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!)