San Francisco Route

Did a good 3 miles on the treadmill last night at an incline of 1.5%. It went pretty well, although it helps when you get one of the treadmills with TVs. :)

I've planned my San Francisco route, and I'm just a little bit nervous about it, mostly about running across the Golden Gate Bridge. It's something I really want to do, but it's very high and I'm scared of heights, so... it's going to be interesting. I think that this run should take me 3 hours or less; I'm not too sure because of hills and traffic lights and all of that kind of stuff. But I did plan it fairly well as far as hills, which is great. :)

Here it is, the 12 mile run:

Finding a Route

Trying to plan a route through San Francisco... I'm trying to get a feel for the neighborhoods, as well as for the HILLS... if anyone has any input let me know!

8 Really IS Great!

Aw yeah! This time, 8 miles turned out to be just fine. It might even be the farthest I've run, considering that I stuck to the 3:1 run/walk ratio the entire time. My legs were giving me some trouble, but I kept truckin... I know that running with the team helped me again this week, because I was feeling like slowing down towards the end. I made a new friend—Lisa—and we ran the 8 miles together. I'll only see her for a few more weeks though, because she's training for the Virginia Beach half marathon over Labor Day weekend.

Next week seems daunting: I have to do 12 miles, and I'll be in San Francisco on vacation. It's going to be tough. I need to figure out a route, and then once I get there I need to EXECUTE! It's gonna be really tough... I sent Helen a text to see if she might stoop to my slow-ass level and run with me. I think it would help me a LOT. But I understand if she just wants to enjoy her vacation. :)

Sexy Belt

Not sure I mentioned... I bought a water bottle belt. Yes, I know how ridiculous it looks. But it worked SO much better than the Camelbak! I guess I have to sacrifice my dignity for my health.

Return of the Shins

Tuesday morning, I went to a sports doctor (orthopedic surgeon) to get my shin situation checked out. Mainly I wanted to find out if I had some sort of deformity that was making me run funny, like if one leg is way shorter than the other or etc. Pretty much I waited for 1.5 hours and then saw the dr. for 15 minutes, just like any other dr's office.

He basically told me that I had shin splints, but he wanted to take xrays just in case to make sure it there weren't any stress fractures. (I found it interesting that he especially recommended this after he found out the insurance I have. Is it something he wants to do, but would have waited on if I couldn't afford it? Or does he want to go ahead with it because it will make him more money? Ah, the joys of our healthcare system!)

So I'll humor him, I don't mind having the xrays to rule out something that would be really bad. (Running on stress fractures will eventually lead to full-on broken bones—no thanks!) I have notoriously strong bones though, so I'm 99% sure that I just have shin splints. He also prescribed some stronger anti-inflammatory drugs to take and told me to cut the running in half, if not resting completely, for 2 weeks until my next appt.

So, I didn't do the Tuesday night run. I wanted to go for a bike ride with Andy, but I worked late and had to run errands and he was hungry, so we didn't end up going after all. Tonight I'm going to run on the treadmill a bit, not sure if I will do the whole 50 minutes (I probably will) but I'm going to take it easy. It's strange how I feel like I haven't excercised in FOREVER, but really I excercised on Monday night. I am turning into someone who enjoys excercise?! Or at least feels weird when they don't do it. :)

8 miles Saturday morning! I have to drive all the way to Reston though, and be there by 7am. It's pretty far... another early morning... :-p

Last Saturday - 10 miles!

I can't believe it's taken me so long to post... and now I don't have the time to tell all about it properly... suffice it to say, I did 10 miles at 7 am on Saturday morning, and it was ok! Of course it was hard, but I think I made it harder on myself: The first 5 miles were great, I was running with 2 other ladies and chit-chatting and it passed by so quickly. I didn't even feel that tired! Then, at the turnaround spot (we were doing 5 mi out and back) I had to pee... of course... so I told them I'd catch up to them. Well, instead of the port-a-potty I was expecting, there was nothing... so I ran up to the post office, forgetting that there is no public bathroom in a post office, and then ended up peeing in the bushes after all. (Which is fine, totally used to the camping-style bathroom!) So then I was behind and it was pretty hard to catch up. So I was running harder to catch up, but it just ended up biting me in the ass, because I got tired more easily, and then ended up walking more... vicious circle! But overall, I learned that a) I can actually do 10 miles! and b) it REALLY pays to stick with the pace, because it does wonders. My run/walk ratio was 3:1, which I think is great.

Then I layed around the house for the rest of the day. Woohoo! :)

Thursday 7/16

It was soooo hot and humid on Thursday!! It was 95 degrees and it felt like I was breathing water. Not to mention the fact that I had skipped Tuesday's run in favor of Wendy's and Tetris. :-p Regardless, I completed my 50 minutes of running, although I didn't get very far. I'm learning, though, that speed doesn't matter much in endurance sports. At least not for beginners. (I'm not trying to qualify for the Boston marathon here, just want to finish without dying!)

Marathon Course Video

I was expecting something different than this video, maybe because it was described as a "3D view of the marathon course." Nevertheless, it's interesting to watch the course get traced (but painful to imagine how far it really is!) throughout the DC area. I'd love to see a Google maps overlay, or maybe a MapMyRun track... hmm, maybe I should check and see if someone has done one already! If they haven't, maybe I will make the time to do it... Or not... :)

Runner's Hedonism

In pursuit of pleasure, I was very bad yesterday—I skipped my run, ate Wendy's for dinner, and played Tetris instead of doing the dishes. This is what happens when my husband leaves town. :)

Attack of the Mountain Bike

We went for a ride on Sunday to a place called Schaffer Farms near Gaithersburg. After only a few minutes on the trail, I told Andy to go ahead. I was feeling slow and wanted him to go ahead and have fun. I regretted that later, when I got off on a WAY challenging trail by myself. The trail was very rooty, and there were spots where it had steep, short dips where you'd come right back up again. Sometimes I would get to the crest of the hill to get back to normal, and I just couldn't get up over the hill—you'd think I would give up after falling the first time, but I was determined to keep going—I just kept falling over and over again! It was terrible. I definitely cried in the middle of the woods, hoping that no one would come by and see this wimpy girl. I don't know if I was just having a really clumsy day, or if the trail was that much more above my level than either of us thought. In any case, I now have 29 bruises and 9 scrapes (yes, I counted). This is the worst one, on the underside of my forearm, near my elbow:


It looks better in the photo than it does in person. Andy wanted me to wear long sleeves so people didn't think he beat me. As if. :)

Sesame Street Lied: 8 is Not so Great

I had every intention of coming home after Saturday's run and writing all about it—especially since I was blogging in my head during my run. It entertains me to think of what I will write about later... but most of the time when I get back home I just want to lie on the couch and veg out to the tv. :) Some of the experience has blurred, but the basics are still ingrained in my mind...

5:28 am: I wake up, go to the bathroom, and lie back down in bed even though I'm unusually pretty awake.
6:00 am: My alarm goes off, time to get ready to drive to Sterling to run with the TNT group. I turn it off and lie down again, even though I'm still pretty awake.
6:28 am: Andy says,"it's almost 6:30." and I reply, "I know. I don't feel like driving to Sterling." I am wishy washy for about 15 minutes until I decide that it's too late to make it in time and that I will run by myself.
7:00 am: I get out of bed, and begin getting ready for the run. I haven't been up this early on a Saturday in I don't know how long. I am reminded of getting up for swim practice on summer mornings when I was in middle and high school, and how much I hated getting up and getting in the water when it was so cold. (70 degree water is pretty chilly.)
7:20 am: I'm on the internet, looking at maps of the W&OD trail, with Andy looking over my shoulder advising me on the best place to go run.
7:45 am: Andy leaves to go to work. I'm slowly getting everything ready. Yes still.
8:30 am: I finally leave the house to go to Falls Church and hop on the trail.
9:05 am: I am on the trail! Walking at first to warm up, then running. I am wearing my Camelbak since Thursday's run was decent with it on. I didn't consider the fact that 8 miles is a lot farther than 3 miles when you're wearing a backpack.
9:15 am: There are lots of cyclists on the trail, and they are kind of rude. Not many of them announce their presence and so they just zoom around me without warning. I am being very careful to look behind me first if I am going to go around a walker.
9:30 am: My legs already hurt. Shin splints again. I've only been around 2 miles.
9:37 am: I see a woman walking a ferret on a leash. So weird.
9:45 am: I've been 3 miles, with lots of stops along the way to try and stretch my legs. I sit down and call Andy for some advice. I know he will give it to me straight.
I say, "I've been 3 miles, and I can't decide if I should go the 4th mile, because then I have 4 more to do. It's not a matter of whether or not I can make it--I know that I can keep going another mile. But my legs are killing me and I'm not sure if I should keep running on the shin splints. What do you think?"
He says, "Well, you could turn back now, and if you feel like it's OK, you can go a mile the other direction on the trail and then come back to the car." Genius.
9:52 am: After some more stretching, I'm headed back in the other direction. Every walker I pass makes me feel great. Every person who passes me while I'm walking makes me feel terrible. Such a roller coaster of achievement/failure feelings!
10:05 am: I've only been on the trail for an hour, but it feels like an eternity. I'm about 1/3 of the way back to the car, but time is crawling by. The Camelbak isn't heavy, but it distracts me. I also think that it makes me lean forward more, which is not good for the leg issue. It might be time to buy one of those ridiculous looking belt things with the little water bottles on the sides. Ugh.
10:15 am: I pass the third person wearing a Camelbak while running, but they are all the little ones with nothing but the water pouch. Mine has room for storage, and although I don't have much in it, I think it's just distracting to me having it there.
10:20 am: Less than a mile to go, and it's very hard to keep running. I take a long walk break, about 5 minutes, and I'm beginning to realize that I will probably be walking a lot of this marathon. But it doesn't matter; I just have to finish. I can accomplish the same thing by walking as I can by running.
10:35 am: Back at the car! My mind is telling me to put the Camelbak in the car and to keep going for a mile in the other direction, but my body is telling me to just get in the car and sit down. My legs are throbbing. I wish for the shin splints to go away so that I can keep running, because I am getting better with the endurance and as much as I hate the running, I like the running.
10:45 am: I finally start the car after taking my time getting my shoes and socks off and drinking some water.
11:15 am: I'm back at home, wishing already that I had at least walked the extra 2 miles. This is the first mileage run that I have come up short. It's very discouraging. I briefly consider not even writing about it here, and then decide that it won't help me any to leave out the bad runs.
12:00 pm: Andy is home from work, and we eat pizza from the freezer. Then we spend hours watching reruns of Mythbusters, napping, and just enjoying being lazy. I haven't had such a lazy day in a really long time, and it feels great to know that I at least left the house and got some excercise this morning.

Looking back, I really do wish that I had walked the extra 2 miles. I might be walking a lot more of the marathon than I thought, and I need to work on accepting that. (I wasn't planning on running the WHOLE thing anyway, but I was hoping to run maybe half?) I'm not sorry that I missed the group run though; I am beginning to realize that, as much as I want company, I don't want to feel pressured by someone else's pace or expectations. When I need to stop and walk, I need to stop and walk. I don't want someone telling me to keep going, because I know when I need a walk break. Plus, I have all of you reading this so I know I can't quit. And I told my grandma I was doing it for her, and that's the ultimate motivator. :)

So now I need to recover from the shin splints, AGAIN. I've been told that running by leaning forward causes extra stress on that part of the legs, so the Camelbak may just exacerbate that. We'll see.

Thursday July 9 (Yesterday)

Yesterday was a good run too. I wore my Camelbak for the first time, so it was a little different having that additional weight on my back. And a little slower, but my shins were bothering me—I think the increasing mileage has taken a toll lately. I've been icing my legs and trying to stretch a lot. I'm a little worried about the shins for tomorrow's 8 mile run, but all I can do is try it out. It's not like I've never run with shin splints before. I feel like the hip has gotten a lot better, still need to do some weight training though. And some fundraising!!! If you're reading this, please PLEASE make a donation—$10 would be great—the link is to the right of this post!!! Thanks :)

Tuesday July 7

Unbelieveable!

I worked late and then had to do a massive grocery store run, so I didn't even get to start running until almost 8pm. I put away all the refrigerated groceries, left the rest in the car, and head out for what I knew would be a short run.

Andy was out on a bike ride, so I expected that he'd be back by the time I got home, short run or not. I left around 7:50 and did a shortened version of my usual loop around the neighborhood. I decided not to do the 2:1 run/walk ratio and just ran when I could and walked when I needed to. I felt really good, really light on my feet, but I chalked it up to having a light lunch instead of going out for a BLT. :)

So imagine my surprise when I got home, and Andy wasn't back yet! I checked the time... I had only been gone for 20 minutes!! Two miles in 20 minutes!! Amazing.

Monday July 6

I was supposed to run a 30 minute recovery run on Sunday, but we drove back and then got lazy for the evening. On Monday, Andy and I went out for a bike ride after work, which was really great! It was our first workday outing since his shift changed. It's so nice to be able to spend time together every day like normal people! We had a good bike ride, but I was getting a little scared because it was starting to get darkish and we were at Laurel Hill in the woods. Even when you're not in the woods, the bushes are higher than I am so it gives me the creeps when it starts getting dark. Anyway, good ride, 1.5 hours, and good quality time too.

July 4: Six Patriotic Miles

So I did my 6 miles around Northport, and it was really great! I finished on-pace, roughly 13 minutes per mile. Not bad for running and walking, especially this one hill on James St.—it's pretty much straight uphill for at least half a mile. I probably passed 15 people and they were all going downhill. Anyway, it was a really good run, I was feeling good (even without my iPod), and it all took place before a nice cookout and holiday. Woohoo!

Beginning of the Backtrack: Thursday July 2

I didn't have the best run last Thursday, but the thing is that I ran. It was the night before a holiday, and Andy and I had just been laying around the house for over an hour. Finally, I decided that I had to run, so I just got up and went running. I was really proud of that—it wasn't the longest or fastest run, but I got up off my ass and did it. So again, I am turning a new leaf.

The bad part is that I left my iPod out on the floor while I was charging it for the trip... and Fry decided to chew on the earphone wires. My fault, I left them out even though I knew he would chew them up (he's done it before... 1 time shame on you, 2 times shame on me!) but I was too lazy to wrap up the cord. So, I've been running without music since then. Not terrible, but the music really helps me.

not an update!

I've been so slack about blogging... I've been writing in my head but haven't found my way to the keyboard yet! I have so much to tell... overall, good runs lately! Which is good. I'll catch up soon, I promise!! :-p

Mehhhh

Another crappy run. The overall pace was much better than I thought (much MUCH better than it felt) but still. I did a short run because I knew that it wasn't going to be great. I felt as if I was literally dragging myself around the neighborhood. Just not light on my feet. I can remember swim practices where it was an effort just to get to the other end of the pool, much less consistently swim laps. So I guess I really need to focus on drinking more water and eating a lighter lunch on my running days. The good news: I realllly didn't want to run; I was in the recliner for an hour before I went running at 8 p.m. So I guess I am getting to a new level of discipline, which is good!

Northport

Just planned my run for Saturday while we are in New York for the 4th of July:


It took me a while because I kept having to zoom in to make sure there was sidewalk on the roads that I was looking at, and also because I have no sense of scale and I didn't know how far each segment was going to be until I plotted it.

I really want to run to Asharoken and back (that weird neck of land north of Northport that juts into Long Island Sound) but it would be 8.5 miles round trip. I could do it, but I only have 6 miles on the schedule this weekend and I think that I will enjoy more of my holiday if I can keep it to 6. :) Plus, there are lots of seemingly fancy houses there, and I don't even know if they are public roads or if it is Snootyville. I'll investigate and maybe run there next time.

So tired... don't want to run... I hope someone is reading this and knows how dedicated I am! ;)

Mmm Pizza...

The office bought everyone pizza for lunch because only half of us were here (tomorrow is a holiday). This is a really nice thing to do, and of course I ate pizza, but now I'm a little concerned about how the running will go tonight. I woke up this morning dreading it, just because I'm tired, but geez... after eating pizza and drinking Coke, I'm not sure it will be a good run. Oh well... maybe my sweat will smell like pizza sauce. Yumm...

Is pizza any better for you if it has fruit on it??