We rested in Flatonia and checked out a section of town with shops. There were lots of antique stores in most of these towns.

Then we headed to Exchange 12, in Schulenberg, at the Cowboy Outpost. The runners for legs 13-18 moved into the on van, while mom and I stayed in the off vehicle with the runners who had just finished. We went back to flatonia so the other runners could shower too. Then we went to Columbus to grab food at Schobel's. I had awesome (and big) chicken quesidillas. We traveled to Exchange 18 and spread out in the car to nap.

When the on van came in, we switched up the cars and headed out. David ran leg 19. At this point it was pretty dark. We had issues keeping track of our nighttime running gear. Thankfully David had brought a reflective safety vest, which was very visable at night. We waited a while for David at exchange 19, and because of the dark we started to get a little worried. Mom was next, and she wanted us to shadow her on her leg. No problem!

Leg 22 was my turn! It was a flat 5.01 mile leg. I got passed up alot (again) but it was a very peaceful run. It was pitch black out - it was near 2 am!

After Meghan's leg 23 into Wallis, we packed up for Brazos Middle School. The other van had told us that showers had a line, so we husteled to get in and get clean. When mom and I got there, there were people in the 2 showers available, but no line! We showered quickly and then got into bed. We slept on the gym floor on airmattresses. It wasn't too bad. It wasn't crowded, and they kept some of the lights on so that we wouldn't get flashlights shined in our faces. Everyone stayed quiet, and we were able to fall asleep around 4 30.

But then up again at 7! We packed up to head to Katy for exchange 29. The on team met us and told us that TomJ had hurt his knee running, and would most likely not be able to do his 3rd leg. We switched a couple people around and made it work! Bob ran in to hand off to Mom, who ran into George Bush park. David took the baton (which is actually a slap-wrist bracelet) onto the Hershey Trail. At exchange 31, we waited...and waited...

It got hot! Leg 31 was a long one, about 6.8 miles. David ran out of water, and had to ask some bikers for a donation. The heat was getting around 75 degrees...too hot to be safe. Katie took over at exchange 31, and we decided to meet up with her at mile 3 of her 6.7 mile leg. Good thing we did! Katie practically collapsed when she saw us. The heat was killer. Trisha - the trooper that she is - took up Katie's leg. We met her at exchange 32 where it switched off to Keri. The other van joined us, so that we would have all the runners available to call into service if we needed to. We decided to meet Keri at mile 2 to make sure she was ok. We did, and Keri wanted to finish despite the heat! Go her! Leg 34 was run by Mom for 2 miles and then Trisha. We were concerned about the heat and didn't want anyone to over extend themselves.

Shannon joined Trisha to finish her leg. They met me in Memorial park, at the intersection of Memorial Drive and N Picnic Lane. From there, I ran the Capitain's leg, following Memorial drive all the way in to downtown. It was a beautiful but hot run. I was concerned when I started, so I told MyPhuong to meet me at mile 3 in case I couldn't do it all. I was surprised when I saw her though, I didn't think I'd gone that far already! David was there too. He refilled my water belt and dumped some water on my head. Then I was off again!

I had my headphone on, which I think did help significantly. The trail along Memorial Dr actually snakes down under memorial, arond a park, and then along the bayou downtown. It was really nice actually. Going under Memorial gave me a break from the sun. The only problem was that I needed to take a left on Walker, but most of the signs were missing! I knew once I went under 45 again that I had missed my turn. There were a bunch of stairs near me, and one had a sign that said that Walker St was up the stairs. Well I went up, only to find myself at Allen Parkway and Sabine - pretty far from where I was supposed to be. I was feeling pretty dead, and wasn't sure which way was the best to go, so I called the van to come get me. I called Mom too, and she told me that Meghan (who was running leg 36 concurrently with me since we were getting behind) had also gotten lost! Her leg was downtown headed Southeast, which is not a good place to be lost. Clearly, no one was taking care of the signs anymore.

As a team, we decided that it was a little to dangerous to keep going if we were just going to get lost. So we packed up and headed out to San Jacinto. Significant others joined us, I checked in with Jay, and we ran the epilogue (slowly though). We received our medals and took pictures together. I think overall everyone was pretty bummed that we couldn't finish, but we were also pretty damn tired.

I think we learned a lot on this trip. There were some personality conflicts, and logistically I would have done a few things differently - like 2 vans, more hotel reservations, and using sub teams that never switched. Maybe next relay! ;)

Check out the team's website at www.texasspeedbumps.wordpress.com for pictures and other people's reports!

I lied!

2009-03-01T14:24:00.000-06:00

Remember how I said it was my last trail run for a while? And you believed me? Haha..

Well the BF and I decided that because H T Rex was meeting Sunday instead of Saturday and they were meeting SOOO late (9am) we would throw in another run. Let's call it a simulation of next weekend.

So we had a lovely hour and a half long run at the back of the pack. Nothing terrible exciting to write about, but it was a large group, and I was seriously out of fuel by the end of the run. Note to self, eat well between runs next weekend. I think we ran about 7 miles.

If you are interested in receiving my blog automatically via email, please let me know and I will add you to the list. Or, if you know how to add yourself to my automatic email list, let me know. Because I couldn't figure it out!

At the request of the BF, it's an easy week. I'm still going to do track practice, and maybe I'll even remember to bring my Garmin and calibrate it. That would be helpful for me to kick up speed training even more.

Thanks for reading!

Registered....

2009-03-01T00:09:00.000-06:00

OMG this is going to be hard...

Ohh...possibly the best PR EVER!

2009-02-28T18:44:00.000-06:00

So that's a lie, because the best PR ever will be a marathon PR, but anyways....

Rodeo Run Run-down:

Windy run, esp from miles 2.5 - 3.5 when we had a serious head wind and some hills. Nice cheer squad first couple miles.

My results:
Chip time: 1:11:22.08
First 5K: 36:47
Second 5K: 34:34
Pace: 11:28

Woot!! That's kicking the butt off my previous 10K time by 27:09 (or taking 4:24 minutes/mile off).

This also marks the first recorded time that my pace has been under 12:30 AND recorded negative split. Really, really cool moment.

This was the BF's first 10K (second official race) and he gets major props for beating his predicted time, coming in at 54 minutes. There is also a team member for my up and coming TIR debut who ran this morning as well, who came in faster then...well faster then I thought she would the way she's been talking about her own speed. Go her!

Go us!

Track part 3!

2009-02-25T23:48:00.000-06:00

Tonight I had a track workout, and a bit of social time with some other HRTCers. Track workout consisted of:

800 m warm up
4x 300m with 100m walk breaks
500 m slow jog
4x 300m with 100m walk breaks
500 m slow jog
4x 300m with 100m walk breaks

So I didn't exactly follow the directions. I should have done another set of 4 reps, but I didn't (although that's still actually following the directions because it said 3 to 4 sets). The part I really didn't follow was the longer warm up and doing a cool down run.

From there we went to Ziggy's healthy grill for dinner. Nothing special, but I finally got to meet all the people who pass me out there.

In the HRTC forum, there's been a lot of convo about the Sunday bike ride. I hope everyone and anyone who reads this realizes I'm a newbie. Don't take me too seriously.

HRTC Group Bike ride

2009-02-22T14:41:00.000-06:00

This morning I got up nice and late (relatively) and drove out to the west side of town for a 20 mile bike ride with HRTC. I had been debating about not going, but the BF convenced me to go. My reasoning was that I was driving 100 minutes total for what might just be a 80 minute bike ride. But I did go and I have to say I have mixed feelings about having gone.

1) I am not planning a long distance competitive bike ride any time soon. The most would be a sprint tri. So really, sustaining any pace for a long time doesn't really do a whole lot for me now.

2) Commraderie amung bikers is NOT what I was expecting. At the beginning of the ride, I knew I would be sticking with the back of the pack. I rode pretty consistantly with another woman at the back. I was thinking for a while that she was making sure I didn't get too far left behind or something. Every once and a while we would pass a couple of bikers on the side of the road who were attempting to repairs bikes or the like, but other then that, everyone was pretty far ahead of us. At one piont another guy passed us from behind, but wasn't traveling too fast. This girl and I rolled up to a stop light, and the guy was waiting. After some discussion we realized that we weren't exactly sure which way to turn, and that we all were first or second time group riders. (the guy had done his first group ride last weekend). So basically three unexperienced and slower bikers were left behind. This was def not what I was used to. While running with HoustonFit, there was always someone my pace or slower. But I know that on my long runs with them, I always had someone running with me (usually a coach) In fact, on my first run, Coach Debbie and I talked so much we missed a turn! And then in trail running, I am mostly running solo, but plenty of people are thinking about me and always doubling back to make sure I am still back there with the group.

3) It was really good to get out on a stretch of road with my bike. I got a much better feel for the kind of pace I could put in, and especially I got a feel for using my gears.

4) Great workout. My pace was much slower then I thought it would be, but I did the whole thing and felt good, even though it took me 2 hours and 15 minutes.

5) I got a good feel for the things I need to change before my next long ride. My butt was very tired of the bike seat even by the halfway point.

6) Speaking of the halfway point, something I wasn't quite clear on when we started was that the 10 mile mark wasn't at the gas station everyone stopped at and where the 44 miler people turned. The 10 mile mark was pretty close to that stoplight the 3 newbies got confused at. But I did remember that the leader had mentioned a four way stop and then in a bit a gas station. So my odometer read around 24 miles on my bike, which gmap confirms.

7) Uphill both ways????? It sure felt like it, although the out was definately worse then the back. I think it's due to the wind, although I swear the wind was blowing in both directions.

So overall, I'm not sure why I should bike with HRTC when I can just go over to the Rice bike loop and practice my sprints.

Introducing the BF to the trails

2009-02-21T16:05:00.000-06:00

Today was my third trail run, and unfortunately my last for a while.

The BF came with me, and we were supposed to meet this guy B who never showed up. Name changed to protect the (not-so) innocent.

However, two others did show up...we'll call them M and S. Names changed to protect the victims.

So, M decided not to trail run, since none of the four of us knew the trails well, but out of the woods came Miles and Josh (the leaders on my first and secodn trail runs, respectively), and were able to offer us some tips to picking a path. So the three of us ran two loops in about an hour and 12 minutes. S was lovely company to have, and I don't think the BF minded our conversation too much.

Thanks for being good running buddies guys!

WIN!!

2009-02-20T20:03:00.000-06:00

I miraculously found the missing peices to my bike and put it back together! WINNEEERRR!

FAIL and FAIL

2009-02-19T22:54:00.000-06:00

Ooo...not a good day for my bike. As ridiculously embarrassing as it is, I'm going to tell this story. I sat on my porch last night to try to figure out how to take the front tire off my bike so it would fit in my sedan (now that the BEAST is back with Enterprise).

The engineer that I am, I have multiple tool kits and may have been a little over zealous. I'll just say I used a screwdriver to get part of my brake off. What I didn't notice was that I left a spring and another metal piece just...hangin' out. So when I took my bike to my car this morning, I was walking down the stairs and heard something fall from the bike and hit metal to metal and then bounce around somewhere. I checked out my bike, not really seeing anything missing. I figured it was a washer, so I leaned my bike up against the stair rails and checked under the stairs for a washer. No luck. So I tossed the bike in and hoped it would go together anyways.

Fast forward to a few hours ago, got to Memorial for bricks with HRTC and realized that no, I was missing some serious peices. So, I tried to assemble the bike anyways and the brake was riding on the tire. *insert explitive here*

So to top it off, I'm not in a bad mood and worried that I can't fix my bike. But I think while I'm here, I should run. So I start off on the memorial loop, and I just can't make it. I go about half a mile and my lower calves are so damn tight, I wuss out and turn around.

I'm excusing myself a little by saying that is was my first solo run in quite a while (and I mean real solo - not back of the pack solo).

Here's to hoping I can find the parts and fix my bike by Sunday!! :(

Austin Half Marathon 2009

2009-02-15T16:25:00.000-06:00

(let me say that I am NOT writing this the day of the half marathon. blogspot has a nifty function that allows me to post date my blogs, so instead of passing out ungracefully in my hotel room, you guys think that I'm writing to tell you all about my race....)

Saturday started out at a nice chilly 50 something degrees. BF and I had laid all of our race stuff out that night, so we quickly got ready and moved out. In packing, I had remembered my headband but had forgotten my gloves (damn it) so at the expo Saturday I picked up a pair of gloves with the austin marathon logo on them. I also hadn't packed my fuel belt, with the truth being that I really haven't been using it lately. I've been sucking it up on my trail runs and running without water, which has been fine as long as it's chilly (although my face gets really hot when I run, and so I'm sure some of the H T Rex group was a little worried about my beet-red face and lack of hydration). Plus I knew the course would have water stops. I've had my eye on some of the hydration systems some of the trail runners have, so I purchased a new one. Plus some gu and I was all set.

Breakfast was a couple of fig newtons, mushy oatmeal with peanut butter, some milk, and a banana. All packed up and ready to roll, we went to the start line. Def not as impressive as Houston, but still pretty great. I saw a lo of runners in their Houston finisher's shirts. The race startesd a bit late as usual, and due to the single start (no waves) it was about 10 minutes till I actually got to the starting line.

The race starts on Congress ave, and follows Congress over the lake into South Congress area (or So Co as it's called). A majority of this is a gradual slope up about 200 feet in elevation. At mile 3 (roughly) you start to head back towards downtown, with the course gradually sloping back downhill. My time at the 3 Mile mark was 40:24 (a 13:28 min/mile).

There were some big white banners with limerick lines on them. I think most of them I missed, and even if I caught them, I don't remember what was said. Cute though. I also saw a spectator handing out mini cupcakes (yum) and a group called F.I.T. (Friends In Training). One girl had lost 140 lbs! Go her!

At mile 6, it's over the lake again. Left on Cesar Chavez. I don't remember too much about this part, except for passing a bunch of restuarants and houses. Temperature wise, I spent most of the race taking my gloves on and off. The headband came off around mile 3, but my hands would get too warm and then get too cold. Thank god the water belt allowed me to tuck the gloves in and not lose them! At about mile 9.5 we turn onto Enfield Rd. Enfield is the lovely portion of our run with some steep slopes. It is also where the sun decided to come out and shine right in our faces (I had also forgotten my beloved Astros ballcap to protect me from the sun) The first hill is immediately at the turn, with many more to follow.

At mile 10, my time was 2:06:52 (12:42 min/mile total, averaging 12:21 min/mile in the 7 miles between). Specifically memorable hills were just before mile 11 (when you go under Route 1) and just before mile 12. Mile 12 was by far the worst one. I managed to run up the thing but at the top I was breathing so hard and my heart was pacing so fast I had to slow down to catch my breath.

From mile 13 on it was nice and downhill. I got a good sprint into the finish line. Grabbed water bottle (a tiny little water bottle that I finished before I got to the end of the chute).

Here is the course map:

And the elevation:

At this point, I don't know what my time is like. I came into this race not expecting to do anything amazing. Just finishing was my goal. On our way back to the hotel we saw the results stations and hopped in to grab our times. I knew that I ran the 2008 Houston Half at a 12:36 mile pace - and my results printout said I ran Austin at a 12:36 pace! Unfortunately I didn't know what my time was but I was eager to go back and look.

Houston half:
chip time: 2:43:31.7
pace: 12:36/M (from the results page)

Austin Half:
chip time: 2:45:06
pace: 12:36/M (from the results sheet and my own calculations)

So it appears that the pace calculation for the Houston Half was off. So when I recalculated it, I got 12:29 min/mile pace for the Houston Half. Hmm...

So I was very glad to have such an amazing pace for a difficult half marathon, especially for just having done the Houston Full 4 weeks ago.

Now I get to be really excited about my next half marathon - Angie's Half Crazy Half Marathon. Althoug there is no existing course information for the Angie's Half, it is advertised as a fast and flat course. And in clear lake, I have no doubt of that being true (unless we're running the kemah bridge, but I can handle that!) So I am very much looking forward to a PR. And adding more medals onto my wall!

HRTC Track workout (part duex)

2009-02-12T00:08:00.000-06:00

Second track workout of the year. I biked there, yay!, so it was like a mini-brick actually. Although I biked and ran further then HRTC does on their Thursday bricks. It's about a 3 mile bike ride to the track, which I did in about 20 minutes. Traffic was ok to deal with. Actually West U is great for biking on the sidewalk cause it's about 5 feet away from the street. So if I did happen to hit a bump and fall (again) at least I wouldn't fall into the street. Plus the people are nice. I only had a few walkers in my way and they all went to the side for me. I even had some cars who were waiting on the side street to turn onto the main road who realized they were blocking the pedestrian path and backed up for me. The major charlie foxtrot I hit was that by the kroger, on the east side of the street, there is construction going on. So I had to get off my bike and trudge through the mud. Which got me significantly dirty. Since it was still daylight, I managed to read my odometer. I was biking, at my top speed, around 14.5 mph. At least I think it's mph. Maybe I should look...

The track run was great. I got there a bit late, but was already warm (very warm) from the bike. So I did one 400m lap to warm up and then I did:

6 x 600 m w 1 minute rest (at half marathon pace)
5 minute rest
6 x 200 m w 1 minute rest (at 5K pace)

The last 200m my left hamstring started to go. twitching, tightening, cramping. I was worried that this would make for a painful bike ride home, but the bike back was much better. No construction on the west side of the street, and therefore it was a smooth bike back. So I totaled 6 miles biking, about 15 minutes of walking, and 3.25 miles running.

Rodeo Run 10K

2009-02-10T08:29:00.000-06:00

BF and I are running the Rodeo Run 10K. And I am realllyy excited about it. Why? Because my PR (and only record) for a 10K is SOOO SLOW. During the Houston Marathon I crossed the 10K mark at 1:20, which is significantly faster then I did during the Nike 10K. So this is going to be my first real PR in a race!

Unfortunately Austin this weekend will not be a PR, because the Houston Half Marathon that I did last October was my best run ever. I ran a 12:36 minute/mile, and just smoked it (for me).

Rodeo run is Feb 28th. Can't wait to post a new PR!!!

HRTC Meeting

2009-02-10T00:19:00.000-06:00

Tonight was the first HRTC meeting that I could attend. The best parts of it were that race directors came and talked about their upcoming races. They handed out a calender for this season, and auctioned off race entries. Unfortunately I didn't buy a ticket for the raffle because I didn't expect the meeting to go so long so I thought by leaving early I would miss the raffle. Oh well. Worst part? Papa John's wheat crust pizza.

Something mentioned in the about me section is that I would like to explore the possibilities of where my new found athleticism will take me. Usually what I was thinking was ultras, triathlons, or literally, where. So here are two commitments I am going to make for those last 2 thoughts:

1) Trigirl's Super Sprint Tri on May 10th. Like, super sprint. Which I realize is kinda cheating. It's like saying I'm going to run one mile of a marathon. But it's a start. And specifically it will get me out to buy something to wear in the water. And hopefully get me in the water. Swim 200yds, Bike 8 run 2. Thats the plan.

2) Run the Burmuda Triangle Challenge. Not only am I going to go and run this, but I'm actually inviting people to go with me. I actually know people. Who would want to do this. Awesome. The Bermuda Triangle Challenge is a 3 day event. One mile run Friday, 10K Saturday, and a half/full marathon Sunday. That kind of counts as multiple goals, right?

Trail run part duex

2009-02-07T16:13:00.000-06:00

Saturday was a sad day without the BF (and I have to be sure to say this since he's like the only person who reads my blog :-P). So I joined up with Houston Trail Running Extreme again and ran about an hour (maybe 5 miles) with them. Man is trail running a workout. I often have sore leg muscles that I didn't know could be sore. Or existed.

And no I did not bike there. It was a small crowd because a majority of the runners were either running the Rocky Raccoon 50/100 miler or at least volunteering there. So it was Josh and Steve who joined me. They were extremely patient, often running a head, but always making sure I never got lost.

No armadillos this time :(

Bike Path

2009-02-07T01:03:00.000-06:00

Bike path from tonight's run. If you count the distance from my apartment to the start of the path, it's a 15 mile ride.

Bike adventure

2009-02-07T00:49:00.000-06:00

One of the things I've wanted to do lately is start biking to my training. So I decided that I needed to test out the route to take to get places - Memorial Park, Lamar HS, etc. So tonight I grabbed my bike and got going. My path started as the "suggested walking path" by my iPhone. Through West U on the east side of Buffalo Speedway, to Kirby to get under 59. Then up Kirby, eventually making my way over to Shepard. This part had some pretty high traffic, so I tried to hop to skip streets when I could, and I don't remember exactly how I went. But I made it up to Memorial park. memorial park was actually the scariest part of my ride. It was so damn quiet and there was no one around. I almost hit an armadillo.

From Memorial park I kept to the bike trail alongside 610 until SanFelipe. Turned left, then right on Westcreek. That was a quiet stretch, but there were people coming and going from houses pretty often, and no cars to contend with. From Westcreek to Westheimer, through a bit of HIghland Village. I stopped here at Lululemon, a yoga-based clothing store. I have a friend who has designed store fronts for them, and I've been on their mailing list. They have the yoga Sunday nights that I've been meaning to attend. I had gotten an email that they were having a party, but I didn't really think much about attending for some reason. When I biked by the party was still rolling (around 8 30). There was caperoria dancers performing, bites to eat, and a water fountain. So I took a peek around the store. Each store has a flip-page display (like the kind that you display movie posters in) that has information on the store, the community, yoga, etc. So I paged through that, and answered my most important question prior to attending a free yoga session - do they provide mats (they do).

Back on the bike down Drexel to richmond, to Weslyan, to west park (which has a bike path) and then down swamee to home. Overall, the route back from Memorial was much better. Less lights, less traffic, safe paths to take. However, the time was a bit longer then I had in mind. It took me almost 1 hours to get to Memorial, and then 45 minutes to get back. So if I'm meeting HTRex tomorrow at 7 am do I want to get up extra early and bike? Not really. But I should sometime to see how long it takes when there is absolutely no traffic.

Thanks for reading.

V-dot

2009-02-05T13:42:00.001-06:00

On fire Wednesday!

2009-02-04T23:41:00.000-06:00

Woot! Good workouts today. Yes plural!!!

This morning I worked out with my personal trainer Steve, which will be my last workout with him for a while due to financial reasons. But it was good:

5 minute walk at 3.2 mph
chest/back
triceps/biceps
obliques/abs/hamstring leg curls
biking sprints
5 minute walk at 3 mph, 10% incline

I think that about sums it up. The bike sprints really had me pushing it. Steve told me to aim for 90 rpms but i got it up to 100 and kept it there, even though I struggled on the last sets.

In the afternoon, I joined HRTC for a track workout. It was pretty good:

800 m easy run
1000 m fast run (half marathon pace)
1 minute rest
6x200 m faster run (5K pace) with 2 minute rests between
6x100 m sprints with 100m walk rests

My sprints felt really good. Actually the whole run felt really good. The main problem I had with it was that I haven't run a 5K since August, so I don't really know what my pace is for a 5K. I think I was able to guess pretty well, cause I felt pretty good while I was running. It's got me thinking about a need to go do some smaller races. BF and I have talked about doing the Rodeo 10K the end of February, inbetween Austin and the TIR. We'll see.

Mornings

2009-02-04T00:22:00.000-06:00

Yesterday I was successful in sticking to my training schedule! A rest day, woot!

This morning, not so much. Alarm went off at 5 am, rolled over and reset it for 6:00. Then hit snooze, 3 times.

It is soo hard to get up in the mornings, esp when it is chilly out. And I refuse to turn on my heat in Texas. That's just lame.

Tomorrow - weight training in the morning with Steve, track workout with HRTC in the afternoon.

Thanks for reading.

Light Sunday run

2009-02-01T22:51:00.000-06:00

Just did a light run today with the BF. We kind of screwed up a bit. We were too lazy to run on Saturday. My line was, "we should sleep in while it's chilly out and we can get up early when it's too hot out to run later". And then we didn't bring running clothes Saturday night when we went to stay at my parents. So it would have been good to run before breakfast on Sunday, but since we didn't have our stuff, we ran after brunch. We didn't have enough time to get the run I wanted in (8-10 miles) with the superbowl later, but we did get a good 6 3/8 mile run in. We started at about 2. It was warm out, but it sprinkled through West U the first time, and then there was a GREAT breeze running through Main between Rice and Med Center. Some weird places on my legs have been in pain. I think it has to do with the trail run last week, because it's muscles on the sides of my legs. I need to get a good rubdown with the marathon stick.

Not pleased with my workouts this weekend, but at least I did get a run in.

Ideally my schedule for the week would look something like this:

Monday: rest/easy run
Tuesday: rest/Brian O'Neil's running club
Wednesday: morning weight train, afternoon Speed training with HRTC
Thursday: Bricks in Memorial Park with HRTC
Friday: rest
Saturday: Long run
Sunday: Swim/yoga/bike

I would like to be biking to all workouts. It's a pretty ambitious schedule. It also doesn't leave a lot of room to fit in a hilly run, which I need to do in order to be prepared for my next couple of races. But this is mostly new stuff. So there may be something that I don't enjoy as much as I hope. So we'll see.

Thanks for reading :)

Booo...down with sickness!

2009-01-29T22:39:00.000-06:00

I haven't written anything lately because I've been sick. Sick enough to stay home from work on Wednesday, which is not fun. The worst part has been waking up to a raw throat first thing in the morning. But nothing like a day of sitting at home on my rear drinking tea to fix that.

Tonight I went out for a run. It was kind of a weird thing. I got home and the boyfriend wasn't coming over, and I thought, "hmm...what to do". So I came up with take Jude out on the "Buddy" leash Mom bought me for christmas and take Jude out for a run with me. This is my 10 month old puppy, who can't even heel well when I walk. Yeah right. So I spent a half hour walking around the apartment complex with him (one time around!) then I dropped him off at my apartment. Then I started jogging, thinking about what I should do for a run. My first thought was "hill" training (running up and down the 3 story apartment complex parking garage), but I thought no, I'm running trails on Saturday, I should speed train. Argggg, what kind of a marathonr thinks that?

This blog expresses my sentiments exactly.

So I did a leisurely 10 minute easy run and then did 4 sprint sets, 1/8th mile, itty bitty baby sprints. But yes, I did sprints. At the last one, my throat was raw, my heart was pounding, and I hadn't catched my breath during the 1/8 mile inbetween sprints. So I was done. Water. Please.

Another lame post

2009-01-26T23:56:00.000-06:00

Ah yes, day after a fall. Fun. Not a lot to talk about, I didn't do anything exciting. I've been feeling kinda crappy lately. BF has been sick, and so have people at work, and with a shot immune system from the marathon it seems I have picked up whatever it is that's going around.

So instead I cooked. And ate persimmons. And satsumas. And cooked the purple cauliflower, and just fyi, when you steam it, the steaming juice comes out green. Emerald green. And then the juice when you're done steaming comes out purple. Weird.

Anyway, planning on running in the morning tomorrow, setting the alarm, planning with BF....

D'oh!

2009-01-25T21:43:00.000-06:00

Went shopping at Hong Kong Market and Central Market today (got some awesome persimmons, but wait, this isn't a food blog) and realized Bicycle World was closing at 5, so I had to drop groceries off, and haul on my bike to get there on time. The guys helped me pick out everything I wanted - front and back lights, odometer, and water bottle holder - and installed them for me (which I was really glad they did, the odometer looked a bit complicated). So I'm leaving the store and headed down kirby towards Holcombe when....

BAM!

Face plant. I was trying to go from the street to the sidewalk and there was a driveway with a bigger step up then I thought and I tried to go over it. Instead of rolling, my front tire slide down the step and my momentum shot my body over the bike and to the side. Thank god for my helmet, although I have a nice strawberry on my elbow, and I also banged my shin on the bicycle itself. I was very glad that I didn't wipe out in front of the bike store, although I'm pretty sure it was firm in everyone's mind that I had little to no idea what I was doing. I was asking for the terminology for my bike. Like, is it called a mountain bike, road bike, def not a racing bike. Turns out it's a hybrid. And I should be just fine to use it in races for a while. No one will point and laugh.

Anyway, so I cleaned up, and decided to swing by Rice Epicurian to pick up big bandaids. By then, it's getting too late for 6 pm yoga, esp because I don't really have the equiptment and had wanted to give myself some time to check out the store first and some extra time in case it took me longer then I thought to bike there. So Instead I went home and pulled myself back together and baked! :)

Thanks for reading!

On the trail

2009-01-24T18:34:00.000-06:00

Today I met up with H T Rex (Or Houston Trail Running EXtreme) for a long (ish) run at 7 am. It was a nice day out, a little chilly, def cloudy. Miles was leading our group, and well, I wa sin the back of the pack. I do have a good excuse though, trail running is HARD. And I know how I'm going to train for the hills in Austin now.

One of the highlights was that I ran into a armadillo. Or literally, it almost ran into me. I saw it off in the woods, and stopped to watch it. The thing passed right infront of me on the trail. Pretty amazing - I don't think I've ever seen one alive and not in a cage.

So after about an hour I'd had enough. As I was walking away I was actually thinking that I could go for more running, just not trail running. But I got in my car anyway, and headed over to the farmer's market. I picked up purple cauliflower, brussel sprouts, strawberries (grown in Spring TX), spinach, lamb shank, goats milk, and grapefruits. Got some great finds, everything looks delicious!

Off to horseback, minor cross training activity. I felt a lot of tension during the ride on my knees and hips, like transverse muslces. I don't really know enough about anatomy, but I think the plié-type motion on my knees was uncomfortable.

Tomorrow, the plan is biking and yoga. I think what I would like to do is bike to my various training sessions, but first I need some headlights and stuff. Aos if I am going to continue trail running I need a headlamp for when it's dark.

Ah...so many wants...

Slacker Fridays

2009-01-23T23:32:00.000-06:00

I played the slacker today. It is hard to get up on Fridays! Plus I had physical therapy after work, so doing anything in the afternoon was out, and then I had a delicious dinner at Reef with the BF. So, I'm admitting. Slacker=me.

Back in the shoes

2009-01-22T20:59:00.000-06:00

Ah...who doesn't love getting up in time before work to run? Oh well, it could have been worse, I could have been running alone! BF joined me for a quick 30 minutes run this morning. About 54 degrees out, wore running tights and my 2009 HOUSTON MARATHON FINISHERS SHIRT (woot). Did not cover my ears - note to self, if you're going to spend 20 bucks on a nice athletic, wicking, insulated headband, wear it.

The first run after a marathon is pretty interesting. Weird things happen. Abnormal things. Like my right calf being tighter then my left. And my left hamstring being a little tight. Gasp. Freeeakkky.

Seriously, I have always had calf problems, but they come and go. They were bothering me during taper time, which could have been mental, and they bothered me at the start of training, when I was attempting to do 5/1s. But now, more often then not, they get tight for a couple miles and then once a good pace settles in, they relax more. And always my left leg is worse then my right.

But overall it was a good, fast paced run for me. 15 minutes out, then back, small negative split (we're not sure exactly where we started running, because we we walking to the street and decided it was too cold to not be running). Covered almost 2.7 miles, in 30 minutes, at a 11.1 min/mile pace. Pretty good for me. The BF typically runs faster then I do, so he has to put up with slowing down for me (major drag I know :-P).

Now, this is an interesting situation I face. What do I do tomorrow? Do I pull out my bike and do some training? Do I weight train? Do I try a yoga class that I've been wanting to do? It's very interesting to be able to have no set schedule and to do whatever I please for a workout. A few options for this weekend: Saturday run with some Houston Fit-ers in Memorial, Saturday run with H T Rex (Houston Trail Runners EXtreme), or Sunday swim with Houston Racing Triathalon Club.

Anyways, I will decide tomorrow and let you guys know :)

Thanks for reading,

Last day of recovery

2009-01-21T22:23:00.000-06:00

So, as today is my last day of recovery, I have nothing fun or interesting to talk about. Or do I???

One of the many projects I have been working on is the Texas Independence Relay. There's a link posted to the right on this page, and it looks to be an awesome time!

In summary, the TIR is a 203 mile relay race from Gonzales to La Porte, following the path of the battle for Texas independence. Teams are typically 8-12 people, although there are some really hardcore people, like DR CPR, who is running solo (amazing ultra-marathoner!!!!) I am team captain of the Texas Speed Bumps! Woot!

Aside from finding team members (which is actually quite hard) I am in charge of quite a lot of organizational stuff for our team. Organizing sleeping quarters, transportation, t shirts, and the big one, how to decide who is running what legs. Fortunately we've got a full team, so only 4 people are running 4 legs, the rest running 3 (there are 40 legs total).

The TIR had a booth at the Houston Marathon expo, where I finally met Jay, who keeps a blog also. I told him I was Amy, the team captian for the Texas Speed Bumps, and he magically pulled my last name out of his head. Impressive! I've emailed him once (twice if you count my entry form).

With everything I've read about the TIR and from what I've seen online (check this out!) the TIR looks like it's going to be awesome! My team:

Mom
SD
Dad
Meghan
Keri
Katie
Shannon
Trisha
MyPhoung
Tom
Jessica
and Me!

Plus we have some back ups and and a supportive pit crew. I've found that as I get closer to the date, I meet people who say, oh yeah I wanted to do that but I couldn't get a team together. And of course, as my race interest continues, I'm meeting more and more runners. So I have no concerns about making it to the starting line of the TIR with a full team!

Anyway, that's a very exciting one coming up.

Thanks for reading!

Props

2009-01-20T20:12:00.000-06:00

Let's see it's been about 53 hours since I finished the marathon. I am sore. I can not go down stairs (at least without going backwards anyway). I just gained back my appetite.

I owe a lot to a lot of people. I don't think my mom could say enough how proud of me she was. She ran with me, so did SD and BF, and I am very thankful. Would have been even worse otherwise.

And of course, HoustonFit. Who else would meet me at Memorial Park at 4 30 am in the freezing cold? So big thanks to Rose, Art, and the rest of the Red Lobsters. HoustonFit could not come more highly recommended from me.

That being said, I think HoustonFit and I have to part ways. My goal is to achieve unrealistic running goals. And I achieved one, so far. But one of the best things that has come out of my running experiences has been that I have inspired some other people to start running. BF and I have done a few runs together now (our first long one being a 8 miler to Rice), and we plan on keeping that up. Mom and SD have signed up for the Texas Independence Relay with me, and they have been running together to train. They both came up to run with me the week before the marathon on a brief 6 mile 'long run'. So now I have a goal of mastering my long runs with my small crew - or just on the lonesome.

I have joined another training group, Houston Racing Triathlon Training. I'm not committing to a triathlon yet, but I got a recommendation from a guy I bumped into at physical therapy to join this group. It's cheap (25/year) to join and I can train for cheap in pools and bike with groups. In particular, there is a Sunday afternoon Pool Shark swimming session, group long bike rides, and bricks (bike and run sessions) on Thursday nights. So while someday I will set a goal of a triathlon, right now I want to keep up my long runs and get more cross training in. I would also like to do yoga, but I might have to figure out how to make time stand still before I do that.

So what concrete goals have I made? Austin! BF and I (along with Cousin in Austin and Dad) are running the Austin Half Marathon. I am really looking forward to it, seeing as how it will be a chance to break a PR (since technically a first race is a PR) and it will be BF's first race. Not to mention it's a 3 day weekend, V-day, and there are plenty of personal things going on that weekend. So all in all, should be great!

Next goal: Texas Independence Relay, March 7-8. Can not wait! More on that later!

Thanks for reading!

In trouble

2009-01-19T20:54:00.000-06:00

Uh oh. I've been called out for not writing in my blog. I stopped writing because I basically thought it was a stupid idea. I mean, who's going to read my blog? Well, me. And my boyfriend, apparently. And although I may feel stupid writing about mundane things like how many laps around my apartment complex pond I can do in 40 minutes (waayyyy too many), writing a running blog is actually brilliant, for the sole purpose that while no one else may be reading my blog, the most important person to read it is me. It has been proven (even scientifically!) that writing things down consistently helps you stay focused on goals. And man do I need that now, because...

I RAN THE MARATHON! Yay! Wonderful go me! However...

that also means that I am no longer running every Saturday with Houston Fit. No longer will I wake up at 4 30 in the morning with the nagging thought in the back of my head "you PAID for this, there are probably 4-8 people who will notice if you don't show up, and you are already awake. get your ass up and run"

So now I will depend on you, internet world, to keep me on my toes. That and I'm finally going to send the blog link to my parents. And post pictures. And write daily (sorry you have to hear about laps around the pond). And, tell you how my marathon went.

So can you believe it??? I won the marathon. OK, not really. In fact, I barely squeaked in under my goal.

The race day started out beautiful. Nice 60 degrees out. But no no no we live in Texas. It climbed up to the 70s before the end of the race. Not too bad for Deriba Merga, who finished in 2 hours, 7 minutes, and 52 seconds, setting a course record, but pretty nasty for those of us who were still out past 9 30 (read: approximately 20,000 runners and spectators).

So the race starts with a little uphill action (in Houston, who'd have thought it?). Probably the first mile was a gradual slope uphill. We are also running with the half marathoners, so think insane mob. A couple days later someone actually told me that this bridge that we're climbing is the reason so few entrants are allowed in the race - maximum bridge capacity. Along the way, we were cheered on by Elvises (hmm...correct pluralization of Elvis anyone?). From there, winding through Quitman, white oak drive, michaux, 11th, and studewood. All in the heights, all provided a large cheering squad. I would say out in front of 50% of the houses were spectators. Some were subdued (like the young kids who sat on porches in pajamas and waved with their parents), some were serious rabble-rowsers (the groups with beers and - temptation of temptations - mimosas). There were marching bands, cowbells (more cowbell?), and tons of handmade signs. Some of my favorite signs:

"You should see the size of the cookie at the finish"
"this is just a 20 mile warm up for a 10 K race"
"(insert name here) get off your lard ass and run" (seriously)

I also saw some pretty awesome get up among the runners. There were a couple birthdays - I sure hope those people partied hard afterwards. A pair of girls had handmade shirts, and the back of each one said "I run faster then my sister" with an arrow pointing to the right/left. I also liked the foxy ladies (I'll have to find pics) and the ladies in the gold pants with the bras and pink feather tiaras. You know who you are. As far as inspirational quotes, there was a shirt while I was running with the bf that said "there will be a day when you can no longer do this. today is not that day"

Passed the 10K mark with a time of 1:21:09. Which would be 25 minutes faster then the 10K i did back in September. It also puts me at a 13.04 min/mile. Woot woot.

So at mile 9, the halfers (as I affectionately call those who are not as hardcore) U-turned and headed off yonder. Knowing that this was coming up, I developed a completely irrational fear. What if they turn around, and it turns out I'm the only marathon left for like miles. That would explain to everyone around me why I was constantly looking over my shoulder, looking for other full-marathoners. One thing I really liked about this race was that every runner wore a bib with their name, and there group color on it. So all I had to do was look around for blue bibs with white stripes on them. And, everyone along the way knows your name, so you feel like a bit of a celebrity. I tried to acknowledge each cheer for me with a "thank you" or fist pump, or something, because I thought it was really nice for people to be so enthusiastic about it.

Anyway, I digress. Halfers turn around and I'm not the only one left. Yay. The crowd has considerably thinned though, not just in the runners, but the spectators as well. That's where mom made the perfect entrance. It was also quite ironic, because a few minutes later we passed a church, with some clergy outside blessing us with sacred water flayed from olive branches. They didn't even hit me, but it's the thought that counts. And that neither Mom or I started writhing in pain due to our hedonistic atheist ways.

Mom ran with me around rice (where we got blared at by the Rice Owls marching band) and moved into West U - home sweet home (or something - turns out I live like, 50 feet from the West U boundary). I have to give West U great props. They had the best turn out for the marathoner runners overall. There was even a kids party with a bouncy house going on. How cool would it have been to run in and cannonball those kids mid way through the marathon?

Passed the half at 2:50:49, which puts the second split at a 12:54 pace. Negative split bitches!

Here's were it gets tricky. Out of West U, we turn onto Westpark, then the 59 feeder, and we're in the Galleria area. It is not shady. And its getting hot. BF is now running with me, and I'm not as talkative as I was with Mom. Oh and did I mention a big hill on Westpark? Now I know where I'm going for some mean hill training. (Keep in mind this is a Houstonian's perspective).

So I pass the 30K mark at 4:08:41. That's an average 13:20 min/mile pace, and a third split pace of 14:11 min/mile. Damn.

Step-dad joins at mile 19. My wonderful support team is offering me water, dried figs, basically anything. It's hot. Thank god I wore my hat. Step-dad is being a wonderful running partner. He's grabbing 3 or 4 water cups for me at a time at each stop. I'm pouring water over my head to cool off. The Memorial park/ Allen parkway area was tough. I was losing track of the mile markers ("ONLY 23!?! We passed mile 23 30 minutes ago!?! ARGGG!") And the 6 hour pace group passed me. That was a bit of a shot through the heart. I really wanted to finish in a sub 6 hour time. But they are taking walk breaks, and so is everyone around me. SD is being so patient with me. At this point, I'm trying really hard not to focus on the fact that I may not make the cut. Just keep going.

And then we get to the best part of the run. SD and I hit mile 25. I thought, Ok, I have just been on my feet and moving for a ridiculously long time. I can't not finish this. So I tell SD that we're running to the end. No ifs ands or butts (from me of course, SD is a previous marathoner and ultra buff dude!). Coming up the ramp into down town, we run into Aunt M and Uncle J, who run beside me for a few strides and cheer me on. At this point I feel bad for anyone who does this. I look disgusting and sweat soaked, although most of it is really water. And I am probably doing this blank stare thing, and thinking just keep goinnnnngggg.....so I have no idea what incoherent thing I said to AM&UJ. But I am very glad they got to see me running. AM's daughter is a serious athletic inspiration for me. More about her later!

Then we're in downtown. And there is a breeze coming through those buildings. Ahhhh.

Makign the last turn in downtown we run into Dad, who has been waiting (as I later found out) about an hour and a half for me at that spot. He's stiff and sore, but he's running it in with me (for the first time, so the official record says I beat my dad) SD veers off to run outside the barriers. Now people towards the end said "it's just around the corner, then you can see the finish line". Bull. I couldn't see anything (like I'm going to wear my glasses running). So I'm running alongside Dad thinking, ok, where is the finish line? is it too early to sprint? what's going on?

Now let me clarify this timing thing. Least favorite part of the race. They start everyone off in two wave groups. This means that hypothetically, if they started the second wave exactly 10 minutes after the first, then every time sign I pass I need to knock 10 minutes off of it. Plus whatever it took me to get from where I was standing when the gun went off to the start. So basically I have no idea what my time is. And at each clock along the route they have people calling out paces. Well, sometimes. The Houston Half was much better at this. In the beginning, no one was calling out different wave times, and that's way too much math in my head.

So I'm approaching the finish line, and the clock read 6:13 or so. Ahhh...run run run! So I sprint across, I have absolutely no idea what my time is. So what do I do? Start looking for my damn medal. I pass up Felix, the 6 hour pacer, who recognizes me from Houston Fit, and tells me I still made the 6 hour cut off. He's a great encouraging guy. I talked to him once at the very beginning of a run, when I missed my pace group start time. That was he first run where I ran the whole thing. I've also run with him at the Nike Human Race. Oh yeah, and he carries an American flag at the races, so he's pretty easy to spot. I walk into GRB, get a medal, find food with Dad (although I am totally not hungry). We grab our finisher's shirts and mugs, and we head off to find everyone. BF shows me the text message he got right after I crossed the line:

5:59:49 (official time changes this to 5:59:45)

Which puts me at a split pace of 14:36 min/mile, and overall pace of 13:42.

Then..not as much crash as I thought there would be. I'm not hungry, I'm replying the race in my head so I can't sleep. I take an ice bath, and then a hot shower. And it's pretty much over...I will post some recovery stuff later. Thanks for reading!

Edited to add course map and elevation chart:

30K

2008-11-29T12:38:00.000-06:00

This morning was our 18.6 miler run, the longest to date. I did great! Slow but great! I ran for 4 hours and 20 minutes. We started at 5 am, and ran from memorial park down dunlavy to west gray, where we had a water stop at luke's locker. From there, continue down Dunlavy to Bisonett, Cherokee, and a water stop before hitting Rice. Then around Rice, then around Hermann Park, and all the way back. Blistered my pinkie toe on my right foot, could have sworn I was going to peel off my sock at luke's and have a nice bloody mess with a missing toe nail. No such luck. I had visions of people standing around me "Oh, nasty, that must hurt". Of course I would take it up, shrug it off and finish my run. No such heroics for me though.

I constantly want people to ask me how much I've run recently. The golfers in hermann park, city workers, basically anyone I run into that day and the rest of the week. Because, obviously, people can look at me and see, oh, she's a runner, I bet she ran so far today I want to oh and ah over her accomplishment.

Hmm..maybe custom t shirts? I ran ___ miles today.

Wishful thinking..

why I started this blog, part 2

2008-11-26T12:01:00.000-06:00

From Runner's World's "101 Tips to get you motivated to run":

1. CREATE A BLOG where you post your daily mileage, then give out the Web address to your friends and family. Do you really want Aunt Ellen to ask why you skipped your four-miler on Wednesday?

Opps. I guess it's time to email this out.

2008-11-25T23:12:00.000-06:00

With 2 months to go, I already feel like this:

http://princesskaikai.wordpress.com/2008/11/19/so-did-i-mention-im-running-a-marathon/

40 easy minutes

2008-11-24T19:48:00.000-06:00

Short jog with my Dad this morning. 3 miles in 40 minutes, pretty decent pace. The hardest part about the short runs is that I don't quite fall into my grove. And Dad and I seperated for part of it, so running by myself is a whole new game. But I finished the 40 minutes of running...

Shopping

2008-11-23T19:47:00.000-06:00

Ahh...finally some long sleeve shirts to wear. Have to track down gloves and headband now.

George R Brown 13 miler

2008-11-22T10:41:00.000-06:00

Brr! What a chilly morning for a run. At memorial Park at 4 30 am. That's not fun either. Fortunately this is the earliest run in all our training, so no more getting up at 3 30.

The did not go as well as I wanted it to. Typically, for a run, I start slow for about 45 minutes until I settle in (and in this case warm up). As we were going through downtown, my energy picked up. I ran ahead of the group, pausing for safety's sake, and it felt really good. Then it was basiaclly downhill from mile 8. I lost my motivation, and even though I KNOW I can run 11 miles straight, I couldn't find the energy to keep running. So I took too many long walk breaks and came in after 3 hours. I should have been more like 2:30 to be on par with finishing a half marathon in 3 hours.

At this point I do not have winter running gear yet. So I did this run in ankle length pants and a t shirt. A little too chilly for me, I will have to go shopping now. 46 degrees when we passed through downtown.

New blog

2008-11-21T19:36:00.000-06:00

After spending way too much of my free time reading other people's running blogs, I have decided to start my own.

Basically this unrealistic running goal started with a little inspiration from my dad. Dad has run his fair share of marathons, and I certainly had dabbled with running before. But there was an article published about a young women (read: my age) and her father, who climbed Mt Kilaminjaro together. I think my email went something like this:

"Hey Dad, I know it's not Kilaminjaro, but wanna run a marathon together?"

Previously I had began training for a 10K in 2006, but being back in school after a summer of running derailed that. I did however, do my first 5K, even if it was poorly.

Now, 2 years later, I signed up for HoustonFit. We are already over halfway through with training, and there was a certain point where I realized that this was actually not an unrealistic goal. I think it was the first time I ran for over an hour straight. When I started training, I was running with the 5/1 group, which is a really great program. As weird as this sounds, what encouraged me to run the whole thing was aiming too high. I showed up late for a run, and started with the group a speed ahead of me. Of course I fell behind, but I thought, why don't I see how far I can take this. The next thing I know I've run the whole 8 or 9 miles (I may have gotten sidelined by losing site of the faster group and passing up the walkers). That's when it really hit me that it's true what they say, running a marathon is not about mastering 26.2 miles, it's about mastering the 8 inches between your ears.

So zoom onward. My race history so far, to update the cyber world:

Maribelle's 5K
August 5th, 2006
Race time: 38:59
Pace time: 12:33 min/mile
Oh how nieve I was. This race was frustrating for me, because hey, I coudl run 20 minutes on a treadmill in an airconditioned gym. Why can't I run well on a road. In Texas. In August.

Maribelle's 5K
August 2nd, 2008
Race time: 45:32
Pace time: 14:39
And I thought I was frustrated before. This was after I started training with HoustonFit, but while I was still doing 5/1s and having calf problems.

Nike Human Race 10K
August 31st, 2008
Race Time: 1:38:31
Pace time: 15:52
Watch out for those hills. Still a 5/1er.

Houston Half
October 26th, 2008
Race Time: 2:43:31
Pace: 12:36
This was a fantastic race for me. This was when I was really hitting my strides. No more 5/1ing here! It was a little amazing that after 3 months I could run 13.1 miles.

HMSA 25K
November 9th, 2008
Race Time: 3:28:36
Pace: 13:27
Just eeking in under the 3 1/2 hour time limit. Not as great as the half, but still a decent run.

It is odd to be able to say now that running 10 miles is easy, but it is. These last 3 months have seen some amazing changes mentally and physically.

Briefly, because I would love to end my first post on a positive karmic note, I owe a lot fo thanks for getting as far as I am today. Dad, who has run with me through thick and thin (literally, I was an awful running partner in July) and Dad tried his best to encourage me. Last weekend we run 11 miles together, and it went amazingly well. We kept pretty good pace together, finished strong, and I know that I could have run faster and further. Mom and Bob, who have always been supportive, and have encouraged me to be healthy (Bob, for a 50 year old you are a great fitness role model). Coaches at HoustonFit, especially the Red Lobster coaches, running with you guys is wonderful. If it sucked I wouldn't be able to get up at lovely 3 30 am to run with you. Oh two more, Koala for helping strengthen my calves so I could stop being a whiny B when running, and Steve, my personal trainer for strengthening the rest of me.

13 Mile run tomorrow with the Red Lobsters, and a 30K coming up.

I guess it would be good to clairify what my unrealistic running goal is. I am running the Chevron Houston Marathon in January. My goal with this blog is to reach out more into the running world, and as I pass a goal, create a new one. I hope you enjoy reading!

Amy