TX Runner Mom

Q & A - all about me!

2012-01-27T14:04:00.001-06:00

I think this is my fist time doing one of these Q&A type posts. I was tagged by June, so I figured what the heck!

Favorite time of the day?
Usually early morning. I usually dread waking up at 4:15 – 4:30 to run, but then thoroughly enjoy the peace and quiet as I run through my neighborhood with just me and the stars.

What is your favorite meal to make?
Make? As in cooking? I don’t enjoy cooking, so I’ll have to say anything that can be made in the crockpot – usually stew, chili and sometimes chicken.

Glass 1/2 full or glass 1/2 empty?
Depends on what’s going on. I am definitely a glass ½ full kinda girl a majority of the time. But, I'll admit that I sometimes get in a funk and the positivity goes out the window.

Last picture taken on your phone?
I used my crappy cell phone to take this pic. It's the view right outside my office. It was such a pretty day today, but the phone didn't really capture that.

If money was no issue how many races would you try to do in a year?
12..one per month all in different parts of the world…and I’d vary the distances - I’d do some 5ks, 10ks, a couple of ½ marathons and a marathon on two.

Car, Truck, Van, or SUV?
SUV..I purchased my 1st American made car after my 1st kiddo was born in 2004. It’s a Chevy and while I am happy it’s continuing to get me where I need to go, I will not buy American again. Too many issues.

Do you take part in any water sports ?
I swim (sort of), but that’s about it. I used to surf in my college and before kids, but heading to the coast seems to get harder between work, training and kids activities. I haven't been on a long board in probably 7 or 8 years. I’ve water skied a few times, but that was in high school. I love to snorkel and would love to take scuba lessons at some point.

If you're walking down the street and find a $100.00 bill what do you do with it?
First, I’d see if anyone around me dropped it and then I might hang out for a bit to see if anyone came back looking for it. If no one claimed it, I might just have to get a cute new running skirt or go to DSW!

Favorite non sports related thing to do?
Hang out with the Hubby & kids or go to the movies. I am a movie junkie, but rarely have time to go anymore!

Have Pets? What kind?
No pets at the moment. We lost our fur baby, Jake, in October. He was with us for almost 14 years. We will be getting a German Shorthair puppy in just a couple of months though.

Last movie you went to a theater to see?
Kids movie – Beauty and the Beast (in 3D)...this is my favorite princess movie, so I didn't mind seeing it again.
Grown-up movie – The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I loved the movie! I was a bit skeptical, because I enjoyed the book and really loved the Swedish version of the movie. I was pleasantly surprised at how much I loved the American version. I think the casting of Noomi Rapace was awesome in the original, but I have to say I think Rooney Mara was spot on in the role! She look and acted more like what I pictured in my head as I was reading the series.

Now....I would like to see anyone who has not posted a Q&A in the past week or so to answer the above questions. And, I am tagging a couple of my fellow Texas runners to do this as well - Tara (Texas Runner Girl), Stephanie (Running with Lumpy), and Laura (Mommy, Run Fast!).

Hodge Podge O' Crap

2012-01-26T09:30:00.003-06:00

So today, I thought we'd take a little photo journey...

Yesterday, I went to the pool after work. I swear I need a friggin' Sherpa, because here's the stuff I have to pack in the car in the mornings when I head to the pool...

My bags...I have to put them where I can see them, otherwise I forget them!

The main set of my swim workout...I had to ask the Hubby to translate it for me. Notice it says "3 times thru", I was trying to pretend I didn't see that. :-)

The bags above do not include each of the kid's backpacks and lunchboxes. And heaven forbid that it's a swim/bike day, because that means I need an additional bag to take to work, so that I can go to lunchtime spin class! Anyone wanting to volunteer for Sherpa duty, please let me know!

And, I am sure you were wondering what in the hell I was doing when I was not able to workout. Don't worry, I was staying busy...kids do that to you. Kids can be quite a time suck. :-)

We played board games...here's the Kiddo getting ready for a competitive game of Monopoly Jr.

We colored...a lot.

We played outside...a lot. The kids both received new scooters from Santa, so we took advantage of the great weather!

We went to the movies...here we're getting ready to see the latest Chipmunk movie. We also saw Beauty and the Beast in 3D. Jealous?

We tried some new arts and crafts....here you see the product of the new Spin Art toy. We also used clay to make jewelry...you should see my new earrings that the Kiddo insisted I wear to work. Super cute!

I organized my medals...in chronological order. Yes, I'm type A like that. Thanks to the Hubby for the awesome new medal hanger. Finally, my medals are no longer in a box at the back of the closet!

We went to see Phineas and Ferb's Best Live Show Ever! Even the Hubby and I had a great time at the show. Our family loves Phineas and Ferb!

We played with trains...as you can see here, we have the entire island of Sodor in our living room. Look! There's Thomas...HELLO THOMAS!!!

My parents took us out to celebrate my birthday. Yes, I always wear a huge sombrero when having dinner. And yes, that is Tres Leches. I shared.

The hubby threw me a big party to celebrate the big 4-0! (more on that later)

So as you can see, I've stayed busy during my time away from running. And, of course I've been stretching. A lot. I didn't think you wanted to see pictures of that, though! While I have thoroughly enjoyed the extra time with the family, I am happy to be back in training mode...even if that training includes aqua jogging instead of running.

My 1st Love

2012-01-24T17:31:00.001-06:00

Yes, I made the jump into the world of triathlon 3 years ago. Okay, maybe jump is too strong of a word. I couldn’t swim at all 3 years ago, so how about this – I waded into the world of triathlon. I now enjoy swimming more than I thought possible (except for that pesky hyperventilating thing in the open water). I really, really like to bike (except for the fear of bad roads and crazy-ass drivers). But, I must confess…

RUNNING IS MY 1ST LOVE.

Now, as I am sure you’ve gathered, I am not a naturally gifted runner. I’ve had to work hard to even run a 5k with a sub-10 minute pace. But, I love it anyway. In fact, maybe that’s why I love to run. You work hard – you get results.

Measurable results.

Quantitative data. I love it. It must be the type-A in me. What I don’t love is that sometimes, no matter how good of shape you’re in and how hard you’ve trained, your body doesn’t always cooperate. This is the case with my stupid hip.

How did this love of running begin?

A little over 10 years ago I was about 6 months away from my 30th birthday. I had a list titled, “Things to do before you turn 30!” The list contained lots of goals – many were very attainable, but some were not. For example, I had bungee jumped, gone sky diving and lost 30 pounds. Attainable. I had not yet travelled to Giza or Kenya, and I had not taken flying lessons. Not unattainable, but given my salary at the time and the amount of debt I had still lingering from college, I might as well have written “travel to the moon and back.” However, there was one other goal I had written the previous year after walking a 5k race with a friend. That friend had been a runner, but had to stop due to knee issues. She talked me into jogging a bit of that 5k here and there. That evening, I added something new to my list – “Run a 5k” and then added, “without stopping or puking.”

I had a treadmill at home that I used faithfully for walking. In June of 2001, I began running on it. I was not fast and the progression was slow. But each week, I added a little more distance and was pleased with my improvement. I’ll never forget calling my husband at work around 9 pm just to tell him that I had run 2 miles without stopping for the first time ever! I never ran a 5k that year…instead, I kept going. I made it to 3 miles on the treadmill and thought, “Hey, why not try for 4?” Then, I made it to 4 and thought, “Wow, it’d be really cool to say I could run 5 miles without stopping!” Then, about the time that I made it to 6 miles, my friend MH, who was training for her 2nd marathon, told me that Houston would be hosting a ½ marathon for the first time and that I ought to consider training for it. Let’s be honest here….before I met MH, I didn’t even know Houston had a marathon. I was one of those people who asked, “How many miles is that marathon? What about that one?”

That was around September. I seriously considered the ½ marathon. Finally, I decided that I was going to go for it! I searched on-line and studied all the different training programs. I ultimately decided on the Hal Higdon beginner ½ marathon training program. I will never forget spending Thanksgiving Day with my family with the Hubby proudly telling everyone how I had run 9 miles the day before. Me! A runner! Who would have thunk it?

Not me. That’s for sure.

Let's back up a bit...growing up, I was a dancer – ballet, tap and jazz. I also enjoyed gymnastics – beam and floor exercise were my favorites. I wasn't especially gifted at either, but I was passionate about both, I worked hard and they consumed all my spare time. But running? Hell to the no. However, there was one summer before my freshman year in high school when I had a goofy idea. I had decided that that summer that I was going to work up to running 1 mile. I knew I’d be taking the big physical fitness test that fall and I didn’t want to be the loser walking the 1.5 mile run. My street was a dead end and ¼ of a mile long…over the course of the summer, I worked my way up to running 4 laps back and forth. Success! After the physical fitness test, I quickly stopped running. I wanted to go back to the activities I could do in the comfort of the air conditioner.

So anyway, by race day I was pretty much ready for the Houston ½ marathon. Except my longest run had only been another 9-miler. And, I knew nothing about nutrition. And, on race day I was wearing Nike soccer shorts, cotton socks, a cotton shirt and outlet mall Nike running shoes. But, I was super excited to be doing the race. And, I had an awesome experience! My parents and Hubby came out to cheer. Two of my friends even came out to support me. At mile 9, I gave my Hubby a kiss and told him that I felt great. The final 1 ½ miles were a little rough, but once I crossed the finish line, I felt like a superstar! I felt invincible. I felt like I could kick Chuck Norris’ butt! To make things even more exciting, I was able to see the winners of the Marathon pass as I approached Downtown Houston and the finish line. It was amazing!

My very 1st medal! I was so thrilled to finish the race, only to find out that they had run out of medals. Not to fear, they mailed it to me the following week.

Before I knew it, I was joining MH’s running group to train for the 2003 Houston Marathon. And, as they say, the rest is history. I became a running addict.

Why?

Running keeps me sane. It is my therapy. I know there are t-shirts that say this, but for me it really is true. It’s my quiet time, my thinking time, my sanctuary. It’s my social time, my get the stress out time, my become one with nature time. Running has been a loyal friend. It’s gotten me through tough times at work, grad school, a new house, two pregnancies and so much more. Hot, cold, raining, freezing – I have had both awesome and bad runs in all these conditions. It’s easy – throw on some shoes and head out the door. It’s hard – injuries, dehydration, and crappy runs. But still, nothing stops me from wanting to do it again. Without running, life is just not quite complete.

I *heart* my dear friend running. Even though I sometimes cheat on running with bikes and swimming pools, I always come back to it.

Thank you my dear friend running for being my 1st love.

A few pics from my early running days...

Me at the end of my 1st 21-miler while training for the 2003 Houston Marathon...I was feeling awesome (And I was doing that flappy thing with my left hand way back then, too)!

A couple of pics from my 1st NYC Marathon in 2003...Left - me, near the finish. I am not sure why I stopped...I am so close to the freaking finish! Right - Me and my Houston Fit peeps (including MH) after the race.

How did you get started in running? Is it your first love, or is there something else you're passionate about?

Workout Summary

2012-01-23T09:40:00.001-06:00

Hooray, I finally have a summary! I guess I could have done this for the past 3 weeks, but the only thing I’d have to report would be my stretching and strengthening exercises from the doctor. Not exactly riveting reading.

Monday, 1/16 through Wednesday, 1/18 – Stretching / Strengthening (as ordered by the Dr)

Thursday, 1/19 – Elliptical – 30 minutes
I headed over to the gym during my lunch break at work and grabbed the last available elliptical machine. I felt a little pull in my hip a couple of times when I first got going on the machine, but after that the hip seemed a-okay. For some reason, my quad on the injured side was really sore the next day…not sure what that’s about, but it was fine by Saturday.

Friday, 1/20 – P90X – Shoulders and Arms
I only had time for the 1st 35 minutes of the DVD, but I still feel like I got in a fairly good workout.

Saturday, 1/21 – Swim (1800) and Aqua Jog (10 minutes)
Per Coach and Dr’s orders, I swam with the pull buoy the entire time (no kicking!). Obviously, this is not ideal, but at least I was able to focus on my stroke. And, I just thought I would try the aqua jogging thing for a bit to see how it felt on the hip. I used the shallow water version of aqua jogging. It was completely awkward at first and I am sure I looked ridiculous jogging back and forth with my swim cap on and my goggles on my head, but to be honest, it just felt great to be moving both legs in a running motion. Inside my head, I was thinking, "Hooray, I can run! Pain free, too!" and then "I am sure this looks ridiculous!" and finally, "Who cares, I'm running!!! Yippee!" The aqua jogging seems to feel a bit better than using the elliptical, so I will probably be spending even more time in the pool. I was planning to swim another 500 yds after the aqua jogging, but I didn’t realize there was an AquaFit class about to start. Doh! I got kicked out of the pool…so instead, I spent a few minutes ~~sweating~~ relaxing in the sauna.

Sunday, 1/22 – Bike, 1 hour
This was another test on the bike to see how the hip would do. Last week, clipping out hurt the heck outta my hip, so this time I wore my running shoes. Not cute or sleek looking, but it worked. The hip only bothered me once when I switched gears and my foot slipped forward off the pedal. Other than that, the ride was a success! Next weekend, I will see if I can handle more time on the bike…I am getting nervous that I am waaaaayyyyy behind where I should be on the bike. Hell, I am waaaayyyyy behind on everything!

Lawdy, I'm 4-0!

2012-01-19T08:40:00.000-06:00

Well, yesterday was the big day - the day I began a new decade and the day I entered a new age group! (Well technically, in the triathlon world, I entered that age group on January 1!)

My hubby made a birthday dinner, including this awesome quinoa!

My birthday cupcakes...again, thank you to the Hubby. I ate 1/2 of the one on the lower right. Yum!

I thought I was going to take 40 by storm...first, with the Houston Marathon and next with the Texas 70.3. So things are not quite going as planned. And yes, it sorta sucks. I am experiencing both sadness and anger over this stupid hip injury. To me, age is just a number - I've never worried about getting older. I am more fit than I was in my 20s (thanks to too much fun in college and post marriage weight gain), I am stronger both physically and mentally than I was at 30 and I have some ~~big~~ huge goals for my 40s. But, injuries tend to...well...make me feel my age. Especially when the Orthopedic gave me a prescription for Celebrex. An ARTHRITIS medication (thank you to the Hubby for pointing that out). Yeah, I tried the samples and they did nothing. I threw away the Rx.

So the hip thing has to heal on it's own. I can help it along by doing my exercises from Dr. Chiro and not doing anything too crazy (like running a marathon). However, today is the day my focus is shifting. The Houston Marathon is behind me now and Galveston is getting closer and closer. In fact, there are only 73 days until the race!

Holy shiznit people, how did that happen????

ONLY 73 DAYS UNTIL RACE DAY!

I e-mailed Dr. Chiro late yesterday to get his opinion on the various activities he thinks I should/should not do. Then, I e-mailed Coach to get her thoughts. She is not worried. That's fine, because I am worried enough for the both of us!

So here's the plan - I will try the elliptical. If it irritates the hip, I will try aqua jogging. This should hopefully only be needed for a few weeks, but let's be honest here - I don't have time to spare. I need to get the cardio going again asap. I am also going to try some swimming, but will use the pull buoy to avoid bothering the hip. And then there's the bike - I attempted a 30 minute ride on Sunday. The good news - it felt great to be on the bike again! The bad news - it hurt my hip when I unclipped my right foot (which is the one I always unclip 1st) and it hurt a little when I first started peddling. More good news - once I got going, the hip felt okay. This seemed like a good start - the hubby is going to switch out the peddles to my old ones, so I don't have to clip in/out for another week or two. The goal here is to do enough to keep my fitness level and gradually build, but not enough to keep the hip from healing. (fingers crossed)

I am not sure if I can pull this off...I know that 4 weeks ago, I was riding 1 1/2 hours at a time on the bike and was swimming 2,000 and running...well, running 18 miles. But, for the past 3 weeks I have not done much more than my stretching and strengthening exercises for the hip.

Yesterday, I began my journey into my 40s. Today, I begin my journey to that 70.3.

Oh holy hell, this is going to be interesting.

Have you had to use the elliptical as an alternative to running? How about aqua jogging?

Race Weekend Re-Cap

2012-01-18T15:20:00.007-06:00

I wasn’t sure what to call this post, since I didn’t really race. But oh well, it was still race weekend, so there. This is a long post, so bear with me!

Friday
I started the day out with a visit to the Orthopedic. Not that I don’t trust the Chiropractor, but I wanted another opinion. I wanted to be sure that running 26.2 miles on my bum hip wasn’t going to make matters worse. The Ortho did an x-ray, which confirmed there was no noticeable fracture. He twisted and turned my leg, then pretty much gave me the same diagnosis as the Chiropractor – ligament strain. He also confirmed that running the marathon should not cause a major setback. The only thing bothering me is that during one of my stretches the day before, I tweaked my hip a little. I had been so excited earlier in the week that it no longer hurt to pick up my leg to put on my pants…well, that was no longer the case after this tweaking. I tried not to think about that though. I could still walk pretty much pain free, so I hope the same would be true when I attempted to run.

After the doctor’s appointment, I met up with June at the Expo. I love a good Expo! We picked up our packets and t-shirts, we shopped, we ate chocolate, we stalked Joan Benoit Samuelson and even got her autograph! It was a lot of fun and June is an excellent shopping buddy! The best part – my hip wasn’t hurting at all! I was getting psyched up about the race. After the Expo, as I was walking back to my car, I stopped to ~~gawk~~ look at the Olympic Trials finish line one last time and stepped off the curb funny and tweaked the hip again. Klutz!

Joan Benoit Samuelson and Bill Rodgers

My bib with Joan's autograph! I figured if I had Joan running with me, I could survive!

The cute stuff I bought at the Expo!

Saturday

Saturday was amazing! We woke up early, bundled up the kids and headed downtown. As if it were that easy…it doesn’t get all that cold here often, but the temps were in the 30s. It took me about 10 minutes to even locate the kid’s real winter gear and probably another 15 minutes getting it on their squirmy little bodies! And before we even made it to the race, we managed to lose the Munchkin’s gloves. But we finally arrived and managed to get a spot on the curb where we would be able to see the runners 3x. And, we were close to the playground, so that between the runner’s laps we could let the kiddos play (i.e. not get bored and drive us crazy!).

It was an awesome day for a race...temps in the 30s, low humidity!

Our view while we waited

Here's the women...so inspiring!

Here's my little Angry Bird while he's still happy...after 2 hours, he was done and had a major meltdown!

My little princess...she was a great sport the entire morning. "Yeah Mom, the runners are neat...can we go to the playground now????"

The men on their 2nd lap - Ryan Hall was in the lead at this point

The women - the leaders have pulled away from the rest of the pack. Here's Desi, Deena, Shalane, Amy and Kara.

On the final lap, Deena had fallen behind. :-(

The race was amazing! I loved being up close to the action where you could see the intense look of focus on the runner’s faces. And, it was cool seeing so many awesome runners…you know, the ones who are the cover of Runner’s World like Desi, Deena, Shalane, Kara, Meb, Ryan, etc. A-MAZ-ING! It was also cool to see the slower fast runners. There was a group of 3 women toward the back of the pack who did lots of fist-pumping (a la Ryan Hall) to get the crowd going every time they came around. They knew they weren’t going to the Olympics, they were proud to be at the trials and they were enjoying their moment dammit! After about 2 hours, the kids had had enough and we started packing up. We ended up leaving right after the women passed us for the final time ad right as the men were coming in for the finish. I had to check Facebook constantly on the way home to find out who won.

After the trials, I headed to the Chiro’s office to get all taped up with RockTape. I’ve never used tape before, so I had no idea what to expect. The tape was flexible and lightweight, so I didn’t even notice it. After the taping, I went home and decided to try my scheduled 2-miler.

This is where things went downhill.

So, I walked to the end of my driveway. This is when I usually start running. I was afraid. My last run on the previous Saturday was painful. I was afraid of the pain. I walked to the end of my street and finally started running. It was awkward. I wondered if it was possible to forget how to run, because that’s what it felt like.

And it was painful.

Every step hurt and there was pain every time I lifted my foot off the ground. And the pain was exactly in the spot that hurt when I tweaked my leg in the days before. I went around the block once (~.5) half running and half walking. I may or may not have said a few choice, rated-R words out loud. I was in pain and I was pissed. I decided to try going around the block again. This time I focused on getting my gait back to normal, because up until this point, I had been overcompensating with the other leg. My gait slowly started to feel more normal, but the stupid pain was still there. I made it around one more time and then stopped. When I came inside the Hubby asked how it went…I told him I needed a miracle.

I went on with business as usual for the next few hours – I colored with the kids and did the grocery shopping. I realized halfway through my trip to the grocery store that I was limping. When I arrived back at home, I must have sat in the car a little too long because the Hubby came outside and asked me if I was okay. I was okay, but I was sitting there rationalizing things in my head…

Just try to run tomorrow

Shit, I can’t even go to the grocery store without limping

It’s not that bad, you’ll be okay once you warm up

The doctors said it would be okay

After putting the groceries away, I started to get everything ready for the race – SpiBelt, nutrition, handheld bottle, check-in bag, etc. – and I laid out my clothes. I tried not to think of that run. The thing that sealed the deal – my hammies felt tight, so I bent over forward to stretch them and I almost didn’t make it up. Something in my hip just wouldn’t let me move. That was certainly I’ve never experienced before. Around 7:30 pm, the Hubs was getting ready to leave for a friend's birthday party when I announced my final decision, “I am not running tomorrow”. I decided this was stupid – I ran a little over a mile and had been limping all afternoon. I realized that I had nothing to prove. I realized that I may not even be able to make 13.1, much less 26.2. I needed to go with my gut, and my gut had been telling me this for the past few days, but I refused to listen. And yes, nothing like springing this on your husband as he’s about to walk out the door! LOL, he looked a little mortified. I assured him that I was okay and that he needed to go to the party.

And yes, I cried a little. I had a small pity party. Once the kids were in bed, I took a nice, long bubble bath and drank 2 glasses of wine (yes, wine with my whine). I sulked a little more while I watched TV. And then I decided – this is it, after tonight there will be no more sulking. Move on. Get over it.

Sunday
The next morning, I limped out to the course and met up with a friend to cheer for the runners. Honestly, I had an awesome time. This was MUCH better than sitting around sulking while watching the race coverage on TV. I met some fun people, saw some of my friends run by and yelled until I had no voice left. The only time I got a little sad was when I saw my Woodlands Fit peeps run by…they were the people I should have been running with that day. But I screamed and cheered for them and sent them some “AWESOME RACING” vibes!

Ready to cheer!!!

Once the race crowd started to thin out, I headed home. I was home by 10:15 am and the kids were thrilled to see me. The Kiddo, who sometimes knows exactly what to say, gave me a hug and said that she was sorry I couldn’t run the marathon. She quickly followed that with a “But, now you can spend more time with us!” So, we played board games and went out for pizza. We followed that up with the Texans game and an early birthday dinner with my folks. It wasn’t a bad weekend at all!

The hip will eventually heal. There will be other races. I will survive and be stronger.

Early birthday celebration...Ole'!!!

The Courage to Start

2012-01-15T22:52:00.000-06:00

The miracle isn't that I finished. The miracle is that I had the courage to start.
~ John "The Penguin" Bingham

I love this quote, it's one of my favorites. Today I had to muster up a different kind of courage...the courage to realize when it's smarter to not start at all. The courage to throw in the towel. Cry uncle. Surrender.

On Saturday, around 7:15 pm, I decided not to run the Houston Marathon. More on the details leading up to that decision later. For now, I just wanted to give everyone a heads up. Sorry for not posting this earlier, but even without the marathon, it was difficult to get to my computer to post (that happens with 2 kiddos, lol)!!!

Houston Marathon: Almost here!

2012-01-11T08:23:00.000-06:00

So happy for everyone running the Houston Marathon this weekend (which I am hoping will include me)! It looks like after a warm, humid, drizzly race last year, we will have awesome weather this year! Okay, so a little warm for the high there, but no complaints from me.

Hip update: Yesterday was awesome. Today, I was a bit sore when I woke up, but once I got moving everything felt better. There are still some times when I step funny or move my hip in a way that causes a bit of pain, but it is much, much, much better than before. Just this morning, I could actually lift my leg to put on pants with only a little pain! That doesn't sound like much, but considering last week I had to sit down and carefully maneuver my pants and socks on, I am ridiculously happy! I am still walking a bit funny, but I think that's my way of being very, very careful.

Hip Update: Internal conflict and another Dr's appt

2012-01-10T12:48:00.000-06:00

I know I've mentioned this before, but I am the world’s worst when it comes to making personal decisions. I analyze, re-analyze and over analyze. Trying to decide whether or not to run Houston is the perfect example of this. One moment I have my mind made up that I am just not doing it. The next, I am definitely doing it.

Here’s an example of my internal ramblings…

Statement: Ugh, I really shouldn’t run this stupid race, I could make my injury worse
Response: Yeah, but I really want to do this. I’ve been training dammit…think of all those Saturday mornings since NYCM when I could have slept in…

Statement: Why did I just have to get that 4-miler done? I didn’t have to run that evening. I could have waited until the next morning…maybe this wouldn’t have happened.
Response: Stop that, it’s like a little ticking time bomb…if it was gonna happen, it would have happened the next time I ran! Besides, it was a busy week! I was trying to get in a run before the week got even crazier.

Statement: Wait, my hip is feeling better today! Woohoo!
Response: Alright then, let’s do this!!! Bring it, baby!

Statement: (After Saturday’s run and Coach's e-mail) Well, that sucked. There’s no freaking way.
Response: Okay, I’m not going to do it. WAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH! Too bad the last day to defer was YESTERDAY. Stupid, I should have run on Friday!

Statement: It’s just one marathon. There will be plenty of others.
Response: Yes, but this is the 40th anniversary of the race! I ran the 35th anniversary (1/2)! And, it’s just a few days before my 40th birthday, too! What a way to bring in my 40th year!

Statement: Yes, but I don’t want to spend my 40th year on crutches or being out the rest of the year because I could make things worse!
Response: But look at that medal. That AWESOME medal! I still have the commemorative chip from the 35th…this is way cooler!

My precious........

Statement: Okay, I won’t do it.
Response: Good, glad a decision has finally been made.

Statement: (Today) Holy crap, my hip feels pretty damn awesome today! I think I can at least try to do this.
Response: Don’t be stupid, it’s temporary…I bet it’ll hurt if I run. Besides, running a marathon is hard with a healthy body..think how hard it's gonna be with an injury! Then again, I can always stop, or I can turn around at mile 8/9 with the people running the ½. And then there’s the Kinesio tape…the Doc said that would help.

Statement: No, really! It feels a little uncomfortable here and there, but there’s no pain! Yippee!!!
Response: Okay, let’s do this shiznit!!! (Maybe)

Statement: Wait! I haven't run in 3 weeks! It's been 2 weeks since my last elliptical workout...what if I can't do this?
Response: Okay, so aside from not PRing, you can totally do this. Take it slow and listen to your body.

See what I mean? Indecisive in the worst way!

As far as my Dr’s appointment, I saw the doc yesterday afternoon. He said that his goal is to get me to the race on Sunday. He did more adjusting and seemed to focus a bit more on my hip alignment (I’ve had issues with this in the past). He also showed me additional exercises to try and tested my range of motion. Most of the pain is in my glute, but there is still some pain here and there in the front of my hip. Once again, after all the torture adjusting, the hip felt quite a bit better. At the end of our session, the Doc said, “Okay, let’s talk about this weekend.”

Ummm, hello? You can bet I was all ears.

He told me that he had another doctor coming in on Saturday who was going to be helping him tape up some patients. get your mind out of the gutter...he was talking about kinesio tape! Well, a stronger version of the kinesio tape (Tex tape, maybe?). I asked him specifically about his thoughts on whether or not I should even attempt a marathon at this point.

Bottom line:
Based on his assessment of the location of the pain and my range of motion, he does not think there is any larger underlying cause (i.e. stress fracture). He feels that what I am experiencing is ligament pain. No more. Of course, he did say that he could not be 100% sure without a scan, but didn’t feel that was necessary due to his assessment and the improvement I've shown. He also said that he does have patients running on Sunday, even though he has advised them not to run (these are some of the people coming in for taping on Saturday). In other words, he would tell me if he thought I should not run. I also asked if running on Sunday would make things worse. He said that my hip would probably bother me at some point during the race (I kinda figured), but did not feel I would make matters worse. However, if the race did not go well due to pain, that I should see him next week to address more hip stability exercises. If I have the normal residual soreness post race, I should just continue with the exercises already prescribed.

Yes, I had several questions typed out and ready to go, including one about his thoughts on the kinesio tape. He addressed most of my questions before I even got to them. Basically, he said that I should let the pain be my guide. If the run goes like my last couple of longer runs and the pain eases up after the hip is warmed up, I should be a-okay. But, if the pain is sharp, if it persists or gets worse I should stop or turn around with the ½ marathoners. Easier said than done.

So all of this to say - I haven’t made up my mind yet. I will say this – my hip feels pretty awesome today. If this continues, I will attempt an easy, short run on Thursday. If that goes well, I’m going for it. If not, well…I am sure I will go through the entire conversation above in my head again before throwing in the towel. Why is it so damn hard to throw in the towel, anyway?

Have you tried Kinesio tape? Please, share your experiences with it!

:-(

2012-01-07T21:18:00.001-06:00

Well Blogger friends, today I was hoping to report back with awesomely wonderful news about this morning's run. Unfortunately, the news is not as good as I had hoped.

It's not horrible either, but I am beginning to lose hope. I ran 4 miles at a pretty easy pace. Cardio-wise, I felt pretty good....it felt good to be getting the heart rate going and to just be out there running! However, the hip hurt the entire 4 miles. Not a horrendous "I can't take another step" sort of way....but as in "let me adjust my gait, so that it hurts as little as possible" kind of way. I was envious of the people I saw enjoying their morning run. This was not enjoyable. This was "Oh sh*t, how am I supposed to run 26.2 miles in a week???". I will say that toward the end of my 4-miler, the hip did start to feel a bit better. Maybe because it had finally warmed up? I was tempted to run a little more just to test this theory, but then decided I should go ahead and stop. Why risk it?

The rest of the group was running 6, so I had time to do my stretches before meeting up with everyone for coffee. To be honest, after that, the hip didn't feel awful. However, it has bothered me off and on all afternoon. One minute it feels okay, then I step funny and it hurts again. And to make matters worse, I let my emotions get the best of me - I drowned my frustration in a slice of pizza and 3 cookies at a football party today. Stupid.

As for the marathon, Friday was the final day to switch races or defer, so that's no longer an option. Coach feels that if I am looking at the big picture, I should not run the marathon next weekend for fear of making things worse and having to take more time off after the race. This might jeopardize my plans for the 70.3. Not running at all didn't really cross my mind (much) until that e-mail from Coach. I am struggling with what to do. I've never DNSed, never DNFed, never been this injured.

Sigh. I see the Dr again on Monday, so I'll see how that goes. I may attempt a short run again on Tuesday or Wednesday before I make my final decision.

There's not much more to say, except that this kinda sucks. :-(

On a happier note, the Texans won today!!!!! It was an amazing game and I loved every minute of it. Finally, we have a great team again. Wooohooo!!!

GO TEXANS!!!

Houston Marathon: Getting Excited (and nervous)!

2012-01-06T14:46:00.000-06:00

Just an update...I checked my paperwork from the doctor and my official diagnosis is Capsulitis of the Hip. Nice to know, right?

One week from today and I’ll be joining the masses at the George R Brown Convention Center (also known by Houstonians as the “GRB”). We’ll be picking up packets, browsing the booths, listening to motivational talks, meeting our pace team leaders, etc. Yipppeeee, I can’t wait!

I received my confirmation yesterday - I am bib #7168 and in the “open” corral (meaning: with the other slow people). No offense to any walkers out there, but I do aim to line up in front of you, so that I am not continually dodging you in the 1st 8 miles!

I have to admit that I am a bit nervous about this race with this hip injury looming. What if I get out there and it starts to really hurt at mile 10 or 15? What if I’ve lost fitness in my two-week long hiatus and I totally and completely suck? What if, what if, what if… So many uncertainties - I’m not sure how hard to push. I am not sure how my hip will feel on the hills of Elysian, Montrose, Newcastle and Allen Parkway – especially the down hill segments. I usually love those, but and stepping down really hurts right now. Should I try to maintain my “best case scenario for a PR pace”? Should I take it easy?

But then again, even with a healthy body ANYTHING can happen on race day. I went into my very 1st marathon feeling confident and ready. I had completed a great 15, 18 and 21 miler with no problems other than the usual fatigue. However, around mile 4 or 5 of my marathon, I felt an odd pull in my hip. By mile 9, this odd sensation was moving to my knee. By mile 16, it felt as if someone was stabbing me in the knee with an ice pick. Then, by mile 19, all my muscles were cramping and I was nauseous (as if the knee pain wasn’t enough!). By mile 20, I was falling behind the rest of my group. All of the symptoms I was experiencing were things I never experienced before race day. I had no idea what the hell was going on. I caught up with one of our coaches around mile 20 and she said the knee issues sounded like ITBS and the cramping/nausea sounded like I needed salt. She kindly shared her pumpkin seeds, showed me a couple of ITB stretches and gave me a pep talk. My group finished the race about 7 minutes before me…I was just happy to finish at all.

Moral of the story – the marathon is a long race. (Okay, not as long as an Ironman, but still long!) Anything can happen. We deal with it. Most of the time we finish, sometimes we don’t. But, we have to try. So I may be slower that I want to be next weekend, I may be walking more than I had planned, or I may be hobbling to the finish. If I feel great after the 1st few miles (and those stupid Elysian hills), then I will go all out. If not, well, I switch to plan B – just finish. I won’t know until I try…and try I will!

Stupid Hip: Update

2012-01-05T10:44:00.002-06:00

As you can imagine, waiting to see the doctor has been difficult. Seriously - longest.wait.ever. I am not a patient person at all. So, imagine my ~~anxiety~~ surprise when I received a confirmation e-mail from the dr's office on Monday stating that my appointment was scheduled for 7:00 am on Friday, January 6, rather than Tuesday, January 3.

Yes, this was me after reading that e-mail on Monday!

I did what anyone would do - I called the Dr's office and calmly explained that I scheduled my appointment on-line and was sure I scheduled it for Tuesday not Friday. Unfortunately, they had me in their system for Friday. But, they did have an appointment on Wednesday at 5:15 pm. Ack! Deep breaths, deep breaths...okay, Wednesday was better than Friday. Whatever. This particular Dr is known among the running and tri community, and I personally know a few people who have recovered quickly from various injuries after being treated by him. I figured he was worth the wait.

I went in yesterday expecting nothing short of a miracle. Silly and unrealistic of me, I know. But, dammit, I have a marathon in less than two weeks! And, I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised. No, I am not totally and completely cured, but I do feel better. Much, much better. As in, I still have some pain, but I can walk without wincing better!

So what was wrong? The terms Glutius Minimus, Glutius Medius and Piriformis were used, as well as
capsular impingement, tendonitis and another -itis. In normal people terms - the issue has little to do with my actual hip joint at all. It's more closely linked to the fact that distance running can fatigue the hip abductors, causing the pelvis to become unstable and force the other muscles to over compensate. This causes the ligaments around the hip to hurt when you move your legs and apply weight to your hip.

So what did the Dr do? First, he asked me to move my legs in different ways - sit and put the ankle of my right leg on the knee of my left leg, stand and lift my leg, etc. Then, manipulated my leg in all kinds of different positions and asked me to tell him when I felt pain. He did a lot of this. For treatment, he used muscle stimulation and added heat to the area. Next, the ~~torture~~ treatment included him pressing (hard) on the different muscles and tendons near the hip capsule and glutes...yes, that shiznit hurt! I was holding onto the table, sweating and cursing in my head. OUCH! But, when he asked me to get up and walk (and I wasn't sure I could walk after all that), my hip felt soooo much better! He also did some alignment work on my spine and showed me the stretches that he wanted me to do at home. I explained that I had been stretching like a madwoman, but he explained how the stretches I need to do for this particular area needed to be mostly dynamic stretches. And yes, I confessed - before this injury, I rarely stretched at all. He wasn't surprised and told me that most people do not stretch as well as they should (if they even stretch at all).

The Glutes - gotta stretch'em!

Apparently, the hip can be pretty freaking complicated. Who woulda thunk it?

What's next? The Dr warned me that I would be sore the next day (and I am) and told me to rest for the next 36 - 48 hours (except for the prescribed stretches). On Saturday, I get to run! Only a few miles, but hey, it's running. I will see how I feel after that and I will go back to his office on Monday for more ~~torture~~ treatment. (He said it could take 3-4 of these sessions to get me all better.) And, if I am feeling good next week, there is still hope that I can run the marathon! Fortunately for me, this is my taper time...although, this is not exactly the kind of taper I had in mind. But I have hope!

A glimmer of hope! Really, that's what I wanted.

Have you suffered from this? How is your stretching - do you do it religiously, not at all, sometimes?

New Year, New Goals

2012-01-03T12:00:00.003-06:00

What can I say about 2011? It was a year mixed with both good and bad, that’s for sure. But, the good definitely outweighed the bad, so I give 2011 two thumbs up fo’ sho’!

THE GOOD

Family trip to Disney! This was such a fun trip. The Hubs and I really loved seeing how our kids reacted to the magic that is Disney…they were in awe of the characters and rides, and they told us daily how much fun they were having. Heck, the Hubs and I were having an awesome time, too!

Us with two of our favorite Disney characters!

Races! Despite the warm, muggy, sprinkly day, I managed to PR my Houston ½ Marathon time. It wasn’t quite as good as I had hoped for, but a PR is a PR. Next up was the Austin 1/2 Marathon. While I didn’t have the best race at the Austin ½ Marathon, I ran an entire race with the Hubby for the 1st time. This was his 1st big race and celebrating such an awesome accomplishment was a lot of fun. Then came tri-season...I PRed my CB&I time, and even PRed my 5k time on this race! I ended the summer with Bridgeland, where my times weren’t stellar, but I had my best open water swim ever and finally conquered that stupid anxiety in the water! And, the hubby also finished two triathlons this year – cheering for him with the kids at his final race of the season was definitely a high point of the year. Finally, the NYC Marathon lived up to the expectations – it was AMAZING. I had a 23-minute marathon PR and had an awesome time racing through the Burroughs.

Ah yes, all done and still smiling!

Trip to NYC! Yes, we travelled to NYC for the marathon, but we had an amazing time playing in the city, too! We had so much fun with my Sister-in-Law and her hubby, plus I finally got to meet one of my long-time on-line friends and see parts of NY that I’ve never seen before. It was phenomenal.

Brooklyn, before walking back to Manhattan

Family! For the 1st time, I took off multiple days from work during both Spring Break and Christmas Break. Even though we stayed close to home, I had an awesome time doing fun stuff around the city with the kids. I am definitely doing this again in the coming years.

These guys are my life!

THE BAD
Injuries. The infamous broken toe was something I’d like to forget. Yep, just one week after a great race at CB&I in May, I managed to kick the door in the middle of the night. Stupid. Then there was the odd back/neck/should issues in September. Not sure WTF that was about, but I’m glad I haven’t had a recurrence! And finally, there’s the hip issues…not the way I wanted to end 2011 and enter 2012, but what can you do?

Sickies. Yes, the woman who almost never gets sick managed to get Strep not once, but twice this year. Not a big deal, but after delaying my NYC marathon training for over a month because of a broken toe, missing training because of step really pissed me off.

Jake. We lost our family dog in 2011 and still miss him today.

Family drama. I can’t go into this one, but let’s just say it’s almost Jerry Springer worthy. Sigh.

Work. Our company announced in October that it was being sold and that the section I work in is going to be sold to a 3rd party. We don’t know who the buyer will be, so there’s still hope that everything works out well for everyone involved. If things don't work out well, then I will use this as an opportunity to spend more time with my family and re-evaluate my career goals. I am trying to be an optimist on this one!

2012

So what’s new for 2012? I’m not one to make “resolutions” really, but I do try to set goals each year. Without having something to work toward, I find that I grow bored and lose motivation. So here are some goals, although I know there will be more along the way…

Races. Unless the hip thing gets worse, I fully intend to run the Houston Marathon. Before the hip issue (and after that awesome 18-miler), I had every intention of attempting another PR. But now, the goal may only be to finish. Bummer. I also have the Texas 70.3 on schedule for 2012. Again, unless the hip issues prevent me from training for this, I will train my arse off and finish my first 70.3. This is sort of a scary goal for me, which is exactly why I want to do it!

Workouts. I had a lot of fun in 2010 and early 2011 when I mixed it up with my workouts. I did an entire cycle of P90X and Insanity and loved the challenge of both. After the 70.3, I'd like to do more of both workouts or maybe even try P90X2. And, I'd like to add either Pilates or Yoga to my workout routine for at least one day per week...in fact, the gym at work offers both each week, so there's no excuse for not fitting these in. (Except that Pilates is offered on Friday...not so sure this is a good thing for the Saturday morning workout!) Since I stopped the strength training, I have started to feel...well, soft. I want my muscles back! I also vow to continue the core workouts (a/k/a Ab Ripper X) at least 2x per week!

Fun. To be honest, after the 70.3 I am not sure what I will be doing. Maybe CB&I, since it’s a great race and practically in my backyard. I do know that I want to have fun. I want to do whatever races I feel like doing and just have fun with them. I do want to continue to work on my speed at shorter distances, but I have been so focused on the PRs for the past couple of years, that I just want to race for fun, for bling and not have to worry about overdoing it before my “A” race. I know, not terribly ambitious. The Hubs and I are considering the Goofy Challenge in 2013, but again, we would be racing more for fun than for time (which I hear is best for these races). But, shhhhh, don't tell Coach!

Family. From now until the Texas 70.3 on April 1st I will be uber busy trying to juggle training with work and family. But, my goal is to never make my family feel like they come 2nd to my training…which is why I wake up at stupid-thirty to workout. I believe with us working running/triathlon moms, it’s sometimes about quality over quantity when it comes to our families. I want the time I spend with the kiddos to be quality time - to give them my full attention, even if it’s only for an hour in the evening before bedtime.

Nutrition. Before NYC, I had a great start on eating cleaner and had lowered my sugar intake considerably. However, since returning from that trip, I really haven’t eaten as well as I should. In fact, this is the 1st holiday season in 3 years where I’ve seen a gain on the scale instead of a loss. I haven’t eaten that poorly, but with the kids at home with me over the last week, let’s just say I could have done much better. But, not to worry, I have my focus back and have already started working on this again. I love the way I look and feel when I eat well, so that in itself keeps me motivated to get back on track and stay there.

Other. I have other goals regarding my personal life, the family and work, but I won’t bore you with those. It will be an interesting year ahead and I am ready to tackle it!

Do you make resolutions each year? Set goals? What are some of your goals?

Happy New Year!

2012-01-01T23:49:00.001-06:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYBODY!

I just barely made it until midnight to bring in the New Year. Actually, we were hanging with the neighbors outside until about 10:30 pm, when we came in for snacks and a break. The Munchkin decided he wanted to sit with me on the couch and he ended up falling asleep in my lap...and I fell asleep with him. The Hubby and Kiddo headed back outside around 11:15, and I woke up around 11:45...just in time to toast the New Year. Yeah, we lead such exciting lives!

But,we made up for the calm New Year's Eve by joining a group of our tri peeps for their annual Polar Bear Plunge! Yep, that's right, we donned our wetsuits and went for a New Year's swim in a local lake. The air temp was around 58-ish thanks to a little cool front that came through overnight and the water temp was around 56. Awesome! Truth be told, we actually talked more than we swam! But, it was fun and the Hubs and I will definitely be back next year!

The entire group before getting in the water...see, we're still smiling here!

Here we are shooting the bull before getting in...it's a lot of "you go first", "no, you go first", ""no, you"

Here's me and the Hubs...we're cold, but still smiling. Actually, by this time we're starting to feel good...or numb.

Here's the gang after the plunge...our lips are blue and our teeth are chattering, but we all survived!

This tradition began three years ago. Three of the folks in the picture above are founding members of the Lake's annual polar bear plunge, and a majority of the rest of us were there for the 1st time. This is an awesome group of folks I actually met for the 1st time on beginnertriathlete.com three years ago. It's pretty cool how many amazing people I've met on-line either through BT.com or this blog. Just another thing to be thankful for!

Update on the hip

2011-12-30T11:02:00.000-06:00

First of all, thanks for the well wishes about the hip, I really appreciate the kind words!

So, I used the elliptical again yesterday for another 5 miler. The hip doesn't seem to hurt during the workout and even feels okay afterwards. However, by the end of the day, I am limping around because it hurts to step down on my right leg. I think this is partly due to the workout, and partly because I have been spending the rest of day playing with the kids (rather than sitting in an office or in meetings all day). We've played putt-putt golf, we've taken strolls around the neighborhood while they've used their new scooters from Santa, etc. Either way, this is not encouraging. At all.

I e-mailed Coach and she told me to take the next couple of days off. Completely. She thinks that the hip doesn't hurt while I am working out, because it's warmed up. So, no spin class and swim for me today and no 12-miler on Saturday (not even on the elliptical). I am seeing the doctor on Tuesday, but that seems like an eternity away. I feel like I've wasted over a week stretching and seeing what happens. Even with the stretching, the hip isn't getting any better...but, at least it isn't getting any worse either. I've googled every hip condition I can think of and can't seem to find quite the right description of what I am feeling. Sigh. This is extremely frustrating.

On a happier note, we are taking the kids to see Phineas and Ferb this afternoon...that should be fun!

We're planning to have a really low-key New Year's Eve tomorrow. The Hubby is on call, so we're staying close to home and hanging out with the kiddos (which probably means playing Wii!). Hope everyone out there has a wonderful New Year's eve and day! I will be back with a post of my New Year's goals in a day or two.

What are your plans for New Year's Eve? Big party or low key like us?

Stupid Body

2011-12-28T09:54:00.000-06:00

Sometimes, when things are going great and the workouts are feeling awesome, our stupid bodies find a way to tell us to chill. In my case, this is happening with my hip. In my 10 years of running, I've only had a few aches/pains that have stopped me from running completely - bad ITB issues after my 1st marathon in 2003, achilles tendonitis while training for the 2006 Houston Marathon and pretty bad shin splints sometime after that. I'm not counting the broken toe, since that was a stupid, non-running related injury. And now, after having a great NYC marathon and some good runs afterwards, my hip is deciding to protest.

To help let my hip get some rest, I took a few days off from running last week in hope of being able to still run my 18-miler on Saturday. At the start of my 18-miler, the hip hurt a little - more of an uncomfortable feeling, rather than extreme pain. By mile 5, I noticed that the hip didn't bother me at all. The rest of the 18-miler went great! In fact, I'd say it was one of my best long runs this year. My pace was consistent, my energy level never waned...maybe it was the Hammer Gel I've been experimenting with or maybe it was the pleasantly cool weather. It even drizzled off and on during my last 5 miles, but even that didn't bother me. My run felt so amazing, that I actually wanted to keep going! I decided to stick to the Coach's schedule and not overdo it...but I did add another .5 on the way back to my house. :-) After my run, as the day went on, the hip felt okay - a little achey? Yes, but overall not bad. Sunday, it continued to ache, but again, nothing major.

On Monday, I headed out for my 4-miler. As soon as I started, the hip hurt with every step on my right foot. After 2 miles, I stopped and walked for a bit. After a 1/2 mile of walking, I started up again...it was cold and dreary outside. I had dressed warm enough for a run, but not warm enough for a walk! After making it home, I logged in my workout. In no time, I received an e-mail from Coach saying, "When you are hurting STOP! No running by any means for the next 4 days". I was also advised to stretch, stretch, stretch, so that's what I am doing. I tried the spin class at my gym yesterday and also got in a 2100 yd swim. Today, instead of running 5 miles, I headed to the gym and used the elliptical there. It felt like a punishment at first, but honestly it wasn't too bad! I had my iPod shuffle to listen to, and I watched E! (and read the closed caption)...I never have time to watch TV these days, so that was sorta nice.

I have an appointment to see a Dr on Tuesday of next week. I am hoping there's nothing too serious going on with my hip! Until then, spin, swim and elliptical it is! All that I know is that I have no biking or swimming for the next 2 weeks during my taper...I hope I am able to run again soon, or I might go crazy!

Have you been sidelined with injuries? How have you coped with not being able to run?

Blogger Gift Exchange

2011-12-27T14:51:00.000-06:00

Hope everyone had an awesome Christmas! Our family had a busy few days, but it was a lot of fun. I'll post a few pics from the holidays later. I had every intention of coming here and posting a "Merry Christmas" post on Christmas Eve/Day, but just never had the chance.

I want to thank my Secret Blogger Santa, Amanda at Run to the Finish, for my awesome gift from the Blogger Gift Exhange. Imagine my excitement when I saw a box addressed to me in the mailbox! When it comes to getting mail, I am like a big kid - I love getting mail! Especially when the mail comes in a box. J

When I opened the box, I found an awesomely cool, super soft t-shirt with the word, “Runalicious” on the front. On the back, it says, “I ran, It rained, I wore cotton”. So cute! Also in the box was a cool sugar scrub in a cute tin and some awesome coupons that I can’t wait to use. Amanda, I just have to tell you...on the weekends, I live in t-shirts and jeans. This shirt fits into my wardrobe perfectly!

I love, love, love my blogger exchange gift!

Thank you, so much Amanda for the great gift! And thank you, Jill, for organizing the gift exchange!

Weekly Re-Cap*

2011-12-26T09:18:00.012-06:00

Monday, 12/19 - Easy Run, 4 miles
Tuesday, 12/20 - Spin Class, 45 minutes
Wednesday, 12/21 - Tempo Run, 6 miles
Thursday, 12/22 - ~~Endurance Run, 5 miles~~ Rest (Coach's orders due to hip pain)
Friday, 12/23 - Rest Day
Saturday, 12/24 - 18 miles

* Eliminated swimming and biking workouts due to holiday craziness

The Good, The Bad and The Hideous

2011-12-23T11:26:00.001-06:00

Since I am "resting" my hip until my 18-miler on Saturday, I don't have workouts to ~~bore you with~~ blog about. So, I thought I would re-cap the year's races with some race photos.

Let's just say that these are "the best of the worst" race photos taken in 2011. Let me also add that I rarely feel that any of my race photos are purchase worthy. For some reason, I am totally and completely oblivious of the race photographer until the very last second and by then, they've already captured me. At my worst. Not that it matters, because even when I do see them and try to smile or give a thumbs up to the camera, I managed to look utterly ridiculous - I am slouching -or- I look as if I am walking -or- even worse, I look as if I'm standing still -or- my face is bright red. You get the idea.

So, here are some lovely race pics in all their glory...

In January at the Aramco Houston 1/2 Marathon. I enjoy running with my eyes closed, it adds to the challenge. And the way my hand is fisted up, I look like I am marching along singing, "Hi Ho, Hi Ho, it's off to jog I go..." It was warm and humid that day. Bad picture, but I did PR (barely).

This is from the Livestrong Austin 1/2 Marathon in February. It was warm, humid and hilly. The picture isn't horrendous, but I just love that my face is BRIGHT red. I am only smiling because I am at the finish.

This is at the CB&I Triathlon in May. I was super proud of my PR (especially on the 5k run), but my form needs serious help! Love the slouchy shoulders, the flappy left hand and the loveliness that is spandex. Don't you just love how spandex manages to show off every curve - especially the ones the shouldn't be there?

This is me at Bridgeland in August. It was HOT and my hair looks supa HAWT in it's Predator dreadlock look. Seriously, it's not long enough for a ponytail, but not short enough to stay tame...what's a girl to do?

This one was taken at the Ten for Texas in October. A my running peeps and I decided to get our 20-miler in on this day, so ran 10-miles before the 10-mile race. It was warm and humid. This is my attempt at looking cool for the picture. Next time, I won't even bother.

This is also from the Ten for Texas, but at the finish line. I do like that the photographer captured both my feet off the ground for the first time EVER, but the look on my face clearly says, "Get this shiznit over with already!" (and yes, my hand is flapping)

Ah yes, the NYC Marathon. Can we say hello Stevie Wonder!?!? I just called, to say, I love you.......Oh, and there's that flappy left hand again, not sure what's up with that. Maybe it's trying to play the piano?

And these aren't even my worst photos...these aren't from 2011, but I've noticed that some of the worst are pics are those taken when I am coming out of the water.

This is my 1st season of triathlons in 2009 and I just have that "Thank you baby Jesus, I can't believe I survived that swim! Geeze, it seemed so much longer than 300 yds! Hallelujah, I didn't die!" look on my face.

This is me coming out of the water at the 2010 Trigirl Sprint Triathlon. Again, I have a look of relief that I am still alive, but this time I closed my eyes. You know, to add to the challenge.

So that's it from me today, hope you had a chuckle or two at my expense. Have a wonderful Friday!!!

NYC (FINALLY)

2011-12-22T14:09:00.000-06:00

I have finally gotten around to re-capping each day of our trip to NYC. If you're interested, the posts are here:

Day 1 - The awesome Expo and Top of the Rock

The Swag - Because I know you wanna see it!

Day 3 (Since Day 2 was the marathon and you've already read about that!) - 9/11 Memorial and Brooklyn

Day 4 - Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, endless meanderings and the Guggenheim

Day 5 - Central Park

Peas in Pants

2011-12-22T11:22:00.001-06:00

As I mentioned in my previous post, Coach graciously removed the swim and bike workouts from my schedule this week. Yes, I feel like a slouch, but it’s so much better than being an over-stressed mess. And, I know I mentioned my uncertainty with the heart-rate training, but ultimately I’ve decided to trust the Coach.

I headed out on Monday’s 4-miler in the evening and stayed within my Zone 2 heart rate like a good girl. While I was running, I noticed that the upper part of my right leg felt kind of tight and stiff, but I just figured it was because 1) I was wearing my Brooks shoes and they may be getting up there in mileage, 2) Since it was nighttime, I was on the sidewalk which at times can be a little uneven and wonky (there’s more traffic at night than at stupid-thirty) and 3) I was trying to count my strides and get to ~22 per 15 seconds (I am still trying to get used to this and it doesn't quite feel comfortable yet). I only made it to ~3.5 of the 4 miles, because I could see lightening in the distance and it seemed to be getting closer. I noticed that my hip was sore not long after my run, but I dismissed it thinking it was just a flukey thing that would go away by the morning.

Tuesday was supposed to be a rest day, but it’s slow at work due to the holidays, so I snuck off to spin class during lunch. The hip was still bothering me, but it didn’t seem any worse after spin class.

Wednesday, I was up at stupid thirty for my 6-mile tempo run. Hooray for tempo runs!!!! I *heart* tempo runs! And, my friend Julie was meeting me for my final 3 miles, so that was nice. The hip felt sore at first, but once I got going, I just kind of forgot about it and focused on staying in my tempo pace race (9:59 – 10:15). But, once I made it home and started getting ready for work, the hip was feeling bad. I took an Aleve and went on about my day. Then, I had to run a little to catch the bus home…I think the Aleve had worn off, because I definitely felt the hip after that. After I made it home, I grabbed the bag of frozen peas and stuffed them into my sweat pants! Sometimes frozen peas are a girl’s best friend! And yes, the kids looked at me like I was crazy. Maybe I am.

Last night we had some crazy rain storms, complete with thunder and lightening. While I can often sleep through these storms, my kids cannot…and when the kids are awake, Mommy and Daddy are awake! When my alarm clock went off, I could still hear the rain and thunder, so no 7-miler for me. This is probably for the best, because the hip is still feeling sore and I am thinking I should rest it until Saturday’s 18-miler.

And, speaking of Saturday's 18-miler...everyone I usually run with (a/k/a the people who also run as slow as me) are running on Friday. I have to work on Friday, so I won't be able to run until Saturday. My original plan was to run 8 on my own on Saturday, then meet up with my running group peeps for their scheduled 10-miler. Now I am thinking that I might just run the 18 in my neighborhood. It's boring, but I know I can get it done! And, after 18-miles, I should be able to eat as much as I want during our Christmas Eve celebration with the Hubby's family!

How are your workouts going during the holidays so far? Are you going to try to get a workout in on Christmas Eve?

'Tis the Season!

2011-12-20T11:11:00.001-06:00

I don't know about you, but I love the holidays. I really do. However, it seems that as a Mom, who also happens to work outside the home, who also happens to be "in training", all the duties that come with the holidays just stress me the heck out!

I usually start the Christmas shopping in early November, sometimes earlier if I catch a good sale. However, this year has been different...with training for NYC, then the trip to NYC, immediately followed by the Kiddo's birthday party and then Thanksgiving, I fell waaaaaayyyyyyy behind! As I've mentioned over and over, I am a total type A and doing things last minute just drives me nuts. I have been thinking up a post about this for the past fews days when I ran across a post on this same topic at Mommy, Run Fast!.

Let's face it, when you have to choose between workouts or getting your family's Christmas presents purchased and wrapped, I would imagine that taking care of the family stuff will trump the workouts for most (if not all) of us. Hmmm, that long bike ride, or getting the Kiddo to Church early for choir practice for the Christmas Eve performance...yeah, the Kiddo wins. And add a late night out at a work holiday party the night before...ugh.

On Sunday, I found myself with way too much to do and not enough time to get it all done. I had presents to buy (that needed to be mailed asap), a photobook for the grandparents that needed to be created (in time to be shipped), gifts to wrap, laundry to fold, a house to clean (before the inlaws come to visit), I wanted to visit a friend who is in town for the holidays, get the Christmas cards in the mail and I needed to get in 1:15 on the bike. Things were going well - the hubby and I divided and conquered! He took care of the laundy while watching football and entertaining the kids and he wrapped a lot of presents. I managed to visit with the out of town friend for about an hour and pick up the gifts that needed to be mailed. Oh, and did I mention the kids had birthday parties to attend? The bike ride never happened and my house is still a mess, but we made progress, dammit! Finally, after the kids were tucked in bed (again, a divide and conquer effort), I tackled the photobook - I spent the next 4 hours on Shutterfly and was almost ready to order the book when Shutterfly asked me to log in again and then told me that it didn't recognize my e-mail address. FML. After a full day of rushing around, the photobook incident just about pushed me over the edge. I went to bed angry at stupid Shutterfly around midnight knowing damn well that I would NOT be waking up at stupid thirty to run my 4-miler.

And, in the midst of all this, I received an e-mail from Coach telling me that my she would be putting my Monday swim workout in Training Peaks. I responded with something about how I appreciated that, but that I was super stressed and not sure how I was going to get all my workouts in with all the holiday crap I had to do. Waaaah, waaaah, I'm sure that was not what Coach wanted to hear. But, to my amazement she gave me a "no worries" type of response. She was emphathetic and told me that she didn't want to add to the stress. Then, she said, "Let's just focus on the run this week. Let's leave the rest for after Christmas (next week)". It was that easy. I don't know what I expected, maybe a "Suck it up, we're all busy" type of response. I should know better. Coming from Coach, this made me realize that it's okay to take a little break. Not that we should do this all the time, but sometimes it just has to be done. I could have fit all the workouts in - heck, if they are on my training schedule, I will do everything I can to get'em done. (It's the type A thing.) But, the result would be a tired, worn out mess of a girl just in time for my 18 miler on Saturday. Not to mention that no one wants to be around a haggard, tired, grumpy Mommy on Christmas Eve and Christmas day!

So that's it...the Holidays should be a fun, enjoyable time of year, not a stressed out to the max crazed mess. So let's rearrange, relax and enjoy!

How are you doing with juggling the workouts with the holiday frenzy? Or, have you already gotten everything done and just chillaxin' right now?

Monday Re-Cap

2011-12-19T08:00:00.001-06:00

Here's a recap of all the workouts last week:

Monday, 12/12 - 1,900 yd swim w/active recovery
Tuesday, 12/13 - 1 hour endurance ride & 7 mile endurance run
Wednesday, 12/14 - 3 mile easy run
Thursday, 12/15 - 2,000 yd endurance swim & 6 mile marathon pace run
Friday, 12/16 - rest
Saturday, 12/17 - 12 mile long run
Sunday, 12/18 - 1~~:15 endurance ride~~ ~~rest~~ crazy, run around, do errands, make photobook day

Typrically, I wouldn't run 3 days in a row. I should have run Monday and adjusted the rest of the week in order to run my long run on Saturday (it was originally scheduled for Sunday).

All I want for Christmas...

2011-12-16T15:02:00.001-06:00

Oprah used to do the "My Favorite Things" episode every year. Well, this is my version...which also might help anyone who is looking for a gift for the runner in their life.

Holiday gift ideas...

Have a runner who always seems to look cute and sporty at the same time? They might like some of the goods at Ink n Burn. If skirts are their thing, check out Skirt Sports or Running Skirts.com. Cute headbands? Check out Sweaty Bands!

This is one of my favorites - the pink 2010 Run or Die shirt

Have a runner who likes to run at night or in the wee hours of the morning? Check out these fun stick-on reflective decals from Flashbrite.

See, I told you they were cute!

Not into reflective decals, but you want to something other than the traditional blinky light? How about a cool LCD arm-band from Nite Beams? They come in a variety of colors, too!

Naturally, I love the pink one!

While on the topic of safety-related items, how about a Road ID? Having one of these items is never a bad idea...just in case...

How about jewelry? These designs from Finish Line Charms will both show off your runner's accomplishments and help them keep their eye on the prize. These are great for triathletes, too!

I want one of these after my 70.3!

Does your runner have a great collection of medals, but have no place to put them? Why not help him/her show off their bling with one of the awesome medal hangers from Allied Metal Displays?

This is one of my favorites!

Okay, this is going to sound lame, but it makes a great stocking stuffer - gels or other nutrition. Let's face it, every endurance athlete will have to stock up on this stuff at some point...and it does add up! Why not find out their favorite product and buy some!

This is my personal favorite!

Another great stocking stuffer....socks! Really! I can't be the only one who finds that their dryer eats their expensive running socks on a regular basis. And these bad boys can really add up! But, we runners can be very particular about the socks we use, so be sure you've done your homework and know what works best for your runner!

My personal favorite - Feetures Light No Show

And finally, what runner wouldn't love a little shopping spree? Why not give a gift card? Back in the day, gift cards were thought to be impersonal and cold…now days, I don’t know anyone who doesn’t mind getting a gift card!

The perfect gift...especially when you're not sure what to buy!

What's on your Christmas list this year?

Ye of Little Faith!

2011-12-15T09:21:00.004-06:00

Yesterday's workouts went well. Actually, I did Tuesday's run (the EASY! 3-miler) and Thursday's swim...I had to rearrange a few workouts in order to make time for family stuff. Hey, whatever works, right?

First, I started the day with the easy 3-miler. Again, coach's instructions were to keep this at an "EASY!" pace and in zone 2. The result? 3 miles at an 11:52 pace with my average heart rate at 129. After work I went to the pool and did my 2,000 yd workout. As part of my warm up, Coach gave me 8x50 "your choice", which means I could do any stroke, kick, whatever. This was the perfect opportunity to try out my new toys! I used the new kickboard and pull buoy, but the best part was using the fins. Holy cow, I could propel across the pool at warp speed (or close to it) with the fins on! Fun times. Even with the new toys, I don't love swimming, but they certainly make things more interesting. And the workouts have been challenging, but fun. Last night, I actually had a few brief moments where I felt like my swim was starting to come together - I felt like I was actually propelling myself forward, instead of barely crawling down the lane. Again, brief moments. Very. Brief.

This morning I set out for my 6-miler. This time I was allowed to run at my "Marathon Pace". According to McMillan, marathon pace should be around a 10:59 minute/mile.

This is where my faith kind of falters...

I'll admit, I started this run slightly faster than my marathon pace, but it was a pace that was pretty easy to me a few weeks ago. And today that pace felt hard. Maybe it was because it was freaking warm outside (~70 degrees with 100% humidity), maybe it was because I was soooooo tired this morning and barely made it out of bed (must go to sleep earlier!), or maybe it was my lack of stellar nutrition the past couple of days (not horrible, but I had some sweets I wouldn't normally eat), but I felt slow and my legs felt heavy. Naturally, I also questioned whether it was because I've been running so dang slow lately. What if I forgot how to run faster? I was frustrated during this morning's run. I wanted to toss the heart rate monitor in the nearest trash can.

I know a lot of people who swear by heart rate training. I know you have to be patient with it. But, I couldn't help wondering if all this slow running was going to screw up my chances of having a good, strong race at the Houston Marathon. Then I had to remind myself that Houston is not my "A" race. I don't have to PR. Yep, I told myself this, but deep down it's hard not to try to do better. I want to finish knowing I did my best. And yes, despite what I keep telling myself, I do want a sub-5 (if the weather is just right and I feel good on race day!). I run because I enjoy it, but I have a hard time running a "race" just for the sake of finishing it regardless of my time. Part of what I also enjoy is the internal competition with myself.

I hear Coach's voice saying, "be patient" and "trust the process", but with only 1 month before Houston, it's hard not to just go back to what I was doing before. Patience is not my strength!

Have you or people you know had success with HR training? Do you really run "EASY" (aka a much, much slower pace) each week? Do you run slower to run faster -or- run faster to run faster? How competitive are you with yourself?

Haiku Humpday

2011-12-14T08:19:00.001-06:00

This Haiku comes from Stephanie over at at Running with Lumpy. Go check out her blog!

You are creative.
Wordless Wednesday makes me smile.
It's my lazy day.

Feel free to get creative and send me a haiku to post!

Vacation time to get away...or run errands

2011-12-13T20:24:00.003-06:00

Happy, happy, joy, joy! I used a vacation day today and that always makes me happy. What doesn’t make me happy is being given large window of time for a repairman to come (i.e. sometime between 8 am and 5 pm). Yes folks, don’t get too excited – this was not a “fun” vacation day, this was a “sit around the house waiting for the GE dude to show up” day. Part of me wanted him to take his time getting to my house – that would give me an excuse to sit around and relax (something I rarely do). I mean, the house was clean, the dishwasher empty, the laundry done…I really could just do nothing.

Right.

I am super sure I could have come up with 150 miscellaneous projects – for example, I still need to address Christmas cards, the Kiddo has a mountain of art projects that I need to go through, I could have organized the playroom, blogged, wrapped Christmas gifts, worked on our budget, etc. Unfortunately (and fortunately), I never had the time to be lazy or start a project, because GE dude was at my house by 9:30 am and I was out running a zillon errands before 10 am. Really, a zillon.

Here’s what I accomplished on my day off:

Kroger - What can I say? The only reason I stopped here was for the Starbucks. Bad news - the line was super long, not sure what was up with that! Good news - I had a a coupon for a free drink - yay me!

ACE Hardware – I needed stamps and they have a post office in there with an uber-friendly worker. Bad news – they were out of stamps. Good news – they have an awesome gift area and I found gifts for the Kiddo’s teachers. Bad news – I spent way too much time looking at all the goodies. Good news – hey, the teacher’s gift is done.

Alterations place – had to pick up 2 pairs of pants. One pair needed a new zipper and one (brand freaking new) pair was coming apart at the seam in the rear (not good). Good news – I made it in and out of the store quickly. Bad news – I realized this morning that they did not repair the seam in that one pair of pants…grrr!

Dry Cleaners – Not much to say about this. Bad news – this particular place is expensive. Good news – I had a coupon (yay me!) and they do a great job!

Wal-Mart – Had to take back a pair of cheapie sweat pants I bought for the Munchkin. They were perfect for leaving swim class on cooler days, but they were too small. Bad news – they were out of his size. Good news – I managed to get a number of other items I needed (but probably didn’t really need...maybe this falls into the bad category, too?)

Swim Shops of the Southwest – Oh my gosh! This was my 1st time visiting this place and it’s paradise for all things swim. Since I am actually using a coach and doing “real” swim workouts, I figured I needed to get my own swim gear and stop trying to borrow the Hubby’s stuff. (Sharing doesn’t work so well when we need to swim on the same days.) Good news – I walked out with fins, a kickboard, paddles, and a cool new TYR bag (LOVE IT!). Plus, I picked up my tri-team technical shirt and swim cap! I can’t wait for my next swim workout! Well, almost. Bad news – I spent way too much time and money on said swim gear, when I really only went there to pick up my team shirt/cap. Good news - I have some new toys and there is less and less for the Hubby to buy me for Christmas.

Isn't this bag AWESOME? I *heart* it!

THE MALL – I feel like those words should be followed with some really suspenseful music, “dum, dum, duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuum”. In my opinion, anyone braving THE MALL this close to Christmas is just plain crazy. And yes, that includes me. I am quite the list maker and knew exactly what I was going there to pick up – gift for one nephew, gift for sister-in-law, pick up bracelet being repaired (for me), find Christmas dress for Kiddo. Oh, and do not stop at the Great American Cookie Co. Good news – I accomplished everything except for one thing, I did not leave with a dress for the Kiddo. I decided I’d rather take her along and let her pick out what she really wants. Bad News – I have to go back to the mall with the kiddo.

Kohl’s – this was just a last minute stop to see if they had any cute holiday dresses in stock or if their holiday decorations were on sale. Good news – I didn’t buy a single thing. Bad news – I didn’t buy a single thing, because the lines were extremely long and I just wanted to get home.

Once I was home I hopped on the bike trainer for my 1 hour ride. I had rented a movie, Larry Crowne, just in case I was stuck at home all day waiting for the GE dude. So, I watched the movie while I rode the bike. Oh, and I forgot to mention…I still woke up pretty close to stupid thirty to get my 7-mile run out of the way. It was only supposed to be 3 miles (with my 7 miler was scheduled for tomorrow), but I decided to take advantage of not having to rush home to get ready for work and do the longer distance today.

So much for a relaxing day at home! Oh, and I still need to address Christmas cards, go through the Kiddo’s art projects, organize the playroom, wrap Christmas gifts, work on our budget, and buy stamps! Who am I kidding? I like to be on the go and constantly busy...maybe that's why I like training for races so much. Of course, a little break now and then is always nice.

Do you manage to find time to relax and take it easy? Or, do you feel like you are constantly on the go?

Weekend Randomness

2011-12-12T09:48:00.004-06:00

Getting Organized...
I know it’s not fun to have every minute of life planned out and to live by the calendar, but sometimes it’s what will keep the sanity in my house. Last week, we actually had some free time on Wednesday evening (no activities for the kids, no workouts to do), so we took advantage of it – after getting lunches and clothes ready for the next day, we had a family game night. And yes, I managed to get totally schooled in Candyland Bingo! After the kids were in bed, I commented that we needed to work on the Kiddo’s project the next night. I knew we’d have a busy weekend and it was due on Monday. Then, the Hubby reminded me that the project was actually due on Friday (as in the day after tomorrow), not Monday.

Doh!

I was annoyed; after all we just spent an hour playing games when we should have at least started the project. Grrrrr. Because of this (and this isn’t the 1st time I’ve managed to get dates confused), I decided that we needed to get organized. The hubby and I both missed our workouts on Thursday, so he could entertain the Munchkin while the Kiddo and I worked on her project. Shame on us for working on school projects at the last minute!

To help remedy this problem, I recently bought a cute calendar that gives you enough space to have a line for each member of the family for each day and space to write in activities for each person. It’s a 2012 calendar, so beginning in January the goal is to be uber-organized. So no, it isn’t fun to live and die by the calendar, but it does make things a lot less stressful because it’s easier to stay on top of things! We'll see how it goes.

Random Weekend Stuff - The run & the swim...
This weekend was a lot of fun. Friday we were supposed to go to a holiday party, but we had an appointment that ran late. By the time we made it home, we were just not feeling like getting all dressed up and heading back out. Plus, I knew I’d be waking up at stupid-thirty to run 16-miles, so no party for us! The kiddos were staying at their Grandparent’s house all weekend, so the hubby and I ran a couple of quick errands (like FINALLY picking up our Christmas cards) and grabbed a bite to eat.

Saturday my running peeps only had to run a 12-miler, so I started early enough to get in my extra 4 miles and then met up with them. It was a great run. Definitely warmer than the weatherman predicted (it was 48 rather than 38), but overcast and nice. No complaints at all during the run – at the advice of Coach, I worked on consuming more calories and tried Hammer Gel. The gels are definitely easier to carry than my Honey Stinger gels, but since I haven’t used gels in awhile, I started with the Honey Stinger chews and ended with a Hammer Gel. I tried the espresso flavor – normally, I like espresso, but maybe not in a gel! Next time, I think I’ll stick to the apple or raspberry flavors! Coach was right though, with more calories consumed, I didn’t feel like I wanted to eat an entire cow after my run and my recovery was great – very little stiffness or soreness.

After our run, I met up with some of my running BFFs for Starbucks and girl talk – It’s been too long since we’ve all gotten together on a Saturday and I’ve missed it! After my run and coffee, I headed to the gym to get in my missed swim from Thursday. I figured if nothing else, the cool water would feel great on my legs. And it did! I swam 1,800 in about 45 minutes. I’ll admit – after that, I could have eaten a cow, lol!

The shopping...
After both workouts and a shower, the hubby and I did some Christmas shopping for the kids. Oh my god, we had so much fun trying to figure out what to get (they want EVERYTHING!). And the crowds weren't horrible either. However, I will say one certain Target in our area needs to get their crap together - the shelves there were a mess!!! We still need to buy for some other family members…not sure when that’s gonna happen, though. We ended our outing with dinner at PF Changs. Yummy, yum, yum! The Hubs and I had every intention of watching the Kona coverage that night, but all that running, swimming and shopping wore me out (well, maybe that and the glass of wine I had at dinner)...I was ready to hit the hay by 9:30 pm. (LOSER!)

Everything else...
Sunday we had to get to church an hour early because the kiddo had choir practice for the Christmas Eve performance, so we had to get the kiddo from the Grandparents and get to church. And, we had a lot of other things to accomplish as well…so that meant no sleeping in! I woke up at 6 am to ride for an hour on the bike trainer and the Hubby had to head out for his 7-mile run. Luckily, we managed to get everything done through the course of the day, and we still had time for some football (GO TEXANS – AFC South Champs and playoff bound!!!!)

We ended our weekend with our tri-club’s holiday social. So much fun and too many margarita’s! Actually, I only had two and they were the smaller ones…I am a cheap date. Monday’s word for the day will be “HYDRATE”! ‘Tis the season!

Any tips on staying organized and keeping all the deadlines straight? How was your weekend? Holiday shopping? Holiday parties?

Brrrrrrrrrrr....part II

2011-12-08T08:19:00.003-06:00

Hard to believe it, but it was actually COLDER this morning!

It was 28 degrees and there was frost on the rooftops and cars. I headed out for my 5-mile TEMPO run a little after 4:00 am (yes, not stupid-thirty, just stupid). With my slower paces, I have been running late in the morning, which makes for a stressed out Runner Mom - running all over the house, hurrying everyone around, driving myself and the kids crazy, and well, that's just not fun. So I decided to lose a few minutes of precious sleep and get out there a little earlier.

My McMillan pace for a tempo run is supposed to be between 9:59 and 10:29...YIPEE, I was allowed to run faster than a 12-minute mile today! I started out too fast, which is easy to do when it's freezing outside, and then reigned it in a little and held steady around a 10:14/10:15-ish pace. I ran 2-miles and then met up with my fellow-insane-to-get-out-in-the-cold-this-early friend, Julie for another 3-miles. Julie is obviously ~~crazy~~ dedicated, because today is her birthday and she STILL got up early to run! In the cold!

Tonight, I brave the cold and head to the (indoor, heated) pool. For some reason, I have a major lack of motivation getting to the pool in general. But when it's cold, it's 100 times worse. And, when coach saw that I was finishing my 1,800 workout in around 45 minutes, she told me that was great and that I was ready to move to 2,500. Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :-) But hey, with all the upcoming holiday parties (meaning temptation to eat bad stuff), I gotta get the workouts in and stay focused.

Is it hard to maintain your focus this time of year? How do you stay motivated?

Haiku Humpday

2011-12-07T19:58:00.000-06:00

Feeling a little silly today during my slow run. I know a lot of people have "Wordless Wednesday" or "Thankful Thursday", which is cool. I decided to go a different route in an attempt to reach out to my creative side, so I've created "Haiku Humpday". Here's my 1st attempt (also created while running this morning)...

Filled with Glee today.
New running shoes make me smile.
Thank you Saucony.

Feel free to write and send your Haiku to me and it might just get posted next week! (Otherwise you might have to read more of my ~~drivel~~poems)

Brrrrrrrrrrr!

2011-12-07T10:51:00.005-06:00

It’s mighty cold here in Texas right now…well, cold for us anyway! Some of you folks up North will laugh at me when I tell you that it’s 30 here with a “feels like” temp of 25. But, this is cold for us, especially this early in the season! I’m not complaining, because it will soon be 100 degrees with 100% humidity. The Kiddo is super excited about these temps. She gets excited anytime she sees the temps in the 30s, because she wants it to snow. Unfortunately for her, there’s not precipitation in the forecast. :-(

I managed to make it to spin class yesterday. The class is only 45 minutes, but I had a 1 hour bike ride on the schedule, so I arrived a little early to get in some extra time. I do enjoy spin class, but sometimes it’s hard to break away from the work stuff to go.

This morning I put on my Nike capri’s, a short sleeve shirt, a long sleeve shirt and some gloves and headed out for a 6-miler. I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to get in the entire 6-miles at my new super duper slow pace, especially after my Garmin had to take forever to locate satellites (about 6 minutes…standing in the cold for 6 minutes is not fun!). I ran almost 2 miles before meeting up with my running peep, Julie. During my 1st 1.75 miles alone, I maintained a super-fast 11:47 pace and stayed in zone 2 with my HR. However, I really didn’t want to subject Julie to this super-slow pace, so we ran our normal pace for the next 3 miles. My super-genius self forgot to start my Garmin again, so I have no idea of our pace or my HR during that time. I remembered to turn the Garmin back on for my last 1.25 miles …it seemed to take awhile to get my HR back into zone 2, so that last bit was super slow. My overall pace for the 3 miles I did record was a super -fast 11:58 minute/mile. I know you’re envious of my speed.

After my run, I took a quick shower…I was running late and didn’t want to make the Hubby late, too. Normally, I would linger in the warm water and try to warm up a little more. When I got out of the shower, I realized that I was freezing! I put on my warmest fuzzy robe and just could not seem to warm up. That’s when I decided that I was going to get back under the warm, cozy blankets in an attempt to get warm. I stayed there for about 10 minutes and finally felt warm enough to carry on with my normal morning routine. Oh, and after all this hurrying around, I realized that the Hubby was taking a vacation day…doh! Not sure why it took so long to get warm…probably just because it was colder than normal outside, or maybe I need to add a lightweight jacket or a warmer long sleeve shirt. I dunno. Again, not complaining about the cold temps…just need to prepare a little better.

On another note, I went to the doctor yesterday to get my flu shot. I am happy to report that despite my 3 weeks of consuming food like a human vacuum after NYCM, I am still at my pre-NYCM, cleaner eating weight. Yay me!!!! The goal is to stay there through the holidays and then work on shedding the last few pounds between the January 1 and the 70.3.

So, how are you liking this winter weather? What's your normal running attire for these temps?

Yada, Yada

2011-12-06T09:54:00.007-06:00

The post-NYCM workouts are going pretty well, I guess. I will admit that my 14-miler on Sunday was tiring and I didn’t feel quite as energetic as some of my previous long runs. But it had been a pretty busy week and the weekend was filled with activities like a work holiday party on Friday and an evening with some friends on Saturday, so I have a feeling that may be partly to blame. I did enjoy getting to go for a ride with the Hubby over the weekend. The kiddos were at my parent's house, and we rarely have a chance to workout together! I had a 1 hour bike ride on my training schedule, so we headed to a local neighborhood for our ride. We even explored a few new roads along the way. And got lost.

Here's the Hubby checking our location on his iphone (a/k/a trying to get us un-lost).

Me, in my not so matchy pink and white helmet and lovely orange shirt (high visability is key on the bike!)

Luckily, on Monday I only had a swim on the schedule, so that meant I could sleep in! (If you call sleeping until 5:15 AM sleeping in.) I headed to the gym right after work. The Kiddo and Munchkin have swim lessons on Mondays and getting to their classes in time to see them swim for more than about 10 minutes is next to impossible, so I take advantage of this time to get my swim done. Last week, the heater in the pool at the gym was not working. It was pretty warm outside and the water in the pool wasn’t too cold, so I managed to get most of my workout done before the gym decided to close the pool for the day. This week, it was 40-something degrees outside, so I decided that if the heater was still broken, I was not swimming! The heater was working, so that meant I had to swim. I am enjoying following new workouts from Coach. Having various sets to do always manages to break things up and make swimming not seem so boring. (Yes, I find swimming boring.)

This morning I ran my scheduled 3-miler (EASY!). Coach would be proud - my heart rate was right where it was supposed to be in Zone 2, which gave me a 11:57 pace…be jealous of my lightning-fast pace! :-) This running slower stuff is awkward, but it is getting easier. Sort of, in the awesome cooler temps we're experiencing right now, running this slow can be more difficult than running faster. I am thrilled that I have a tempo run on the schedule for Thursday…finally!

Huge kudos to everyone who ran the LaPorte Half Marathon, Rock and Roll Vegas and Dallas White Rock over the weekend! And a HUGE shout out to my fellow wine-drinking-runner-mom, Shae, on her BQ in Vegas! I was hoping she’d see Kate Gosselin and accidentally-on-purpose trip her, but Shae was much speedier than Kate and left her in the dust!

How was your weekend? Any races or holiday parties???

Quickie Re-Cap

2011-12-04T11:30:00.002-06:00

I am going to start re-capping the previous week's workout each Monday. So here ya go...

Monday, 11/28 - Easy Run (Zone 2, 3 miles)and Swim (1,400 yds)
Tuesday, 11/29 - Endurance Ride (45-minutes)
Wednesday, 11/30 - Endurance Run (Zone 2, 6 miles)
Thursday, 12/1 - Swim (1,900 yds)
Friday, 12/2 - Run (marathon pace, 5 miles)
Saturday, 12/3 - Endurance Bike (1 hour)
Sunday, 12/4 - Long Run (14 miles)

Justification

2011-12-02T12:23:00.003-06:00

I mentioned a few days ago that I met with Coach for the 1st time last weekend. After looking at my athlete questionnaire, she said, “You’ve been running for 10 years?” to which I responded with a “Yes”. She told me that technically, I really should be faster by now and that there’s no reason why I couldn’t get under a 4 hour marathon (rather than a sub-5).

I’ll admit that at first, I was taken aback by this. I was a little offended. Hey, I worked hard for my 23-minute PR in NYC! But then I had to remember, Coach was a competitive athlete growing up. She didn’t compete in running, but since starting running and triathlons she has quickly improved and gone from sprint distance races to Ironman distance races in the course of a few short years. She started this sport and was competitive from day 1. And she is kicking butt!

I, on the other hand, was not like that. At all. I felt that I needed to justify exactly why I was so friggin slow…this may take awhile.

My Humble Beginnings…
I began running in the summer of 2001. I had recently lost 32+ lbs using Weight Watchers, power walking, cardio kickboxing and Tae-Bo. However, I had this goal of actually running an ENTIRE 5K before my 30th birthday the following year. I had a treadmill at home and I worked toward that 5k goal and achieved it. Before I knew it, I was running 4, then 5 miles. By October of that year, I was running about 6 miles pretty easily and my BFF who was training for the Houston Marathon suggested that I train for the inaugural Houston Half Marathon. I found the Hal Higdon training plan on-line and trained mostly on my treadmill. My longest run before the race was 9 miles. I was completely and utterly clueless – I wore Nikes purchased at the outlet mall for about $39, I had on cotton socks, cotton shirt and cotton sports bra, I had no idea what Gu was and had no clue about hydration. But, I ran the 2002 Houston ½ Marathon and had a great time doing it. Before I knew it, it was summer of 2002 and I decided to join my BFF’s running group (Houston Fit) and train for the 2003 Houston Marathon with her. Never mind that had I run very little since finishing the ½ in January!

My 1st Marathon…
I thoroughly enjoyed Houston Fit, its coaches and all the friends I made there. But, I will admit, I never attended track workouts or hill workouts and probably skipped a weekday more often than I should have. We practiced the Galloway method of running 5 minutes and walking 1 minute. For me, it was about continuing to keep the weight off and fitness. And, I was a social runner. My friends and I chit-chatted during our long runs, never pushing the pace and taking extra walk breaks toward the end of most of our long runs. And, my BFF had an injury and ended up dropping out of the training. My first marathon time was 5:21:17 and some change. Not bad considering I had started out too fast, had some ITB issues and was borderline hypronatremic. I cursed through those last 5 miles, swearing I’d never do this again. But, the minute I had the medal around my neck I was already saying, “Next time, I am going to do…” and “Next time, I will be careful to…”.

My 1st NYC (and 2nd Marathon)…
On a whim, my BFF and I signed up for the NYC Marathon lotto. And we both got in. Again, we started training after not running much during the off season. Our 1st group training run was 8 miles, the BFF and I were not ready for that at all, so we came up with an excuse why we could only run 4 miles that day. Again, we were both pretty clueless – we now knew about hydration, Gu, etc., but a few weeks before the NYCM, one of the coaches asked us if we were ready for the hills in NYC. We looked at each other and then asked, “WHAT HILLS?”. We successfully finished NYC, hills and all, but we were extremely slow. The BFF was still nursing an injury, so we were stopping every few miles for her to stretch. Finally, at mile 22 after using the restroom at Marcus Garvey Park, I told the BFF that I couldn’t stop anymore. I needed to be done with this freaking race and I went ahead. My finish time was a depressing 6:02…but, until this year’s NYC marathon, I will say that this was the most fun I’ve ever had in a marathon!

My Dumb Decision…
My next marathon was a result of a very poor decision. I had decided after NYC that I would take a break and run the ½ marathon in Houston in January…and that’s what I trained for. But, my BFF was running the full and talked me into running the full with her. I changed from the ½ to the full the day before the race (you could do that in those days). Yeah, dumb. We had fun until about mile 16. After that, I think we both walked more than we ran. My finish time was 5:51:51. Seriously, we could see the police cars with flashing lights in the distance behind us. I vowed to never do another marathon without proper training again! (I also vowed to always continue running in the off season!)

My Trifecta Year (2006)…
A few months later, I was still running and I found out I was pregnant with the Kiddo. She was born in November and 4 weeks later I began the power walking/jogging again. I went and cheered for my friends who were running the 2005 Houston Marathon and Half Marathon in January and was envious. I knew I wanted to get back out there! That summer, I joined Houston Fit once more (without the BFF this time) and found a group of fun girls to run with who also attended track and hill workouts. For the 1st time, I started track and hill work and I loved it! But, about a week before our 25k, I had a bad case of achilles tendonitis and didn’t resume the hill/speedwork for the final 2 months of training.

I’ll be honest, running after having a baby was the hardest thing I’ve done. Those long runs in the summer were harder than I remembered and I felt like I was moving at a snail’s pace. I focused on regaining my fitness level and trying to build up my base mileage again. I did quite a few local 5k and 10k distance races during this time as well to work on my pace. I finished the 2006 Houston Marathon in 5:40:43. I was disappointed in my time. I knew I could do better, but I started out much too slow and could just never make up the time later.

I decided to run the Austin Marathon one month later and did a little better at 5:31:44, despite the delay at the start due to sleet and ice on the roads. But still, I knew I was capable of doing better. I signed up for the Chicago Marathon. Ugh, I had forgotten how brutal training for a Fall marathon could be when you train in Houston. The summer heat kicked my arse! To top things off, I had to work around the Hubby’s work schedule and ended up running at least a portion of my long runs alone. And, as if there wasn’t enough on my plate, I started grad school in August (2 months before Chicago). My training was less than stellar from that point forward. But, I did get a PR in Chicago. Barely. 5:20:56. And, I decided to sideline any marathon training until after grad school.

Baby #2…
During grad school, I kept running, although it was more for fitness and stress relief (juggling school, work and a family was tough!). I ran the Houston ½ Marathon in 2007 (2:27:21) and started doing some speed work again to see if I could improve my times. Then, I found out during the summer that I was pregnant with the Munchkin. So, no more races for me. In early 2008, I was finishing my final 2 semesters of grad school, updating our current house to sell, buying a new home, moving, and working full time. Ugh, it was a lot to juggle.

Once the Munchkin was born, I was ready to work off the baby weight again! In the summer of 2008, I joined Woodlands Fit (we had moved to the ‘burbs). I didn’t get to run with them until I finished grad school in August, but once I did, I immediately became friends with an awesome group of women. We decided to run the inaugural Rock & Roll San Antonio ½ Marathon and have a fun girl’s weekend…I knew I was far from being ready, so I decided to treat this as a training run (one with a medal at the end!). My time was my slowest yet – 2:43. Again, I had to build that base mileage and endurance up again and it was hard. Again. My next race was the 2009 Houston ½ in January, which just happened to fall on my birthday – I ran it in 2:31:38 and I felt I had given it my best. In April of 2009, I ran a very hilly Zooma Austin, but was still slower than I’d like – 2:38.

The fire ignites…
The next year, 2009, was when something in me really changed – I wanted to do better. The hubby was working on the weekends, so I couldn’t join a training group. I trained on my own for my next races and I was determined to improve. Finally.

I stayed focus and followed a training plan. I ran more miles and actually did speed work. My 2009 Houston ½ Marathon time improved – 2:19:54! I was stoked! Then, something else changed. I learned to swim (sort of) and did my 1st triathlon. Something about triathlons added more fuel to the fire…I wanted to do even better. And that’s where I started actually caring about my times. I worked harder and ran more mileage. My next races improved more – 2010 Zooma (2:24:50), 2011 Houston ½ Marathon (2:16:20) and of course, NYCM (4:57:52).

Don’t get me wrong, the underlying reason for my running and triathlon-ing remains the same - for fitness, weight control, stress relief and fun. But, now I want to constantly see how much I can improve. And I don't think I'll ever go back to that complacent attitude again. I know I am not a natural-born athlete and I may never qualify for Boston (nor do I really want to) or end up on a podium, but I want to know – what is my potential? As a runner? As a swimmer? As a cyclist?

I think Coach can help me find out.

Spin and a Sssllloooooooooowww Run

2011-11-30T10:41:00.004-06:00

Monday night I had to dust off my bike trainer for my Tuesday morning ride. I had considered going to spin class during lunch on Tuesday, but I had a meeting scheduled during the class time. So, I had to resort to the trainer. While I don’t think I could do more than an hour on the trainer, overall it’s not too bad. Honestly, it’s the only time I have to sit and watch the news uninterrupted. The trainer is a little noisy and I don’t want to wake up the rest of the house, so I turn on the closed caption and spin away! 45 minutes on the schedule in Zone 2 with my cadence at 85+…unfortunately, I just ordered the cadence sensor for my bike and I still hadn’t figured out the whole heart-rate monitor thingy, so I had no idea of my zone or cadence. Ugh!

Lucky for me, the Hubby helped me figure out the HR monitor before my run this morning. (Yes, I realize it's not exactly rocket science!) I was hoping my Wfit peep, Julie, would be meeting me for at least a portion of the scheduled 6 miles….but, she couldn’t make it, so it was just me and the roads. (That and several rabbits, stars, the newspaper dude and a few other crazy early-morning runners.) This was another “easy” run, or as Coach typed into Training Peaks, “EASY!” run. My heart rate was supposed to be in Zone 2 (126-146) and I was supposed to maintain my easy pace per McMillan (11:29 – 11:59). For some reason, I have no problem running slower in a marathon, but I have been running my shorter runs much faster for the past couple of years. Part of that “to run faster, you have to run faster” mentality, I guess. Yes, I had easier days, but those runs were rarely over an 11 minute/mile pace (unless it was 100+ degrees outside with 100% humidity)and usually in the low 10s or maybe even the high 9s. Yes, I know you have to also run slower to get faster, but this is sooooo new to me – forcing myself to go slower than slow – and it’s hard. I had to take a couple of walk breaks to get my heart rate down and to slow my pace a bit. Overall, I never got under an average 153 HR or an average 11:28 pace. I guess I need to keep working on this. Can I just say that I am sooooo, soooo happy to have a Tempo run on my schedule next week? It's the little things!

I am soooo looking forward to getting my cadence sensor for my bike! Also, this weekend I am going to buy fins, a kickboard and some paddles – yay me! Next up, I am finally going to get a new saddle for the bike. I am still using the factory saddle and it’s time to upgrade to something more comfy! Yes, this is exactly why I am never at the mall buying trendy, cute new work clothes – all my extra $ goes toward miscellaneous tri stuff. :-)

Do you follow the suggested paces from McMillan? Do you train using your HR? How slow are your "easy" runs? Or, do you use other methods for training?

Shiznit

2011-11-29T12:52:00.003-06:00

I tell ya, yesterday was my 1st "2-a-day" in months and to be honest, I just didn’t have my shiznit together. Like the “about me” on this blog says, sometimes I can juggle everything well and some days not-so-much. Yesterday was a not-so-much day.

First, I went to bed much later than I should have on Sunday night. Here's the deal - in order for me to wake up and workout at stupid-thirty, I typically have to go to bed at grandma-thirty (a/k/a 9 or 9:30). Sometimes I can survive with less sleep, but after a hectic long weekend, I think I just needed the rest. So, for the first time in a long time, I went back to sleep and didn’t run at all in the morning. Instead, I packed a 2nd bag with my running clothes to take with me to work (I already had a bag packed for the pool). One awesome thing about where I work is that we have an on-site fitness center. And, that fitness center not only has several treadmills, but it also has a pretty nice indoor track. I decided to run my easy 3-miler on the indoor track. Trust me when I say that I’d rather run outdoors, but I don’t have time to shampoo and re-do my hair afterwards and I don’t want my co-workers to smell me from 3 offices away because I ran outside and didn’t shampoo.

So here’s where I didn’t have my shiznit together – running on the treadmill and indoor track can be really boring.

I forgot my ipod.

When I run outdoors, I'm kind of a zen runner – I love the sound silence (well, that and my footsteps and my gasping for air) and don’t want the distraction of music. But indoors, give me music! Also, Coach said that I needed to follow the pace listed on my McMillan pace calculator for an easy run (11:29 – 11:59) and keep my heart rate in zone 2 (126-148). I have never done any heart rate training, so I don’t really know how to use my Garmin heart rate monitor. As a result, I couldn’t get the damn thing to work. So, I just tried to focus on my pace. Running at an 11:29 – 11:59 pace in a 3-mile run is hard. My 1st mile was somewhere around 10:30 and I thought I was practically walking. So, I slowed it down. The next mile was around 11:00. So, I slowed it down more. My final mile was more like 11:22…better. Coach says to trust the process, so I will go with it.

After work, I headed to the pool where I realized many things:

I left my brush at the gym, so I would have to leave the gym with crazy matted hair.

I forgot my watch, so I can’t let Coach know my 50 and 100 yd times.

I left my pull buoy in the car and ~~was too lazy~~ it was too cold to go get it.

I forgot to write down/print out my workout earlier in the day to bring with me to the pool.

And to top it off, I still need to buy fins and it was cold outside (never mind that I swim in an indoor, heated pool). I actually considered just going home. But then I realized that I wouldn’t have a workout to enter into Training Peaks and Coach would know that I blew off a workout ON MY FIRST OFFICIAL DAY OF TRAINING! I decided that I could live without the brush, the watch and the pull buoy, but I could not live with the fact that I was a loser who couldn’t make herself go to the pool. So, the Hubby sent me my workout via cell phone (justification for why I need to upgrade to an iPhone!!!) and I did my workout the best I could. And, I actually enjoyed it! 1,400 yds done!

Moral of the story? We can’t have our shiznit together every minute of every day and it’s no big deal. Really, it’s okay. But, we can decide that little setbacks aren’t going to stop us from getting things done…afterall, no one else is going to hold us accountable, right?

Also, check out the latest post from Run Bike Mom’s blog – I loved it and just had to share!

No Rest for the Weary...

2011-11-27T22:43:00.001-06:00

Almost as soon as I made my decision to do both the Houston Marathon and the Texas 70.3, Coach sent me a link to my training schedule. Yikes, my 3 weeks of rest and just random running was over! Sunday the training was starting for real! But first, we had Thanksgiving weekend to get through.

Thanksgiving weekend went a little like this...

Wednesday - I had the day off from work. I still woke up at stupid thirty to run 5 miles, then showered and went back to bed until the kids woke up. They're early risers, so the nap was only about 15 minutes long! Next, I made the kiddos pancakes (and an omlet for me) and we hung out in our PJs for awhile. Then, it was time to see the new Muppets movie...I have never liked the Muppets and after seeing this movine, I still don't. But, the kids LOVED the movie and that's what matters, right? Next, we stopped at McDonald's for lunch. The weather was gorgeous, so I suggested that we take our lunches to a nearby playground....what did the kids want? To play in the germ-infested thing that is called "McDonald's Play Land". Ugh. After lunch, we headed home, packed our suitcase and headed downtown to a hotel for the night. This is our Thanksgiving tradition...stay downtown and wake-up to watch the HEB Holiday Parade. And, the tradition is not complete without a stop at our favorite local Pizza eatery!

Here's the Munckin checking out the pepperoni (sorry, my cell phone camera is crap!)

Here's the Kiddo enjoying a hot slice of cheese pizza, yum!

Thursday - As I mentioned before, the kids are early risers, so we were at breakfast by 7 am. Next, we headed outside to watch the parade. In years past, the weather has been downright cold, so we've watched from the 2nd story window of the hotel...this year, it was in the mid-50's so we decided to watch the parade outside. The kiddos loved every minute!

Bring on the floats and bands, already!!! The kids waiting for the parade to start.

Next, we headed home so I could make my infamous sweet potato dish before heading to my parent's house for Thansgiving lunch. And, it was also the Kiddo's actual birthday, so we had a small cake and some gifts for her. I didn't do too bad with the meal, but still felt pretty stuffed afterward. Later that night, the hubby and I folded laundry while watching the A&M/UT game...pretty exciting, I know!

The Kiddo and her cake...don't worry, she had a much bigger one at her birthday party last weekend. And, check out the Munchkin, he has the "no I didn't just swipe some icing" look!

Here is the kiddo with one of her birthday gifts...it was a very Bieber birthday, sigh.

Friday - After a quick 3-miler, we packed our bags and headed to the in-law's house in San Marcos (about 3 hours from Houston). We arrived, ate lunch and did some visiting before heading to the outlet mall. I scored some new Saucony shoes and a couple of cute outfits for work, the Hubby scored some Under Armor shirts. And yes, we did actually buy a holiday gift or two.

Saturday - Still at the inlaws, it was a super lazy morning. We hung out, played games with the kids and watched movies all morning. After having a late lunch with the in-laws, we headed back to Houston.

Sunday - Let the training begin! I started the morning with a 12-miler. The temps were much, much cooler (around 40, but a "feels like" temp of 33 thanks to the wind!). I wasn't sure what to wear for this weather, but eventually decided on a pair of Nike capris, my long sleeve "Ten for Texas" shirt and some knit gloves. Turns out that it was the perfect outfit. About the time I would start to get warm and push up the long sleeves, I would turn the corner and be blasted by the cold winds and be thankful for the long sleeves. Overall, it was a great run. Later that day, the hubby and I started the task of decorating the house for Christmas. We're almost done....but not quite.

So tomorrow is my first "2-a-day" workout of the 70.3 training - 3 miles easy, 1400 yd swim. Let the fun begin!!!

So, how was your Thanksgiving???? Gobble, Gobble!

The Crazy Train has arrived...

2011-11-22T16:31:00.003-06:00

and I just jumped on!

I may soooo regret this if it's 78 degrees with 100% humidity on race day!

So tell me your crazy adventures in running, triathlons, etc.

Randomness

2011-11-22T09:24:00.005-06:00

This post is filled with lots of random stuff…

The Decision:
I have made my decision and informed the Coach – I am going to run the Houston Marathon and do the Texas 70.3. Going back and forth trying to make the decision was painful. Once the decision was made, I was happy as a clam again. So…things are going to get very busy between now and April 1, but that’s okay. I am ready for the ~~craziness~~ challenge!

The Workouts:
Here’s what I’ve been up to since NYC (because I have to keep track – I am OCD about that):

Saturday, 11/12 – 6 miles – 11 min pace
This was my 1st run since NYC and it was a slow, painful run. I felt like someone beat me up, or at least my legs. Everything was a bit sore and creaky – my left hip felt weird, my right IT band was achey and I just felt all blah. Guess that’s to be expected, right?

Sunday, 11/13 - 30 minute Bike
Just easing back into the biking and loosening up the legs.

Monday. 11/14 – 3 miles – 10:45 pace
Just keepin’ things slow and easy. Felt better than Saturday’s run.

Wednesday, 11/16 – 4 miles, 10:20 pace
Legs feeling better and I met up with runner peep, Julie for 3 of the 4 miles.

Thursday, 11/17 – 3 miles, 9:57 pace
That’s more like it. Cooler temps helped a lot too!

Saturday, 11/19 -10 miles, 10:50 pace
Warm, muggy and just plain nasty running weather. The 10 felt pretty good otherwise, but slow.

Sunday, 11/20 - Bike, 1 hour (15 mph)
It felt great to be back out on the bike. I forgot how much I enjoy biking. However, it's been awhile and that was very apparent in my endurance level!

Monday, 11/21 - Easy run, 3 miles
Taking the advice from Coach, I ran this 3-miler super easy. At least I think it was, I forgot to charge my Garmin so I have no idea of the pace. Very warm, very muggy - yuck!

Tuesday, 11/21 - Easy run, 2.25 miles, 10:40 pace
Almost as soon as I started running, it went from light drizzle to actual rain drops. Luckily, it eased up pretty quickly, but would continue to alternate between drizzle and actual rain the entire time. I was carrying my cell phone and worried that it would get too wet, so I cut this run a bit short.

The Food Challenges:
I typically fall off the healthy eating wagon for a week after a race. In this case, it’s been over 2 weeks and I am still not back to it. Ugh, we made a dessert when my parents came over for dinner recently, then the Kiddo’s birthday party was on Saturday and we had a lot of leftover cupcakes, and now Thanksgiving! Ack! And, it doesn’t help when I come to work ready to eat my Greek yogurt and fruit and a co-worker says, “I brought you a muffin” or “I brought us some breakfast tacos”. Ugh, damn you co-workers for being thoughtful and nice! And, my kiddo’s birthday actually falls on Thanksgiving, so on top of all the other bad stuff on Thursday, there is also going to be more CAKE! I may need an intervention next week..you know, someone to get in my face and tell me to back away from the crap food. Either that or a serious detox.

The Anniversary:
I just want to say Happy 14th Anniversary to my awesome, amazing Hubby! He is a great hubby and a wonderful father. He puts up with my type-A personality and my triathlon/running obsession and should get a medal just for that alone. He’s the best!

Decisions, Decisions

2011-11-21T11:47:00.009-06:00

When it comes to personal decisions, I have to admit that I am the most indecisive person EVER. So right now, I have a choice to make and I can’t decide what I want to do! Yesterday, I met with an awesome tri coach from a local triathlon training group to discuss my racing goals for 2012 and she gave me very good food for thought.

As you might know from this blog, I really wanted to do the Texas 70.3 (formerly known as Lone Star) in Galveston in April of this year, but with the new job and busy season that coincided at the same time as the peak training season, it just didn’t happen. I felt guilty trying to work late, then go to the gym only to arrive home after the kiddos were already in bed. Then, add a few out-of-town work trips in there and I missed some key workouts. But hey, work pays for triathlons. It comes much higher on the priority list than these races!

Here’s the deal – I came out of my abbreviated version of tri season on a high. I had 2 somewhat solid races (it would have been more if I had not broken my freaking toe), and I ended the season with my 1st non-panicked open water swim in a race. I immediately decided that, dammit, 2012 was going to be my year! I was doing the 2012 Texas 70.3! I would find a way, make a way to do this.

Flash forward 3 months later…it’s been awhile since that final triathlon and that high has dwindled a bit. Now, I am on a high from the NYC Marathon. I am all signed up for the Aramaco Houston Half Marathon on January 15, but I’ll admit that I’d been toying with the idea of switching to the full for a couple of months now. Heck, I’m trained up for it, so why not? Then, I saw the medals for this year’s race…

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the big 4-0! I still have the commemorative timing chip from the race’s 35th anniversary –and- my 40th birthday is 3 days after the race, so why wouldn’t I want that big, honkin’, blinging 4-0 medal??? Plus, why not try to prove to myself that I can run a sub-5 hour race again??? I decided that I was in! I also decided to do the RunGirl ½ marathon with my triathlon peep, Kelly, on December 11. It would be more of 1/2 for fun...obviously right after NYC, I wasn't going to be outright "racing" it.

Then, Coach brought me back to reality.

First of all, the Texas 70.3 is on April 1st (it gets earlier and earlier every year). Before NYC, this was going to be my 2012 “A” race. Let’s say I do run the Houston Marathon on January 15…since I am currently in “recovery mode” from NYC, coach does not recommend any speed training between now and Houston. In fact, she recommended not running more than a 17 miler between now and then. Then, I’d need a few weeks of recovery AFTER Houston (i.e. still running, but not “pushing it”)…that puts me into February with no real hardcore training for a ½ marathon distance race (i.e. speedwork). Let’s face it, training for a full and training for a ½ are very different. My paces for my 10 and 12 mile training runs are significantly slower this year (10:50 – 11:15) than the paces I was running these same distances at this time last year (10:10 – 10:20). Oh, and let’s not forget that I am supposed to be swimming and biking. Ideally, Coach’s strategy for running between now and the 70.3 would be to work on shorter distances and work on increasing my speed.

So what do I do???

Choice #1 - do I start training for Texas 70.3 effective December 1, but skip the RunGirl ½ and only do the Houston ½ Marathon (and more than likely not PR again this year, since I haven’t been training for a ½)? But, I would do the Woodlands ½ in March before the taper begins. Honestly, the thought of the 70.3 race scares the HELL out of me. Mostly because of that 1.2 mile swim. And my swim sucks. But, that’s part of the reason I WANT to do this race. If you would have asked me 3 years ago, I would have said that I was completely incapable of completing this distance. Well that, and that I was not crazy enough to do it.

Choice #2 – Do I wait to do the 70.3 next year, when my job situation will be completely different and just run my arse of this year? Do Houston, maybe do RunGirl, do the Texas Indepedence Relay? A co-worker asked me if I was joining the company team for the MS-150 (apparently the company support is awesome)..that would be fun. And, maybe just work on my swim another year and go for an Oly?

Choice #3 – Just do Houston and do the 70, and suck it up that my 70.3 may not the best race I am capable of. My feeling here is that the 70.3 is a big goal, and completing another marathon isn’t exactly easy…whatever I do, I want to do it well. I don’t anticipate doing another 70.3. EVER. Of course, I said that about marathons, too.

Here's my list of pros and cons...yes, I am THAT type A, lol! (Feel free to click on it to view the full-sized version)

So, how are you when it comes to making these decisions? Do you just make the desicion in a flash, or do you over analyze like me?

NYC - Day 5

2011-11-20T13:51:00.001-06:00

I was so sad to reach the final day of our trip, but I was also excited about seeing the kids!

One of the things we didn’t get to see that was on my list was Highline Park. We thought this might be a good thing to check out in the morning before our flight. However, we decided to save it for the next trip and head to Central Park. Joseph had never seen the “Imagine” mosaic in Strawberry Fields, and well, Central Park just seemed like a very NYC thing to do. Originally, I wanted to squeeze in a run through Central Park before we left, but to be honest, Central Park is kinda hilly and my quads weren’t quite up to that yet. So we walked. And walked. And walked. The Hubby was getting a little grumpy and wanted some coffee, so thanks to his Starbucks iphone app, we found the nearest location and headed over.

Here's my favorite picture from Central Park

A view of The Dakota apartments where John Lennon lived. Yes, I am a Beatles fan!

Imagine...Love this!

Next, it was time to head back to the apartment, gather our luggage and go to the airport. But, I had one more thing to do - the day before, we realized that we had access to the roof of our apartment building. I wanted to see the view up there before we left.

One of the views from the roof of our apartment building

Before heading to LaGuardia, we stopped at the corner pizza shop again for one last slice of NY-style pizza (complete with a paper plate) . Ah, our trip to the Big Apple had come full circle back to where our trip had first begun. I love NYC – I love the noise, the massive amounts of people, the history, the food – I love it all. Once again NYC was a great host and we had an amazing time. We’ll be back…maybe not for the marathon, but WE WILL BE BACK!

The NYC Swag

2011-11-19T23:59:00.000-06:00

I just had to post this...

This is the swag from the Expo...pretty good, huh?

And the finisher's swag! (I bought the shirt, it's not a freebie)

And, the BLING!

NYC - Day 4

2011-11-19T13:47:00.000-06:00

The Sister in law and brother in law were leaving this morning. :-( The hubby and I had tickets to see The Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island…very touristy outings, but hey, we’re tourists, right? Besides, neither of us had seen either up close.

Yes, I am acting like a tourist and taking pictures on the subway.

Starbucks in hand...that's how I roll.

I have to say, I am so happy we decided to see both – I loved learning all about what went into building the Statue of Liberty and the fundraising campaign that went into the US being able to build the base for Lady Liberty. Plus, the views of Manhattan were amazing from this vantage point, too. Ellis Island was incredibly interesting. I can’t even begin to imagine what it would have been like to come to the US from another country, not knowing the language and in some cases, not knowing anyone here. The stories about families being reunited (or in some cases not, due to health issues) were touching.

I think this is my favorite picture of the Statue of Liberty..I can certainly see why she's called "Liberty Enlightening the World".

I was amazed at how beautiful the building on Ellis Island was.

After our tours, we decided to walk around a bit and visit TriBeCa and some other areas. We couldn’t decide if we wanted to try to catch a show that evening or check out one of the museums. In the couple of times I’ve been to NYC, I’ve never been to any of the museums. We decided to wander around a little more, grab some lunch and then check out the Guggenheim. The Gugg is a smaller than say, the Museum of Natural History, so we figured it be a good one to see by the time we ate lunch and check out some other places, it would be getting late. We ate lunch at a place in SoHo called Divas. I was also on a mission to find at least one of the cupcakes places on my list, so we headed to the West Village and went to Sweet Revenge. At the recommendation of the not so friendly girl at the counter, I chose a Pumpkin Spice cupcake. It was divine! Sweet Revenge is on a slightly edgier street and the location used to be a record shop (you know, as in vinyl). And, we happened upon Molly’s cupcakes right around the corner, so naturally, we had to stop there as well. Molly’s was a super cute shop, with super cute cupcakes in a wide array of flavors, so I chose a mini-Kaluha cupcake and the Ron-Bennington. Both were yummy, but I still think Sweet Revenge had the better cupcake – moist cake, delicious icing and just amazing flavor on both. Yum!

This is "The Sphere". It was once sitting between the Twin Towers, but after the 9/11 attacks it was salvaged and now sits in Battery Park.

This is Occupy Wall Street. It's not as big as it looks on TV. I will say nothing else on this topic.

Strolling around TriBeCa..too bad we didn't run into Bobby DeNiro!

Heavenly cupcakes from Sweet Revenge in the West Village!

After getting our cupcakes, we headed back to the apartment to drop them off and headed to the Guggenheim. I’ll admit, I wanted to go to the Gugg just as much for the architecture as I did for the art. I enjoyed seeing the Kandinsky exhibit and the Pop Objects and Icons exhibit, but the Maurizio Cattelan exhibit was just a bit odd for my taste. Once we finished at the Gugg, we headed back to the apartment to freshen up for dinner…and hold onto your hats, we had MEXICAN for dinner. We swore we’d never eat Mexican food or Barbeque in NYC. (If you’re from Texas, you understand.) But we went between steak and Mexican and somehow, Mexican won…maybe it was the reviewer’s promise of a great margarita? Dinner was not quite Tex-Mex like we’re used to, but it was really good. And the margarita’s…well, they were delicious! It was the perfect way to end the day. Well that, and a little more shopping for the kiddos.

The Guggenheim

NYC - Day 3

2011-11-18T16:16:00.046-06:00

I am skipping day 2, because you’ve already read about my race day. I will say that after the race I was nauseous for a little while, but eventually felt good enough to go out to dinner. We went to this amazing little Italian place right down the street from our apartment, then followed up dinner with drinks at another local place.

On day 3 (Monday), I felt pretty darn good. Sure I was sore, but once I started moving, I was fine. The worst part was going down the subway stairs. Up was fine, down was HELL. We had 10 am tickets for the 9/11 Memorial, so I woke up around 6 am and headed over to Central Park where the NYCM finisher’s gear was being sold. While waiting to get into the tent, I ran into Vincent, our French friend we met before the race. He had finished in 4:30-something and was feeling great. It was great swapping war stories about the race. Finally, we were allowed to go into the tent….OMG, there was some great stuff and I had a hard time deciding what to buy! I ended up getting the short sleeve official finisher’s tech shirt, a long sleeve finisher’s tee (to wear with jeans) and a sweatshirt (great for after an OWS before the weather warms up), and a NYCM baseball cap for the Hubby. Lots of folks were wearing their medals, so when I got back to the apartment, I made sure to put mine on.

Next, we headed to the 9/11 Memorial. Among all the hustle and bustle of the financial district, the mood for those of us waiting to enter was rather somber. We arrived about 30 minutes early and were allowed in only after going through all kinds of security and ticket checks. The memorial is beautiful. As you’ve seen on TV, there is water cascading down into the ground and the mist from the water caught the morning sunlight just right, making it even more gorgeous. In the shallow pools of water, you can see the reflection of the buildings surrounding the memorial. There are two of these waterfalls, each one sitting in the footprint of where each of the twin towers stood. We walked slowly around each one, reading the names, recognizing a few of them from interviews we’ve seen over the years. The most moving thing to me was seeing a woman’s name etched on the stone followed by “and her unborn child”. Ugh, it still tugs at my heart, as there were many of these. The story about how these names are arranged is amazing and touching. Another amazing thing was seeing the one and only tree that survived the 9/11 attacks…it is now planted among the trees on the memorial grounds and has an amazing survival story as well.

The names of the 1st responders...and the names go on and on and on...

The Memorial...I love the mist and the way the surrounding buildings reflect in the pools of water.

The "and her unborn child". So sad.

The little tree that could. This pear tree was originally in the WTC plaza before. After the 9/11 attacks in was planted in a park in the Bronx and finally ended up back in the WTC plaza.

After seeing the Memorial, we went to see this FDNY Memorial Wall near “FDNY Ten House”. FDNY Ten House is directly across from the WTC site and this station was among the first responders on 9/11. FDNY Ten House lost 6 fire fighters on that day. Afterwards, we walked over to the 9/11 Memorial Visitors center and saw some items on display and bought a few souvenirs – since my Brother-in-Law is a firefighter and the Hubby is a police officer, they wanted to take back a few things to their peeps back home.

The bronze NYFD memorial

A picture of each of the Firefighters who died on 9/11.

Well, nothing can bring you out of a somber state like NY-style pizza and we wanted the real deal, so we headed to Brooklyn! We got a little turned around after our subway ride, but eventually found Grimaldi’s. There was a wait, but it was well worth it. Now, we do have a Grimaldi’s not far from our house in TX, but the ambiance at the Brooklyn location just oozes NY and we loved it! After stuffing ourselves eating lunch, we headed over to the Brooklyn Ice Cream Company and indulged in dessert. Yeah, this isn’t something I’d normally do, but hell, I just ran 26.2 freaking miles the day before! (See I can justify any dessert!) We took our ice cream over to the East River, where there’s a great park and just admired the view of Manhattan. Then, we trekked over the Brooklyn Bridge to get back to Manhattan…hey, gotta work off some of that pizza and ice cream! Walking over the Brooklyn Bridge has been on my “to-do list” since our trip there in 2003. And, it was one of the highlights of my trip! The views from the bridge are amazing and you can just feel the history of this mammoth structure. I loved it.

Me and my sister-in-law on the subway headed to Brooklyn

Grimaldi's, yum!!!

The awesomeness that is the Brooklyn Bridge!

Me and the Hubs near the East River

My coffee ice cream. Nom, nom, nom!

Next, we were supposed to go see a live taping of David Letterman, but we got a little carried away in Brooklyn that we missed it. Doh! Instead, we walked over to SoHo and Chinatown…to me, part of enjoying NYC is just walking the streets and soaking it all in.

The streets of SoHo

Chinatown...where women walk up and whisper, "Prada, Dolce & Gabbana handbag?"

Later, the Hubby and I headed to Times Square to meet up with my Jersey friend, Jenn and her awesome hubby and adorable daughter for dinner. This is going to sound weird, but I met Jenn on-line on a mommy-type discussion board way back when I was pregnant with the Kiddo. Jenn and I have been “friends” for all these years, but we had never met in person. Until now. It was so awesome finally getting to meet! After dinner, we did a little shopping at the Disney Store for the kiddos and called it a day. It was an incredible day!

Times Square...overstimulation for the eyes and ears!

NYC - Day 1

2011-11-17T16:08:00.073-06:00

I was really nervous about flying in the day before the marathon. What if the flight was delayed? What if there was horrible weather? What if I didn’t get to pick up my packet? Fortunately, everything went smoothly and our flight into LaGuardia was about 15 minutes early!

We gathered our luggage..at this point, I didn’t care if it arrived, I had all my race gear stuffed into my carry-on, and we grabbed a cab and arrived at our apartment in record time. It was lunchtime and we were both starving, so we had time to grab a slice of pizza before heading over to the expo.

This is our little apartment in Grammercy Park...it was fun and different to stay here rather than in a hotel. We loved it!

The expo was AWESOME! I got to meet Dean Karnazes, Marshall Ulrich and Liz Robbins and get all their autographs. I also enjoyed looking at all the booths and especially loved the awesome NYC Marathon movie that highlighted each mile of the race and had some great commentary from the race director and previous NYCM winners. I wasn’t all that excited about the NYCM logo stuff, mainly because it was really picked over at this point and I was planning to buy the finisher’s gear on Monday.

Some pictures from the Expo...

Welcome! So Exciting!

Love this!

Meeting Marshall Ulrich...I also met his wife. They were both awesome!

Meeting Dean Karnarzes (aka Karno)! I wish I would have thought up some good questions for him about his crazy long ultras!

Me with Liz Robbins...I probably scared her the way I went on and on about her book. Here I think she is telling me not to worry about the hills Central Park, but I still did.

We spent about an hour and a half (and a lot of money) checking out the expo, then headed over to Rockefeller Center to meet up with my Sister-in-Law and Brother-in-Law and head to tthe "Top of the Rock". The “Top of the Rock” is an observation deck, sorta like going to the top of the Empire State Building, but you have a better view of Central Park and you have a view of the Empire State Building. The views were amazing and we took a ton of pics. The history behind the Rockefeller is interesting as well, and I am a sucker for this historical stuff!

Me and the Hubs at the "Top of the Rock"

Once we were done ooohhhing and aaahhhing over the views, I connected with my Woodlands Fit peep, RunnerC, and we met for dinner. No carb loading for us! RunnerC swears by hamburgers the day before a race, so we headed over to Le Parker Meridian for burgers behind the secret curtain. My nephew ate there and swears they are the best burgers ever, so we figured we'd try it. He was right, they burgers were good…maybe not awesomely spectacular, but very good. We wanted to try the burgers at The Shake Shack too, but never had a chance.

After dinner, the hubby, SIL and BIL wanted to check out Little Italy. I am always up for a cannoli, so we hopped on the subway and headed there. I probably walked a little more than I should have, but it was all good. As it approached 9 pm, I decided to call it a night. (Technically, with the time change, it was really 8 pm.) I went back to the apartment to get everything ready for the next day (and checkout all the swag from the Expo), while the rest of the gang went to a neighborhood restaurant (with large TVs) to watch football. I stressed about what time to set my alarm clock for, because of the time change and eventually just decided to stop stressing and go to bed took me awhile to really get to sleep, but I finally did….I woke up about 40 times to go to the bathroom. Not sure what that was about, maybe nerves? Before I knew it, it was time to wake up!!!

The Empire State Building all lit up with the ING NYC Marathon colors!
I love how the entire city of NY gets into this event!

Random thoughts from the NYCM...

2011-11-16T12:15:00.006-06:00

Just a few things I forgot to add to the race report (as if it wasn't long enough)!

Our WF peeps, Brian and Amy, did finish the race in a little over 5 hours. Brian was injured and required some extra walking.

The weather was in the low 40s when the race started, which was perfect. The temps got into the high 50s as the day went on...I would have preferred the 40s all day, but there was a breeze in various places along the way and that was awesome!

I was sooooo thankful to have sunglasses on, because it seemed like we were constantly running right into the sun and there was not a cloud in the sky.

I'll admit that I was disappointed in the medal. Compared to the one I received in 2003 and the ones I've seen in the years since, it was not nearly as impressive. But, the experience in itself is what made this race so incredible, not the medal.

Yes, I was sore the next day! But, once I got moving I felt great. Going down the subway steps was bad, though...and we went to Brooklyn the day after the race which requires you to go down multiple levels of stairs to get to the subway. Can we say ouch???

Like a lot of other races I've run, spectators hold up some pretty funny signs. I had seen some of these before, but they still made me smile. Here are some I saw during the race (may favs are at the bottom):

"Quitting hurts longer!"

"Toenails are for sissies!"

"Chafed Nipples are HOT!"

"Complete Stranger: You inspire me!"

"Well, this sounded like a good idea in June!"

"Don’t be alarmed, but you’re being chased!"

"Worst.Parade.Ever."

"Chuck Norris never ran a marathon!"

"A girl holding a sign that said “Don’t Stop!” and the guy next to her held a sign saying, “That’s What She Said!”

"Run like you stole something!"

"Why 26.2??? Because, 26.3 would be CRAZY!!!"

"I woke up really early to make this sign. That wasn’t easy either."

"Run, total stranger, Run! "

"Where is everyone going? "

"Stalker approaching! Run, run!"

"Sweat is sexy!"

"That’s not sweat, it’s your fat cells crying!"

Girl, “It’s Long and Hard!”, Guy “That’s what she said!”

"Occupy the Finish Line!"

"On the back of a shirt, “Are the Kenyans far behind?”

"I did check and in fact there IS a finish line!"

"Those shorts make your butt look FAST!"

“Don’t poop your pants now, it’s only mile 18!” And along those lines…”If you haven’t sh*t your pants yet, you’re already winning!”

"I don’t know you, but I’m proud of you!"

"Please hurry up, I want to go watch the game!"

"Jack Bauer never ran this far!"

"Hurry up, I’m cold!"

"Embrace the suck!"

"If your nipples aren’t bleeding, you didn’t try hard enough!"

"You’ve got stamina…call me (and had a phone #)"

"Puke and Rally"

After the Bronx, “NO MORE BRIDGES!”

"I’m trying to cross the street! "

"If you stop running, it's still going to hurt!""Toenails are overrated! -or- Black Toenails Are Sexy!"

My favorites:

"You’ve trained longer than Kim Kardashian has been married"

"Unlike the MTA – you RUN!"

"Don’t F*ck With A Woman Who Can Run 26.2 miles!"

"Pain now…wine later!"

"You are the 1%!"

"One day you will not be able to do this…TODAY IS NOT THAT DAY!"

That's it for now. I will post some re-caps and pictures of our time in NYC next week!

So, what funny signs have you seen at races? Weird costumes? Anything else?

NYC Marathon Race Report

2011-11-15T10:57:00.010-06:00

Warning - This is gonna be LONG people, I’m sorry!

The NYC Marathon is different from other marathons in a multitude of ways. First of all, you wake up in the wee hours of the morning and take a bus from the NYC public library to the start of the race on Staten Island. I was meeting my Woodland’s Fit peep we'll call her RunnerC), and we were scheduled to take one of the buses leaving at 6 am. The marathon began at 9:30 am. Our wave started at 10:40 am. As you might have realized, there is a lot of waiting between when you arrive on Staten Island and when you actually race.

Pre-Pre Race
I was completely overzealous and woke up at 4:30 am. The time change that morning freaked me out and I was sooo worried that I was going to somehow screw up setting the alarm clock and not make it to my bus on time. Trust me, if anyone can screw this up, it’s me. So, I have 2 cell phones – one woke me up at 3:30 am (because the time did not change) and the other woke me up at 4:30 am (because the time did change). Stupid cell phones. It only took me a few minutes to get ready, so I took the time to double check and make sure I had everything I needed. It wasn’t even 5 am when I was done. Our apartment was a mile from the library and the Hubby agreed to walk there with me. In a hotel, I would have taken a cab, but since we were in an apartment, I wasn’t sure if we’d even see a cab on the way. Lucky for me, we discovered that we were only a block from where there was a perpetual line of cabs waiting and ready to go 24/7. So, we grabbed a cab which resulted in me having about 50 minutes to spare before meeting up with RunnerC. Rather than hanging out on the cold, dark street, I headed over to the nearby McDonald’s. I probably could have just sat down, but felt like I should buy something, so I bought an Egg McMuffin and ate half of it. While in McD’s, I encountered a couple of other runners, but mostly I encountered quite a few young people still intoxicated from their night out, LOL! They were quite entertaining.

Pre-Race
Finally, it was time to meet RunnerC and head for the bus. It took about an hour to get to our stop, because the roads were already pretty congested as we got closer to the start. The “Athlete’s Village” was larger than I remembered and there were definitely more porta potties than I recall. The live band was already playing and people were dancing around. Once we found our designated part of the Athlete’s Village (it’s separated by wave colors – blue, green and orange), we laid out the small tarp I brought and just hung out. We grabbed the coffee from Dunkin’ Donuts and just watched the flow of people. I also had a small blanket and was wearing multiple layers, so the 38 degree temps didn’t seem too bad. RunnerC and I met a nice man from London and later a guy from France, so we chatted it up with them for the next couple of hours. The guy from France (Vincent) had actually been to Houston before, so we talked about his experience there. And, our new friend from London discussed our Governor, Rick Perry, with us….we thought it was funny that he even knew who he was! As the sun started to rise, the temps warmed up quickly and the blanket was no longer needed.

Here are some pics from the Athlete's Village:

The ever-important porta potties! This scene is sooo much different from 2003, when I had to wait AN ENTIRE HOUR to pee!

Me modeling the new trend in fashion - layering. Lots and lots of layers!

Here's me and RunnerC hanging out before the race. Yes, I am sporting an ultra cool Arthur Andersen sweatshirt circa 2000!

Here's the stage with the band already playing!

A view of the Verrazano-Narrows bridge from the Athlete's Village.

We got excited when we heard the cannon for the wheelchair athletes and the elite runners…one hour to go!!!! Time to eat my Pop-Tarts! Before we knew it, it was time to make our last pit-stops at the porta potties and head to the start. The entire time we were hanging out, we were also looking for Woodlands Fit peeps, Amy and Brian. We never saw them. However, as we started making our way to our corral, we suddenly saw them! Crazy that you can find someone you know among these masses (there were something like 47,000 total racing)! I felt a weird pulling on the back of my right knee, probably from sitting for so long in the cold…but it kinda freaked me out. We kept moving toward our corral, stripping off the extra layers of clothes as we went.

The Race!
Finally, we heard “God Bless America” and then the cannon. It’s so anti-climatic, because you have to stand there for several minutes before you can actually start moving. It’s a NYC Marathon tradition for the song “New York, New York” to be played after the cannon, so we just slowly walked forward while singing and dancing to the song. Finally, we began to pick up the pace and before we knew it, we were running (albeit slowly) onto the Varrazano-Narrows bridge. It’s a massive bridge and we were on the lower deck. Every so often, there’d be a work truck with flashing lights and the workers would cheer and then the crowd would roar. Fun! It was deafening, but completely awesome! My Garmin was all wonky on the bridge…I would look down and it would say we were at a 15:35 pace one minute and a 5:27 pace the next. The bridge is about 1 mile of uphill and 1 mile of downhill, and it felt awesome to finally be on the downhill side.

Next, we were in Brooklyn…and lemme tell you – Brooklyn knows how to bring it on race day!!! The next 11 miles are run in Brooklyn and you see a wide variety of people and landmarks. There were loud people cheering from the steps of their brownstones, people cheering from high windows of apartments, people cheering on the sidewalks and lots of bands and djs. In fact, every time you are starting to get into a song that a band is playing, you move forward a few paces and you begin to hear music coming from the next band. It was like one huge party! The only time the crowds grew quiet was when we entered the Hasidic Jewish portion of Williamsburg. In this area, there really weren’t crowds…it was really more like people going along with their normal lives. There were a few people grouped together here and there and we gave a few kids a high fives. Then, several blocks later, it was back to the rowdier, crazier Brooklyn again.

Next stop – Queens. We made our way across the Pulanski Bridge and into Queens, which was pretty much the halfway point of the race. It was about this time that I realized and thought to myself, “This is going to hurt tomorrow!” It was somewhere here that my inner thigh started to cramp up. I kept telling it (in my head) to relax and believe it or not, it did…but, it did this several times from this point forward in the race (even with my regular intake of Endurolytes). You only spend a couple of miles in Queens, but the crowds there are rowdy and crazy, too. In fact, when you leave Queens to go over the Queensboro bridge, it’s almost eerie how quiet it’s suddenly become. The Queensboro bridge is between mile 15 and 16…and this is where my lack of hill training came back to bite me in the ass. Right before going onto the bridge, I saw a sign that said something like, “Make this bridge your bitch!” There were also signs that said, “If less than 10 miles to go is easier” followed by one that said, “Then welcome to easier!”. The signs made me laugh, which did help…but, even with the fun signs I told RunnerC that I was sooooo ready to get off this damn bridge and get into Manhattan. The coolest thing about this part of the race is that as you are (FINALLY) going down the bridge, you round a corner and the sound goes from super-quiet to crazy –ass-roaring-crowds.

IT IS INSANE.

The next couple of miles are run on 1st Avenue in Manhattan along a row of bars and restaurants. The crowds are crazy-huge here. And crazy loud! It’s this stretch where it’s easy to get carried away and start running faster. But before that, you get to go under the Queensboro where there was a heavenly-long row of porta-potties….I was waiting until I found some with no line and there they were! HALLELUJAH! I ran into the nearest empty one and took care of business as quickly as possible.

After taking care of business, we could enjoy the crowds. It was here that I pulled out the cell phone (yes, I had one) and let the Hubby know we were on our way. He was going to meet us around 42 street with orange slices, a Coke, Tylenol, etc. RunnerC and I managed to find the Hubs with my Sister-in-Law and Brother-in-Law. We said a quick hello, grabbed a couple of orange slices, I took a quick swig of the Coke and we were off again. Nothing like seeing your loved ones to put a little pep in your step!

Here I am approaching the Hubs...yes, I looks like a spaz, but there's a smile on my face!

Me blowing the Hubs a kiss as we were on our way after grabbing oranges and saying hi.

The next few miles tend to be rough for a lot of runners. You leave Manhattan, which is such a tease, because now you have to go away from the finish line and into the Bronx. To get to the Bronx, you have to cross yet another bridge, but it’s so much smaller than the Queensboro that neither of us really seemed to care. You don’t spend much time in the Bronx, but the crowds here made it fun and memorable. Someone had a sign that said, “You’re in the Bronx, Keep Running – it’s not safe here!” There was another sign as we were leaving that said, “Welcome to the Bronx, now get the hell out!” I think it was somewhere between Queens and the Bronx when I realized that the bottom of my feet were hurting – ouch! All that pounding on the pavement, I guess. Also, somewhere between Queens and the Bronx we saw a bunch of people holding signs that read, “You’re the Sh*t!”

Finally, it was time to go over the Madison Avenue Bridge through Harlem and back toward Central Park. It felt good to finally be heading back toward the Manhattan skyline! But first, we were entertained in Harlem by a choir and dance group and a couple of rap groups. RunnerC and I were tired, but we were still on track – we were still only walking through the water stops and keeping a pretty good pace. I know our pace did slow a little, but we were still on track to finish in under 5 hours.

I remember being on 5th avenue and FINALLY seeing Central Park to my right. I pointed it out to RunnerC – I know Central Park is fricking HUGE, but it was a sure sign that we were almost done! WHOOT! At some point we skipped a water/walk break…we were getting sick of Gatorade and just wanted to HTFU and get done. But, we ended up taking that walk break a little later when it seemed like we were on a never-ending uphill in along 5th Avenue. Seriously, it seemed like it went on for MILES AND MILES! But, we only walked for a minute and were right back at it. I tried to point out interesting buildings and landmarks like the cougar statue in Central Park or the Guggenheim…anything to keep our mind off our legs. Before mile 24, we finally turned into Central Park, I remember telling RunnerC that we were almost there. HALLELUJAH! At mile 24, we came to a water stop and looked at each other….neither of us wanted to take our designated walk break. “At mile 25”, I said. It seemed to take forever to get to mile 25 and we did walk for a minute through the water stop there (which was dumb since we were almost done!). When I looked at my watch reality set in, we were slightly ahead of my goal pace – I really was going to finish in less than 5 hours! Then we started going again and RunnerC said something like, “Let’s make this bitch ours” (quoting the sign from earlier) and I responded with, “ ‘Cause we’re the SHIT!” (quoting another sign). We turned the corner and saw The Plaza…almost there!!! At some point, we saw a sign telling us that we had 800 meters to go, then 400. I told RunnerC that I really wish I felt like sprinting, but just couldn’t…she said it was okay, because she couldn’t either. I also remember thinking, “Hey, I can swim 400 meters, surely I can run it!” The crowds all through Central Park were awesome and I high-fived a few kiddos.

And then we turned the corner and saw it – THE FINISH!!!! It was an absolutely gorgeous sight! I wish I could tell you that I dug deep and found it in me to sprint to the finish…but I don’t think I did. I probably thought I did, but in reality I wasn’t going any faster, lol. After we made it through the chute, we high fived and hugged. WHOOT, we were done! It was an amazing end to an amazing day!

My Garmin post race - my chip time was 4:57:52, but I forgot to stop the watch right away!

Another unique thing about the NYC marathon is that once you finish running 26.2 miles, you have to walk another mile or so just to pick up your bags and exit Central Park. It’s pretty interesting…just you and thousands of your closest friends wearing medals, grasping mylar blankets, looking tired and spent, shuffling along at a snail’s pace. ! I joked with RunnerC that we looked like a bunch of refugees fleeing a war torn country, because some of us looked like we’d been through our own personal wars. I was feeling rather nauseous, but tried to eat something from our “Recovery Bag” that was given to us. Lemme just say, the Gatorade recovery drink is indeed NASTY. A lady behind us collapsed, so we had to yell for the medics to come over. Before we made it out of the park, we had to call the medics again, because another lady next to us was starting to feel faint. Scary.

We finally claimed our bags and headed out of the park. I called the Hubby to see where he was and I practically bumped right into him before the call went through. He was awesome, offering me coke, oranges, asking me what I needed – did I want a pretzel or hot dog from the vendor?

Because of the road closures and massive crowds, it took us about an hour just to get RunnerC back to her hotel. Then, it probably took another 15 minutes to find a car to take us back to our apartment. Crazy!

Here we are after the race proudly showing off our medals!

Looking back at the race, I think it was even more amazing this time around than it was in 2003. Seriously A-MAZ-ING! As much as I’d like to do this one again, I think it might be awhile. And yes, next time I will do hill training!

NYC Marathon

2011-11-10T09:42:00.012-06:00

Well, it's done and I am super happy with the results! I FINALLY became a member of the sub-5 club. For some you folks out there, a sub 5 is nothing...but for a mid to back of the pack runner like me, it's a big accomplishment.

I'll be honest, before the broken toe incident I had some pretty lofty goals for NYC. But since I didn't start my training again until July, and I decided run fewer days in order to train for one more triathlon, I had to adjust those goals a bit. Not to mention that the hill training I intended to add to my workouts just didn't happen thanks to my work schedule...well, life happens and you adjust. But, I knew that I had been training consistently, I did my speedwork like a good girl and all of my long runs were under an 11:30 pace (slightly). Given some decent racing conditions, I knew I was capable of having one hell of a PR. Given decent racing conditions and no weird muscle joint isssues (you just never know), I was pretty sure I could pull off 26.2 in under 5 hours. Although I'll admit - those bridges and hills did scare me a bit. I did have some bridges and a few "hills" during my long runs, but nothing like NYC.

And I did it! My time was 4:57:52...that's a 23 minute marathon PR for me! Can I get a WHOOT?????

Sorry for the blurry and tiny pic, but I didn't feel like typing all of this out. So, as you can see I did slow a little toward the end. Normally, I'd rather speed up, but to be honest there wasn't much left in the tank and those "hills" in Central Park kicked my ass. (see? That's what I get for no hill training!)

I will post a full race report in the next day or so. Sorry for the delay, but we just returned from NYC last night. All I will say is that I loved every minute of every mile. LOVED IT! Well, okay maybe not so much for that gradual incline in Central Park...I HATED that. :-)

Here we go!!!

2011-11-05T06:47:00.000-05:00

So here I sit at the airport! It's go time. Seven years ago, I ran NYC and had such a great experience that I decided then and there that I wanted to do this race again to celebrate my 40th birthday.

So, here I am! I am 2 months early, but close enough. I just hope that it's as enjoyable this time around (but faster)!!!

Stay tuned!

Let the obsessing begin!!!

2011-11-04T09:10:00.004-05:00

O.M.G.

I am ready to get to NYC, have a great race and then have some fun! I imagine focusing at work today will be a bit of a challenge...lucky for me, I have plenty to do that will give me no other option than to focus!

Here's today's NYC inspired tune from my all time favorite movie, Breakfast at Tiffany's...

Here's what I'm obsessing about:

Weather

Okay, I haven't been obsessing that much, but I checked the weather today....guess what? It looks pretty darn perfect!

Flying
So me and my bright ideas....I decided that we'd leave for NYC on Saturday instead of Friday. Why, you ask? Because when I ran NYC in 2003, we arrived on Friday. It was me and the hubby, plus one of my best friends and her hubby. The guys whined the entire time on Friday and Saturday, because my BFF and I were both running on Sunday and we didn't want to walk a lot (which you do in NYC even when you're trying not to) and we couldn't go out and drink with them on Friday or Saturday night. So, I thought I'd avoid the whining and fly in on Saturday. Well, now I am worried about having issues with our flight and not having time to get to the expo and pick up my race packet. I've been talking to Continental for the past week, checking to see if I can change my flight without using all of my one pass miles or paying a big fee, but I've decided to stick to my original plans and fly on Saturday. I am sure everything will work out!

Nutrition
The NYC marathon is a little different - instead of starting at 7 am or 7:30 am, it begins at 9:40 and my wave begins at 10:40 am. (I think in 2003, the start time was even later, like 11 am). So, I take a bus to Staten Island at 6:00 am and then hang out for HOURS. I am trying to figure out what to eat early in the morning. And, then I can just eat my usual Pop-Tarts about an hour before. I *think* I might eat a bagel thin with PB before leaving our apartment.

The Apartment
My sister-in-law and her husband are meeting us in NYC. She found a pretty good deal on an apartment in NYC using homeaway.com, so we decided we'd share the apartment and save a little money. We had a perfectly good hotel book prior to finding the apartment. Well, would you know it? I read an article on-line earlier this week that talked all about these illegal apartments and apartment rental scams...so now I am worried that we will get to NYC and not really have a place to stay!

The Sickies
I have not been going to bed as early as I normally do and as a result, I have felt a little run down this week. I swear I obsess about every little thing! Why does my throat feel a little scratchy? Why does my ear ache a little? Why am I sneezing so much today? Am I getting sick? To make matters worse, the kiddo started complaining that her stomach felt funny last night before bedtime. Sure enough, at 2 am she woke up and called me to her room and said she didn't feel good. I had just enough time to take her temperature (which was 101.3), before she ran to the bathroom to throw up. After the initial concern, I thought "oh God, please don't let this be contagious, and please don't let anyone else get sick!!!". Luckily, she seems to be doing a bit better today - she still has a temperature, but no stomach issues. The bad news is that she is going to miss her very 1st "All A Honor Roll" breakfast at school this morning. :-(

So anyway, that is what I am obsessing about. I know that everything will work out just fine and I'll have a great race and a fun time in NYC....I just can't wait to get there!!! Oh, and we managed to get tix to see David Letterman! I am really excited, since last time we were there his girlfriend went into labor and Paul Schaffer had to host.

Do you obsess before a race? What do you obsess about? How do you control these crazy obsessions?

New York, New York

2011-11-03T08:55:00.006-05:00

The countdown continues! Today's New York inspired song is brought to you by Frank...

Let's talk nutrition.

I have soooo many friends who have been eating clean for awhile now. I've eaten healthy (or healthier), but I've never truly switched to "clean". I've started buying organic meats and some fruits. I've used organic dairy for years. But, I also had quite a bit of the processed crap in my diet.

So a couple of months ago, I decided to finally really clean up my diet. However,that was about the time I also started traveling for work. It's difficult to eat healthy, much less clean while on the road. So, 4 weeks ago when my traveling had come to an end, I decided it was time. My diet is definitely not perfect, but it is soooo much better than before. I've really minimized the amount of processed foods I'm eating and reduced my sugar intake significantly!

What I am eating that I wasn't eating before:

Fage Plain Greek Yogurt w/ fruit and stevia...when I was working with a nutritionist, she suggested this. I thought mixing fruit and stevia with yogurt was too much work and kept eating my regular light yogurt. I did occasionally buy this yogurt and mix in honey, but that was it. The Greek stuff has WAY more protein and not so much sugar. Love it!

Spaghetti Squash...we've had this once a week for 4 weeks and I love it! I've mixed it with a little olive oil, feta, tomatoes, Greek olives and seasoning to eat with grilled chicken. I've also added marinara and ricotta for a different flavor. I also baked butternut squash, which I liked...but not as much as spaghetti squash.

Quinoa...I've been hearing about it for years, but never attempted to cook it myself. Yummo! And, it's packed with protein!

Chia Seeds...Yes, as in a chia pet. I've started adding these to salads and protein shakes. They have 2 times the amount of protein of any grains, 3 times the amount of antioxidants of blueberries, 5 times more calcium than milk, 2 times the amount of potassium in a banana, and 3 times the iron of spinach. They are also supposed to be jam packed full of Omega 3 and Omega 6 fatty acids. Cool!

Hummus and Veggies...I'll admit, I am a pita chip eating fool. Until recently it never occurred to me to try veggies with my hummus instead. I am finding that I love my veggies. I eat hummus with cucumbers, zucchini, bell peppers (all colors), etc.

Flavored stevia in coffee...Okay, I'll admit that I am still getting used to this one. I can't seem to get the combination of the stevia and cream just right. I am not really a true coffee drinker. By that, I mean that I go to Starbucks a lot, but I order the skinny vanilla latte. I didn't think this was a bad thing, but there are 18 grams of sugar in a grande! By switching to the regular coffee with stevia, I am not only cutting down on sugar, I am also saving myself a ton of money!

There are tons more, but those are the things that come to mind. There are also some things that I am not doing well:

Lean Cuisines...I am trying to cook things that I can bring to work the next day for lunch. However, there are times when it's just easier and faster to grab a Lean Cuisine on the way out the door in the morning. There are worse things I could be eating for lunch, but this is still funky, processed crap.

Diet Coke...yes, I am a girl who loves her daily Diet Coke (with lime might I add). I only have one a day, but I think I might be able to eventually eliminate this completely from my diet. Maybe. Truth be told, I really love regular coke, but I save those for special occasions.

Wine...Okay, okay, I LOVE my wine. Right now, my favorites are Cabernet and Malbec. I have continued to have a glass or two a week, especially on Saturdays nights when I've had a long run that morning. I figure it's better than having a Mike's Hard Lemonade (my favorite, but it has 220 calories and 30 grams of sugar!). I'll save my other favorite - Margarita's - for special occasions. And just a note - I have not had any wine this week. It's race week after all!

The other issue I've been having is not getting in enough calories. I log everything I eat into Calorie King. At the end of the day, I noticed that I was only at 1,100 - 1,200 calories for the day, and that's not including the exercise calories I've earned for the day. However, I have gotten lots of great ideas for adding some additional healthy calories from friends...including my favorite, having a nice glass of chocolate milk!

Also, I will add that this change in my diet has resulted in me losing a little over 8 lbs. The 1st 4 lbs were lost in the 1st week alone! And, I am happy to say that I am now at my lowest weight since getting pregnant with my 1st kiddo 7 years ago. I still have a few more pounds to lose to reach my goal, but this has been the closest I've gotten to it in YEARS! Now the real challenge will be jumping back into these eating habits as soon as we return from NYC.

So, what are your favorite healthy snacks to munch on? Do you "eat clean" or follow some other eating plan?

New York State of Mind

2011-11-02T09:09:00.007-05:00

Quickie update to my workouts since my last post:

Wednesday, 10/26 – 4.5-miles
I woke up too early and had time for some extra mileage before meeting my friend at stupid-thirty.

Thursday, 10/27 – 3 miles

Friday, 10/28 – Rest

Saturday, 10/29 – 6 miles
Last "long run" before NYC! I had a great run with my WF peeps and enjoyed girl talk over coffee afterwards.

Hope everyone had an awesome Halloween! We carved pumpkins and went to a couple of Halloween parties with the kids, then took them out trick or treating on Monday – fun times!

Holy cow, just a few more days ‘til NYC!!!

In honor of the upcoming trip to NYC, I give you NYC-inspired music:

There are things people don’t tell you when you are training for a marathon. Things I had forgotten since running my last marathon FIVE YEARS AGO!

Phantom Pains
Things like phantom pains. In fact, I even blogged about it here before I ran Chicago in 2006. Yep, last week I did P90X Ab Ripper X and the very next day I started to notice hip pain at the top of my right hip. It wasn’t excrutiating, but it was annoying. It was so strange, because I've done this workout hundreds of times and never had any issues (other than sore abs!). When I ran my 6-miler on Saturday, I noticed the pain afterwards and it got more intense as the day went on. Finally, I took an Aleve and that seemed to help. I still feel it today, along with some unusual aches in my lower back on the same side.

Phantom pains?

Who knows? But what I have noticed that during race week of any big race is that I tend to feel unusual aches and pains. I don’t know if these feelings are amplified because of the anticipation, stress, or adrenaline..or if it’s just paranoia. Whatever. I am taking Aleve and will try not to think about it too much. Needless to say, I will not be doing any moreP90X until after NYC!

Weather Obsession
Another thing that I had forgotten was the obsession with the weather. I am being much better about it this time around, though. I’ve decided that I’ve made it through this hot as hell summer (including a 20-miler in less than ideal conditions), so I can pretty much handle whatever Mother Nature throws at me on race day. Although, I was a little freaked out to see snow in NYC over the weekend. Whatever. I have only looked at the forecast 2x in the past week, when normally I would be checking it daily. Here’s the deal – I will bring an outfit for effing cold weather and one for warmer weather. End of story. Right now, it looks like the temps will be in the low 40’s in the morning and the mid-50’s by noon with increasing cloud cover throughout the day…I’m thinking running skirt and short sleeves will be perfect.

Taper Madness
One other thing I forgot about is the taper madness. One of two things tend to happen to me during taper – I either lose motivation and don’t wanna run –or- I feel like such a slug for only running about 10 miles during the week and running single digit runs on Saturday. This year, I am feeling like a slug, especially since I axed the ab workouts. Thankfully, I only have a few more days of feeling like a slug.

I am a total type A personality - I have created a checklist for packing, a list of cupcake places to check out (with addresses, phone numbers and recommended flavors to try), I have a couple of groupons for restaurants to try, tickets for the Met, MoMa and the Guggenheim and a list of other things to see this time around. :-) Can't wait!!!!

A little of this, a little of that

2011-10-25T16:13:00.003-05:00

Yahoo, it’s taper time! Here’s a quickie summary of my workouts since my last post:

Friday, 10/21 – Swim
Just a quick 1,200 yd swim. At this point, nothing I do on Friday is going to help my swim on Sunday, but I did want to get in the pool one more time anyway.

Saturday, 10/22 – Run, 10 miles
Okay, so I only had 8 on the schedule for Saturday, but because I missed last week’s 14-miler, I felt the need for one more double digit run. I ran 2 miles before meeting up with WF for their 8 miler. We took this one at an easy pace (10:58) and just decided to enjoy the lower mileage.

Sunday, 10/23 – Oktoberfest Tri (relay – swim leg) & Ab Ripper X
As I mentioned a few days ago, I decided to do the swim leg of a triathlon relay – not because I love to swim or because I rock the swim, but because I suck at the swim and need the practice. Once again, this was a humbling experience. I decided at the last minute to wear my wetsuit, since I didn’t have to worry about my transition time (in a relay, you only have to exit the water, run to transition and pass the timing chip to the person biking). I’ll do a race report later, but let me just day that I did not have the experience that I had at Bridgeland! I also managed to fit in Ab Ripper X later in the day. It felt great to work the core again!

Monday, 10/25 – Run, ~~3 miles~~ 2 miles
I don’t know what was wrong with me on Monday, but I felt tired and run down. Even my muscles were sore – legs, abs, even my arms and I had a sore throat. Maybe just a case of the Mondays? Or maybe I was feeling run down…since I’ve had the back and neck issues, I have had a hard time getting comfy at night and I am not sleeping as well as usual. I dunno, but I cut the run short and took an Emergen-C, just in case.

Tuesday, 10/25 – Rest
Well, except for Ab Ripper X. :-)

In other news...
Last week was a bit wilder than usual – and I am not just talking about losing our family pet and the ongoing visits to the chiropractor. I don’t usually blog about work, but this news was pretty huge and took us all by surprise - the company I work for announced last week that it was being sold. And, the portion of the company that I work for is going to be sold to a 3rd party so that the buyer can pay off debt from purchasing the company. So, the future is uncertain and things will be interesting to say the least!

On another note, this is my 3rd week of my attempt at getting back to clean(er) eating and things are going great! I am really working on eating less sugar and processed foods, and I am actually down 7 lbs! I will blog more about that later….

Less than 2 weeks until NYC!!! My sister-in-law and I are nailing down our agenda for the trip…if we left it up to the guys, we might end up sitting in our apartment watching TV the entire time we’re there. Or, in a bar watching sports. :-) More on what’s in the works coming soon!

Oh The Places You'll Go....

2011-10-21T08:25:00.004-05:00

One of my favorite Dr. Suess Books out there. I often give it as a graduation present (along with $$$, of course)...

I love to travel! And while I'd love to see some exciting, exotic places, my job only requires me to go to the occasional college campus. So, here's where I've been over the past month...

Texas Tech University

Lubbock, TX

Lubbock isn't exactly the most exciting place, but the Tech campus is pretty. I did manage to get in a good 5-miler around the campus and there is an excellent steakhouse on the outskirts of town.

Texas A&M

College Station, TX

Well, this is my alma matter, so I am a bit partial to this campus. WHOOP! I'll admit, there isn't much to do in College Station either, but I thoroughly enjoyed my 6-miler around the campus! The Spirit of Aggieland is alive and well - while running through campus, I passed many groups from the Corps of Cadets who gave me an enthusiastic "Howdy" as our paths crossed. I also enjoyed seeing how much the campus has changed since my days there, but was happy to see some of my favorite places were still there!

Colorado School of Mines

(not to be confused with CO school of Mimes)

Golden, CO

Okay, I have to admit - I LOVE Colorado! I want to move there. Really, I do. I had been to Denver multiple times for work, but had never been to Golden. It's a quaint, cute town with awesome mountain views everywhere. My hotel overlooked Clear Creek, which was just gorgeous. The college is excellent if you want a technical degree, but don't want to attend a huge school like A&M or t.u. I would be willing to go to campus recruiting events here anytime. And, I had a great 4-miler, but the hills and altitude were killer! We also went to dinner at a great steakhouse (owned by Landry's, go figure) with an amazing view of Denver!

I wish I could say the views from my last week at home were this pretty. However, my views have been mostly of the inside of a chiropractor's office and of this:

This week so far...

2011-10-20T17:06:00.005-05:00

First of all, I just want to say thanks for all the kind words regarding our loss of Jake. I appreciate it!

Here's what's been going on in my world this week:

Monday, 10/17 – 6 miles & a swim
Still warm and muggy, but not as bad as summer, so no complaints from me. This is my 1st run since last Monday, thanks to the neck/shoulder issues. I was really determined to run my scheduled 14 on Saturday, but was persuaded to follow doctor’s orders and not run until Monday. I’d rather miss a long run to recover from this mess, than make it worse and be out another week. Technically, I think the doctor wanted me to wait until after my appointment to run. Details, details. It was much cooler in the morning, so that’s when I headed out for my run. Sorry, doc! I managed to get in 6 miles (10:30 pace), because I was taking a vacation day – yay me!

Also, for some unknown reason, I signed up to do the swim portion of a tri relay on Saturday. (STUPID!) Because of this, I thought it might be a good idea to get back in the pool (DUH!). I had every intention of getting into the pool last week, but the neck/shoulder thing prevented me from this (because it does help to be able to move your arms and head while swimming). Actually, I know why I volunteered for this…it’s because I hate the swim. And, because a certain coach once told me that the only way to overcome my swim issues is to get back out there and race. So, I didn’t want to risk falling off my bike or tweaking an ankle during a 5k race, so I decided to follow the coach’s advice and get more experience racing the swim via this relay. Lord help me!

Tuesday, 10/18 – rest day
“Rest from what?”, you might be asking. I was asking myself the same thing after not running for an entire week. But, I knew I’d rather run on Wednesday and Thursday when the weather was supposed to be much cooler, so Tuesday was my rest day.

Wednesday, 10/19 – 5 miles and swim
Okay, so Wednesday is normally my mid-week-short-long-run day. That was true until 4 weeks ago when I began traveling for work. Then last week, well, it was the freaking neck/shoulder thing. So this has been where I’ve cut my mileage during the week– I usually run 5-6 in the morning and then 2-4 (depending on the schedule) in the evening. I know this is not ideal, but seriously people, who has time to do 7 – 10 miles midweek and work and have quality time with their family? Once again, for the 5th week in a row, I ended up only doing the morning portion of my runs do to other priorities...I have this pesky swim coming up and for that I needed some more practice. My morning run was done at a 10:15 pace, my after work swim – 1200 yds

Thursday, 10/20 – 3 miles
Okay, okay this was supposed to be 4 miles, but the darn snooze button got the best of me! And, since I had overslept, I had to haul booty – 9:32 pace thankyouverymuch cool weather!

I am a bit bummed that, due to the shoulder/neck issues, I have not been able to do my usual strength training. No P90X (i.e. push ups, chin ups, weights, abs, etc.). I am hoping that at the very least, I will be back to at least doing Ab Ripper X between now and the marathon.

Now I need to decide what to do this weekend. I feel guilty about missing my 14-miler on Saturday, but I think I will stick to my planned 10 this week and 8 next week. Only 16 days 'til NYC!!!

RIP Jakey Boy

2011-10-18T15:53:00.008-05:00

Jake

1997 - 2011

A year ago, we had a scare - the Hubby came home from work to find Jake barely able to greet him. Jake had vomited several times and was trying his best to make it to the front door, but had to lean on the wall for support. After taking him to a vet (who I would not recommend), we knew nothing - it could be early kidney failure, it could be cancer, it could even be doggie vertigo. The vet's reasoning - why test Jake for anything? He was 13 years old after all.

Fortunately, he improved. However, it was a wake-up call to us that our precious family member was growing old and would not be with us forever. Of course we knew this, but it was not something we wanted to think about. Jake was never quite the same after that episode, he still followed us around the house and chased the kids around the yard. He still greeted us at the door every evening (when he heard us, that is). But it was obvious that he did have some mobility issues. Over the past two months, he stopped going up and down the stairs. I know this was a tough decision for Jake, because he loved to be where we were. But, going down the stairs was not an easy task anymore.

This weekend was a tough one. It sucked. On Saturday evening, it was obvious that something was terribly wrong with our Jakey boy. We went outside to watch the kids play and act like heathens. Jake was outside laying in the yard and was unable to get up. His breathing was shallow. We debated about taking him to the emergency vet clinic near our house, but the Hubby thought we should wait and see. Jake passed away in the night.

Jake was a wonderful pet. He was more than a pet to us - he was often referred to (and treated as) our first child. A month after the Hubby and I were married, we found him at the SPCA. For me, it was love at first sight - I knew immediately that he was the right puppy for us! The Hubby will deny it and tell you that he was the one who chose Jake, but it was really me.

Jake made me feel safe all the years the Hubby worked nights (and we were living in a sketchy neighborhood). The Hubby and I often commented on how lucky we were to have such a great, easygoing dog - he was easy to potty train, he never dug up the yard, never barked too much or jumped on guests. He did go through a chewing phase, but it was short. He was my walking, then running companion for years. When the Kiddo came along, he adapted remarkably well...even thought we made him stop sitting on the furniture and stop sleeping in our bed. He adapted well to the Munchkin, even though he was now outnumbered. Even in recent months, he'd act like a spry pup and chase the kids around the backyard.

I recently read the book, The Art of Racing in the Rain, about a dog who learned through watching National Geographic that in Mongolia dogs are believed to be reincarnated as men. In the book, the dog could comprehend what his owner was telling him. I figured if there was any truth to that, I wanted Jake to know exactly how special he was to us. While Jake laid there in the yard, I told him how lucky we were to have him and thanked him for being such an awesome dog. And then I told him that he could go if he was ready and that we'd see him again one day. According to the book Heaven is for Real, there are indeed dogs in heaven. I don't know if this is really true, but I'd like to be naive and think that it is.

And while we'd eventually like to get another dog, it might be awhile. Jake will be a tough act to follow.

Thank you Jake for 14 awesome years. You will not be forgotten.

road-block

2011-10-14T13:55:00.005-05:00

road-block

definition - Something, such as a situation or condition, that prevents further progress toward an accomplishment.

Yep, this training season has been quite interesting. Lots of roadblocks this year. Let me recap for you:

Mid-May - I broke my toe, causing me to postpone marathon training for 6 weeks and miss two triathlons on my race schedule.

Mid-June - Found out I had strep throat...caused me to miss a few workouts - even with the broken toe, I was doing strength training (i.e. P90X), riding my bike and swimming. But, I should have rested longer, because a month later....
Mid-July - Just when I get to start running again, I manage to get Strep once again. And until June of this year, I had never had strep. Ever. This time, just to make sure I was 100% better, I took a week off from workouts of any kind.

This brings me to this week....

Mid October - Things had been going extremely well with my training for the past couple of months. However, remember that crazy "crick" in my neck before the 18-miler? It came back on Monday with a vengeance!

This is so odd, because it's the 3rd time this has happened since late August. I woke up feeling a little stiff in the neck, but nothing too terrible. I got dressed and headed out for an easy, peasy 3-miler. I came home and started getting ready for work and there I was, in the shower, when the pain hit. The same muscle cramping in my shoulders as before, but this time it was much worse.

I continued to get dressed, got the kiddos dressed and dropped them off at school. I rode the bus into downtown to work (big mistake!) and by the time I made it up to my office (lugging my laptop), I was in terrible pain. So much so, that I was on the verge of tears. I could not lift my arms to answer my phone or type on my keyboard. I needed to leave to go to the doctor, but because I rode the bus, I was stranded. My bus stops running after a certain point in the morning and doesn't run again until the afternoon. I finally got brave enough to pick up the phone (which hurt like hell) and call my doctor. He could fit me in that day, so then I had to ask my Dad to pick me up. Thank God for retired parents who live nearby!

Anyway, I went to my general practitioner who basically told me that I must have slept wrong and to take Advil. Gee, thanks (there goes $65 I will never get back into my HSA)! I did what he said and I felt better the next day, so I went to work. Unfortunately, I think I may have overdone it by working 12 hours, because on Wednesday my neck and shoulders hurt even more. Soooo, I asked some of my running peeps for a referral and that led me to my very 1st visit with a chiropractor.

I will refer to this doctor as DR. AWESOME. I didn't feel this way immediately after my 1st visit, because to be honest he didn't have any miracle cure. And, he did not prescribe any medication to mask the pain - which at that time I really wanted - pain killers and muscle relaxers - I guess wine would have to do. But, what he did do is take a x-ray, followed by some adjusting in my back and neck, electronic stimulation of my muscles, and some painful deep tissue massage.

There were no immediate results. Yes people, I expect miracles in this day in age!!! But, that evening, I noticed a difference! I really did!

I noticed a better range of motion with my head and arms. There was still quite a bit of pain, but it wasn't quite a severe as earlier that day. The next day I went back again and had more good results - last night I could lay down without almost crying and this morning I could actually reach up and turn off my alarm clock without crying out in pain! Thank you DR. AWESOME! While I'm not 100% better, the improvement is awesome! I am going back on Monday, which will hopefully be my last visit to DR. AWESOME.

The problem - I am not supposed to run ~~until Monday~~ for a few days. DR. AWESOME is worried that I might tense up my shoulders during the run, which might aggravate the area. I am pretty determined to run the 14 miles on my schedule for Saturday, but I may not. The problem is that I really don't have time to run that kind of mileage after my check-up on Monday. I'll let you know what I decide...

In the meantime, I am more than a little bummed. My training has not been where it needs to be for the past 3 weeks due to travel for work. While I have been running on the days I'm supposed to, I haven't been running the mileage I should be running - kinda hard to do when you're working 8 am - 5 pm, then taking college students to dinner until 8 or 9 pm, then going back to a hotel room to catch up on e-mails in the evening. Not that I don't enjoy it, but it does kinda make training difficult. I had vowed to get right on track for these final 4 weeks of training and then the stupid shoulder/neck/back thing had to happen. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!

So, I will end on these two quotes and will try to remember them when I encounter any future roadblocks:

If you're trying to achieve, there will be roadblocks. I've had them; everybody has had them. But obstacles don't have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don't turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it. ~Michael Jordan

For every failure, there's an alternative course of action. You just have to find it. When you come to a roadblock, take a detour. ~Mary Kay Ash

Long Run Update

2011-10-13T05:06:00.002-05:00

Well, I survived my 18 and 20 miler. Both were runs that I wasn’t sure would even happen…why, you ask? Allow me to explain….

I woke up the morning of my 18-miler feeling good. I went to the kitchen to put my pop tarts in the toaster and made a pit-stop in the bathroom. TMI, I know, but as I was sitting there I started to notice what my Grandma would call a “crick” in my neck. Then, a few seconds later, the muscles in my shoulders began to tighten and the pain I felt was excruciating. Seriously, I wasn’t sure if I could get up. After a minute or two, the tightening began to subside, but my neck and shoulders were still sore. I could barely get dressed and turning my head from side to side was near impossible. But, being the busy runner mom that I am, I went ahead and met up with some friends for a 6 mile “pre-run” before meeting with Woodlands Fit for 12 more miles. I knew if I didn’t fit the run in then, I might never find another time. Somehow, someway, I made it through all 18-miles without any back or neck pain. In fact, after making it home, I told the Hubby that the run almost seemed too easy. I felt great!!! (Well, other than the neck issues.)

My 20-miler was actually supposed to be 2 weeks after the 18-miler, followed by a 12 miler and then followed by a 22-miler. But, I have some running peeps who decided to delay their 20-miler by one week and run 10 miles before running the local “10 for Texas” 10-mile race. The idea was that running the last 10 miles with the crowds, the cheering and water stops would be more fun than running 20-miles on our own. The thought of changing up my training schedule made me nervous…I really wanted a 2nd 20+mile run. If nothing else, having two 20-milers would be a good confidence builder. But, I decided to run with my friends.

Wouldn’t you know it, on the date of my originally planned 20-miler, we had amazing 58-degree temps and zero humidity. However, on the date of the 10 for Texas, the temps were in the 70s and humid as heck! Figures.

The reason this run almost didn’t happen? Tummy issues. (TMI again) Seriously, I spent more time in the bathroom before the run than I did getting dressed. I debated taking Imodium, but decided against it since I’ve never used it before a run before. Fortunately, by the time I made it to our designated meeting place and made one more stop in the Market Street bathroom, I felt better. Not 100%, but better. The 1st 10-miles felt pretty good. My stomach felt off, but it didn’t get any worse with my Bee Stingers or Gatorade. Then, we had just enough time to freshen up a bit – change shirts, cool off with icy cold wash cloths, etc. – before we headed to the start of the 10 for Texas.

The race went well, although I was definitely not racing. I have PRed two years in a row, so that did make it a little hard to not want to go faster…not that I could at that point! I’ll admit, the warm temps really got to me and at mile 16 or 16.5-ish, I really started to feel it. Instead of walking for a minute at each mile, I began to take a quick walk break every ½ mile. I did this until a little after mile 18, when I got my 2nd wind and could run more. I even charged up the bridge at mile 19. Honestly, I think I was just happy to be almost done! I finished at a pace of 11:24…not fast by any means, but actually 1 second faster than my goal pace. Given the conditions that morning, I will take it! And, the best part is that my legs felt great afterwards! I know I could have run another 6.2, but of course I didn’t want to. J

So compared to the training for my last marathon 5 years ago, I feel stronger both physically and mentally. The me 5 years ago would have been a pansy and walked the bridge at the end of the race or beaten myself up about those few extra walk breaks. This year, I feel like my recovery is faster as well. It’s a great feeling!

Long Run Re-Cap

2011-09-15T20:30:00.004-05:00

So here’s a re-cap of my long runs in recent weeks…I figure it would take too long to update you on every little workout that occurred over the past month!

August 13 - 12-miler –
This was a typical summer morning in Houston – you know, 80 degrees with a “feels like” temp of 90 at 5 am. To make matters worse, I had a bit of a sinus infection and had taken a Zyrtec the night before. This is the 1st time I’d ever taken Zyrtec. The group I am running with was only scheduled for 7 miles, so I ran a 5-mile out and back before meeting up with them.

By the time I finished the 5-miler, I felt a bit spacey. I wasn’t sure if it was the heat or the Zyrtec. I debated about whether I should stop or go ahead with the next 7 miles. After grabbing some water and a Gu, I decided to keep going.

This was the most difficult 12-miler ever. I was okay for the 1st few miles, but after that, I walked way too much. I was fortunate enough to run into a couple of people from the group doing 4/1s, so I stayed with them the rest of the way. Just barely. My pace was a very pathetic 12:01. Ugh.

August 20 – 14-miler –
Somehow I lucked out on this run – the temps were hovering around 77 and the humidity wasn’t quite as bad as usual. I was worried about whether or not I could finish 14 miles after that disaster of 12-miler the week before. This week, the kiddos were attending a birthday party at 9:30 am (CRAZY!), so I ended up running in my neighborhood to save time.

I ran the 1st 7 miles in one big loop around my neighborhood going in and out of the different sections. I stopped at my house, where I put a cooler in the driveway with cold water, Gatorade, endurolytes, etc. Trust me, with a 3 year old and a 6 year old, I didn’t want to go into the house…then, I might never make it back out!

My 2nd 7 miles were pretty non-eventful. I think mentally, I felt strong until about mile 13 when I was just ready for the run to be over. My pace wasn’t great, but much better than the previous week at 11:45.

September 3 – 16-miler
Once again, we had too much to on the agenda for Saturday, so I ran in my neighborhood again. The previous week was a cut-back week, so I was well rested and ready for 16-miles. I lucked out again with the weather – it was slightly cooler, the humidity was low and it was windy. Normally, I don’t like a headwind, but it felt great every time I turned a corner and was hit by the wind.

The original plan was to come back to my house at 6-miles, 12-miles and then finish with the final 4-miles…for some reason, it’s easier for me to head out on that last stretch knowing I have fewer miles that the previous two loops. But, it was cooler and I didn’t drink as much as usual, so I managed 8 miles for my 1st loop. At home, Ire-filled my hand-held bottle at my house and headed out again. It was getting a bit warmer since the sun was now up and I ran out of water on my 2nd loop…luckily, I was only a mile away from a water fountain where I could re-fill my bottle.

My legs did start to feel fatigued toward the end of the run, but overall I felt really good! And much to my surprise, my pace was better than the previous 2 long runs – 11:28. It’s amazing what a little cooler weather will do. Once I stopped running, I really felt it in my legs! I ended up having a big glass of ice cold chocolate milk and had an ice bath. I made sure to stay active the rest of the day so that I didn’t have time for everything to stiffen up…this is easy to do with my two small kids!

Last weekend was another cut-back week, so only 10 miles on the schedule – the weather was a good 10-degrees cooler and it felt great. My pace was a sub-11 minute pace (just barely). And, I was able to run with my regular running group, which was a nice change. In fact, I met a woman who lives near me and who is crazy enough to get up at stupid thirty and run with me! We ran together at stupid-thirty this morning.

This weekend I have 18-miles to look forward to (NOT)! The warmer temps and humidity are back in full force, so it’s going to be interesting. Gotta remember to hydrate, hydrate, hydrate!!!

So what are you doing this weekend? What mileage are you running? Tell me!

Bridgeland Tri Race Report (finally!)

2011-09-13T12:53:00.003-05:00

Sorry, I’ve been a loser and have not posted in over a month! What can I say, except that life happens. Sometimes trying to juggle a busy job, hubby, kids, household stuff and training gets crazier than I really like. It’s times like that when I question my sanity and my ability of doing of these things well. When things get crazy, I don't always feel like blogging for whatever reason...

And now for the fun stuff – the Bridgeland Tri race report!

The hubby and I decided we’d leave the house a little before 5 am, since it takes at least 40 minutes to get to the race location. Typically, I wouldn’t leave quite so early, but since this was the hubby’s 1st tri, I decided to do whatever I could to make the morning as stress-free as possible for him. We arrived and parked with no problem and made our way over to transition. Later, I heard that traffic had gotten really backed up which may or may not have contributed to the race starting about 10 minutes late, so I was really glad we decided to arrive early.

Here we are hanging out in transition

Once we both set up our spots in transition, we chatted with a couple of people we knew and headed over to the swim start. It was way early, but we both wanted to get in the water for a short practice swim. The swim start is about a ¼ mile from transition and the swim is point to point, so you end up right at the transition area. About the time we were about to go into the water, a race official told us that there would be no practice swimming. We were bummed, especially since we saw people in the water already. I ran into tri pal, Merry, and she walked over to the side and waded in. While I was standing there trying to decide if I wanted to be a rebel with her, the race official walked away and several people started to enter the water. We said, “Screw it!”, and joined the other swimmers. Such rebels we are!

This is the lake where we swam...it looks harmless. right?

Next, it was time to stand in the porta potty line. The Hubby was in one of the earlier waves, but my wave didn’t start until 45 minutes after the 1st wave, so I thought that I better take care of business. J After that, I ran into some of my peeps – Jennifer (my weekend biking friend), Kay (my Katy FLATland friend) and a few others. Kay and I were in the same wave and before we knew it, someone was telling us to line up. We were so busy chatting it up with people, that we didn’t even realize that it was almost our turn!

The Swim. I am super pleased to say that this is the 1st time I didn’t freak out during the swim. I think it’s safe to say that I have finally overcome my open water swimming issues. FINALLY. I took off and despite being kicked and pushed and me kicking and pushing others, I just swam! Can I get a WHOOT? About 250 m into the swim, I heard someone saying, “help, help” to my right. After a moment, I realize that I know that voice! It was one of my running peeps and she was having a rough swim. I noticed a kayak to my left, so I shouted “Kayak!!!!” as loud as I could. I asked my peep if she was okay, to which she replied “NO!”. Once I saw that the kayak was almost to her, I headed off on my swim again. Again, I was calm. No freakouts! Before I knew it, I was turning to head to the shore. I couldn’t believe it – I was almost done! This was not a fast swim, but it was my most comfortable swim during a race ever. I loved it!

The bike. Next, I ran to my bike, which was conveniently close to the swim exit, but not so convenient to the run out. I thought I was hurrying, but my T1 time doesn’t reflect that at all, lol. I headed out on the bike, mounted and off I went. The bike was basically an out and back, ride past the start/finish, and then out and back the other direction. The 1st out had a bit of a wind, but not too bad. The way back was awesome – there was a bit of a tailwind and my average pace was consistently around 20 – 21 mph. For me this is great! I was playing leap frog with a couple of women most of the time, and we were passing lots of people. Of course, I got passed as well, but everyone who passed me had a pretty cool looking tri bike and looked very serious about what they were doing. After I passed the bike in/out, I did something pretty dumb – I dropped my water bottle as I was trying to put it back in the holder, doh! And, it was my favorite pink, insulated bottle from Tri-Girl, Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr! Finally, it was time to turn and head back to transition. It was windier at this point, but I only had about 2 more miles, so I tried to stay strong.

Back in transition. I think I did pretty well in T2, but for some reason the timing chip didn’t register. I was pretty winded heading into my run. I looked down at my Garmin and saw that I had started out at a 9:02 pace…yeah, better slow down cause I don’t run that fast! And slow down I did. I think I wasn’t exactly in the best frame of mind for running. The heat was making me grumpy. I walked through the 1st water stop, then walked again on the 2nd one. Then I walked again sometime before I hit the 3 mile marker. Seriously? I know I didn’t need those walk breaks…in retrospect I know I was just being a wuss. I think that extra half mile (since most races end with a 5k) was playing with me mentally. But finally I was rounding the corner and could see the finish, so I tried to pick up the pace a bit and sprint it in.

My finish time –
I knew I wouldn’t have the same run pace as CB&I after being out for so long, so my goal was to finish in under 1:40. I beat that, so I am pleased, but like so many of us who do this, I know there are areas that I could have done better (i.e. the run!). But, I swam the 500 1 minute faster than CB&I and I had my best bike pace ever! So yes, I am very happy about that!
And, I am super proud of the hubby. He did awesome!

Here we are after the race with our awesome bling!

Bridgeland also had an amazing post race party with plenty of food and beer. They even had troughs full of ice cold water to sit in and ease the achy muscles. And the medal? A-W-E-S-O-M-E!!!

Cool medal, huh???

I highly recommend this race and any other races from OnUrLeft productions. They are well organized and 1st class all the way!

More updates on what's been happening for the past month are coming soon! (I promise!)

It's Just STUPID HOT!

2011-08-04T07:49:00.004-05:00

Note...I am borrowing the phrase "stupid hot" from Susan. Really, there's just no other way to describe what most of the country is experiencing right now!

Monday, August 1 - Rest day
I started to type July and then stopped...holy crap it's already August! Monday was a rest day. And I'll be honest, my legs were pretty sore from the 11-miler the day before - the left quad was feeling tight, the right shin was feeling sore...ugh, and that was only 11 miles. The fun is just starting! :-)

Tuesday, August 2 - Run & Abs
Normally, Tuesday would be my speedwork day, but my legs were still a bit achey and I have a race this weekend, so I decided to just run 3-miles fairly easy. And, for whatever reason I just didn't feeling like running in the dark at stupid-thirty, so I opted to use the indoor track at work during my lunch break.

The track is on the 8th floor of a building in downtown Houston. Yes, the loops are mind numbing, but it's in the a/c and at least I get to look at buildings and the action on the street below. And, this is one of the only times I actually listen to my ipod when I run (well, here and on the dreadmill). It's nice to have options.

Once the kiddos were in bed, I did Ab Ripper X for a core workout. I have done this workout so often, that I can do the entire workout without watching the P90X dvd. So, I did the entire workout while watching The Wonder Years, lol. I forgot how cute that show was.

Wednesday, August 3 - Run and Swim
Instead of pushing my snooze button too many times, I actually forgot to set my alarm clock. Doh! Actually, I did set an alarm, but it wasn't mine...it was the Hubby's alarm (we have a clock with dual alarms). Fortunately, I have an internal alarm clock and it woke me up at 4:18 am. Double doh! I knew I wouldn't quite have time for 5 miles, but I decided I'd run as far as I could in the time that I had to work with.

Before I headed out for my run, I let the dog out so he could take care of business. Ugh, I could feel that wave of warm, moist air the minute I opened the back door - YUCK! When I set out on my run, I was trying not to complain, but damn! It was a sauna. I ~~struggled~~ managed through my miles - 4.89...yes, I should have run that last .11, but I was now late getting into the shower and I was already back at my house. It probably didn't help that I stopped for a minute or two to talk to my "friend". He didn't get into Houston for the 1/2 marathon for the 2nd year in a row and was majorly bummed. Prior to the lotto, he had run the marathon once and the 1/2 marathon 6x. So instead, he is doing The Woodlands 1/2 Marathon in March and maybe the USA Fit 1/2. It's good to have a "friend" out there running at stupid-thirty. And, when I made it back home, I learned from the news that it was 82 degrees outside with a "feels like" of 90. At 4:30 am! Anyway, I have got to get better about getting out the door in the mornings in a timely manner. I know as the runs get longer, I will eventually need to split up the mileage, but it does help to get a large chunk of the mileage out of the way early!

After work, I headed to the gym for my swim. The kids have swim lessons on Wednesday nights and I absolutely hate to miss that, but by the time I leave work, take the bus to the Park & Ride and drive the 20 minute drive to swim class, class would almost be over. So...I've deemed this my swim day - I can get in a shorter swim, then make it home a few minutes before the Hubby and kids get there which gives me just enough time to get something going for dinner. My swim - 45 minutes, 1,600 yds.

Tomorrow, I am going to try to set aside some time for a short bike/run brick. I just bought a new pair of tri shorts, so I want to try them out before Sunday's race....nothing new on race day, right?

Speaking of the heat...which do you prefer for running/training - the hot, humid summers, or the icy cold winters?

Weekend Re-Cap

2011-08-02T17:34:00.004-05:00

Saturday, July 30 – Open Water Swim
The hubby and I went to the triathlon clinic held by Onurmark on Saturday. The clinic would not only give us an opportunity to get some good tips about each aspect of the sport, but it would also give us an opportunity to swim the actual race course for the upcoming Bridgeland Triathlon.

The clinic was awesome. I think it gave the Hubby some great first-timer information and it was a good for me to hear all the things I’d heard before, but may have forgotten. Once we signed in, we headed over to the swim start and got some great open water swim tips from local swim guru, TJ Fry. The crowd was mostly first-timers and TJ did a great job of getting a laugh here and there during the clinic, which I think helped get some of the nervousness out. Finally, it was time to swim.

This is where we swam and will swim again at our tri on Sat. Doesn't look too bad, does it?

The the race coordinators asked people to line up and start in waves, which was excellent practice for the real deal. I could tell the hubby was nervous, but after watching the 1st few waves go, he lined up and made his way into the water. I definitely know how he was feeling…even now I get the OWS jitters. But this time I was actually feeling really calm about everything. I was just ready to swim. And for once, I had one of my best open water swims ever!

FINALLY!

I forgot to start my watch, so I have no idea of my time…it wasn’t really about that. In fact, my swim felt pretty slow. What was awesome is that I didn’t have any of my typical “freakout”. AT ALL. NONE! I just swam and kept going. And it was almost all freestyle! I did revert back to my side-stroke when I was trying to sight, but it was one stroke and then right back to freestyle. I did get kicked and bumped. A lot. But, I only worried about what I was doing, blocked out everyone else and just kept swimming! For those of you who remember this post, you know that this is a HUGE milestone for me.

While I don’t want to get too happy about this until I’ve done the same thing at a race, I actually feel like I’ve finally gotten over the hump. I can finally swim (not gasp and panic) in open water!
I wish I could say the same thing for the Hubby. What he experienced was a typical newbie thing. He struggled a bit – it sounds like he had a tough time with the breathing (which has always been my problem). Again, I know exactly how he was feeling, because until this swim I was always getting that ows “freakout” – you know, where you just can’t seem to catch your breath and everything you practice in the pool goes completely out the window! But he finished! I was so proud when I saw him coming to shore…he did it!

I was hoping to get in one more swim on the course, but I think the clinic started a little late and by the time we walked around to the start again, the course was closed. Bummer. The woman coordinating the swim did let a couple of us swim out to the 1st buoy and back, which was nice.

Next we headed over to the transition part of the clinic. Again, great information and great tips from On Your Mark. The hubby and I decided that the clinic as definitely worth the $20 we paid and the drive across town! I think we’re pretty much ready for next weekend’s race…well, as ready as we’re gonna be!

Sunday, July 31 – Long run, 11 miles
I actually considered running my long run on Saturday evening, just to get it over with. But, it was dang hot at 7:30 pm and I knew it would be at least 10 degrees cooler in the morning.

Yummy goodness in every box!

For the 1st time, I ate a Pop Tart before my run. Any excuse to eat a sugary sweet Pop Tart is fine with me - I love me some Pop Tarts, but don't eat them because, let's face it, they're crap. And maybe that Pop Tart helped, because I felt fantastic for a majority of my run. My original plan was to head back to “base” (i.e. my house) every 4 - 5 miles where I could re-fill my hand held bottle, grab a Gu or Endurolytes, etc. But, I had some Bee Stinger Chews with me and by mile 5, I still had some Gatorade left in my bottle so I kept going. I didn’t make it back to “base” until mile 7.5, which is when I re-filled, Gu-ed and took 2 more Endurolytes. At that time, my pace was an unimpressive 11:35. But, I swore I would just run what felt comfortable and not stress about those 11’s. At this point, I still felt great and even comptenplated running 12 instead of 11.

I headed back out for my final few miles. The run still felt great, but around mile 10, I just wanted to be done. (Did I really consider doing 12 earlier?) I made it back to my house and looked at my watch...I still had another .20 to do! Ugh, I hate it when that happens...I just wanted to go inside my house and shower! But, I kept going and finally my watch beeped - 11 miles done @ 11:27 pace. Whoot, I'm back in the double digits! And, I was right - the temps were cooler. Only 75 degrees, versus the normal 82.

After showering and having breakfast with the family (thanks to my sweet Hubby), the kiddos and I hung out while the Hubby went out for his 2 1/2 hour bike ride. What do you do when it's going to "feel like" 102 degrees and your kids are bored silly? You build and indoor tent, of course!

I have a feeling we well be getting out our old sheets again this summer. As much as I love to be outdoors and take the kids to the playground, it's just too fricking hot to be out there.

Do you use pop tarts before your long runs or something else? What do you do to beat the heat on your runs? With your kiddos?

Stupid-thirty, take 2

2011-07-28T22:20:00.000-05:00

Wednesday, July 27 – Run & Strength Training

I woke up at stupid thirty again to run 5 miles. However, I pushed the snooze button 2x more than I should have, so my run had to be cut to 4 miles. Well, 4.23 miles. Do you think I’m stressing about the pesky .77 that I didn’t run. Well, yes I am actually, because I am type A….but not enough to go out and run that .77 later! And, I am happy to report that I did not run into any potheads, cows or other strange things. I did see a large raccoon crossing the street, but that’s it. And, my “friend” was out there this morning, along with another runner…whoohoo, it’s great to know that I am not alone in this stupid-thirty endeavor.

My pace? We’ll it was slightly under 11 minute/mile. As I was running, I came to the conclusion that as long as it’s stupid-hot at stupid-thirty, I would be okay seeing miles in the 11-minute range. I am not going to freak out about it. In previous summers, I often saw miles in the 12-minute range, so anything 11:30 or faster will do. So there, I said it and I am not going to stress over it.

Thursday, July 28 – ~~Spin~~ and Swim

No stupid-thirty this morning! I prepped 2 bags on Wednesday night – one for the pool after work and one to take to work for lunchtime spin class. Naturally, it wasn’t until after I dragged the huge workout bag on the bus that I checked my Outlook calendar and noticed that I had back to back meetings pretty much all day…including during lunch. I forgot about that one, doh! So, no spin class for the 2nd week in a row. I’ve got to start planning better and going to one earlier in the week…it’s just that the Thursday class tends to be a little more challenging and that’s exactly what I need.

After work, I did manage to fit in a swim. It was only 1,200 meters and I really needed to do more, but it’s important to me that I make it home in time to help the Hubby put the kids to bed. So 1,200 it was. I had planned to also swim on Wednesday, but the schedule just didn’t allow for it. I am going to have to figure out how to get more swims in, especially if I want to meet one of the goals I’ve set for next year!

So that’s it…Friday is my scheduled rest day, but my weekend workouts are all messed up and I might end up working out on Friday afterall. The hubs and I have an open water swim clinic on Saturday morning, so that means I’ll have to do my long run on Sunday and skip my longer bike ride. Oh, and we do get to have a “date night” on Friday, because the kiddos are staying with my parents..woohoo! Probably dinner and movie…should we see Captain America or Cowboys and Aliens???

So, what’s on your agenda for the weekend? Workouts? Fun stuff?

Pot smokers and Stupid-Thirty

2011-07-27T11:27:00.004-05:00

In my circle of running peeps we often use the term “dark-thirty” when referring to our pre-dawn group runs. Usually, those runs begin at 5:30 or 6:00 am. With my training/work/commute schedule, I am forced to get out the door anytime between 4:00 am and 4:45 am in order to be back home by 5:15 am to get myself and the kids ready for the day. From this point forward, I will now refer to this time as “stupid-thirty”.

Why?

Because it’s just effing stupid to workout at this time. Really.

And yes, that really is my alarm clock!

But yet I continue to do it. A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do, and all that malarkey....it's either stupid-thirty, do mind-numbing loops around the indoor track during lunch or treadmill during lunch or after work. (And let me tell you, I got a lot of crap about attempting speedwork on the dreadmill a few years ago.) All of the options can work, but for me it's just easier to get out there 1st thing in the morning, because crap happens throughout the day that sometimes makes it hard to get in a quality workout later.

Tuesday, July 26 – Run (speedwork) and Ab Ripper X
As always with me, the word “speed” is relative. It really means, “still slow, but not as friggin slow as usual”. I don’t have access to a lighted track in the early morning and typically can’t make it to the track until after dark in the evenings, so I usually do my speed work around the neighborhood with my Garmin set to beep at whatever intervals I want to do. This time around I decided on 400s, mainly because it’s been forever since I’ve done any type of speedwork. 400s seemed obtainable. I also decided that rather than venture throughout the entire neighborhood, I would stay in our little block. This would allow me to stop and grab water as I passed our house and to not have to carry my hand held bottle.

Overall, I think the workout went well. I hit my goal pace during my speed intervals, but the only problem is that I was so freaking winded that I felt inclined to walk a bit after each one, instead of just slowing down the pace to a slow jog. The result was pretty much the same overall pace that I’ve had for my regular runs.

Oh, and on my second loop around the block, I noticed that there was now a car parked along the curb in front of a house. Hmmmm, that wasn't there the 1st time I ran by....and, there were two teenage guys sitting in the car, Judging by the looks on their faces, I definitely startled them. And I smelled a little sumfin’ funny as I ran by…seriously dooooods, it’s 4:30 am for pete’s sake! I guess anytime is a good time to get your party on, lol! It kinda reminded me of these dudes:

After the kiddos went to bed, I did the ol’ Ab Ripper X. All part of my master plan to get a ripped core.

Do you do speedwork? Do you do it on a track, on the dreadmill? What's your favorite interval?

The long lost brick...

2011-07-25T09:15:00.003-05:00

It's been awhile since my last brick workout. As in before the CB&I tri. What I've decided to do between now and Bridgeland is to cut way back on my weekend bike mileage and add a run after my ride. I figure I really don't need to do 50+ miles every weekend between now and my next tri. After all, the bike at Bridgeland is less than 14 miles. What I need to do is to get my legs used to the bike to run transition.

With this in mind, I set out for a brick on Sunday morning. I decided on 1 hour on the bike, followed by a 2-mile run. My legs were feeling that 9-miler from the day before, but after a few miles on the bike, everything loosened up. My average bike pace was 16.4 mph...not great, but not bad. I ended up doing a little more than a hour, because I misjudged the distance and did a little more than 18 miles. Once I made it back home, I ran my bike up the driveway and transitioned to run gear. Here's where I messed up - I usually wear my Garmin on the bike and turn it on about 10 minutes before starting my run. Yep, I forgot to turn on the Garmin and it took FOREVER to find the satellites! In fact, I got tired of waiting and just started running. It logged 1.92 of my 2 miles at a 9:45 pace. I am trying really, really hard not to compare this run pace with my pre-CB&I run pace...I am starting over after a long running hiatus and my times are going to reflect that for awhile. Ugh!

I've also decided that I can't bike on Saturday with my biking peeps anymore. Saturdays need to be my long run days. Why? Because if I bike for 2 - 3 hours on Saturdays, it's kinda hard to get in a good quality long run on Sundays. Let's face it, I've missed a lot of time running over the past couple of months. NYC is only 14 weeks away. I need to focus on running. Yes, I love to ride my bike...so I will ride 20-30 miles each Sunday as time permits. And yes, I will increase my ride distance after NYC. But for now at least, it's gonna be all about the run.

Bridgeland is more than likely going to be my last tri of the season. It's kind of sad, but again, it's time to focus on the run. And, I have some exciting goals for after NYC which I reveal later. :-)

2011-07-23T13:51:00.002-05:00

"Whether you think you can or whether you think you can't, you're right."

- Henry Ford

Love the quote.

Yesterday, I left the house at my usual time (6:30 am), and I didn't make it back home until after 10 pm. Lots of craziness going on in all aspects of my life at the moment. It makes me tired and it makes me grumpy. Last night when I made it home, I was ready to tell the Hubby that I'd decided I didn't want to run NYC. I was going to check our rental contract for the apartment we'd rented and see how much of our deposit we could get back. I was done.

Why? Well, after missing 7 weeks of running, then missing another week due to strep, I was concerned that I had missed too much training. Before the stupid toe incident, I was ready to go into the training season a stronger runner than I'd ever been. Instead, I was finishing 6 miles at an 11-something pace and it was HARD! Seriously people, my training plan says that I should be at 14 miles this week. 14!

But, it's funny what a good night's sleep can do. I woke up and thought of that quote...okay, so I'll run 9 this week, instead of 14. Okay, so I might not have the super-duper PR in NYC that I had hoped for. But, I will race. I will train hard over the next 15 weeks. I will do my best.

This morning, I headed out for 5 miles before Woodlands Fit was scheduled to meet up. Yes, it was slow, but much to my surprise, it wasn't that bad. Then, I did 4 more miles with my peeps from Woodlands Fit. Again, it was freaking slow (slower than the 1st 5 miles), but again...not too terrible. I finished my goal mileage for the week and I survived. Yes, I had some negative thoughts along the way, but I tried to push them out of my head. And, the best part? My legs felt like I could have gone a little bit farther. (emphasis on the little)

So, it's going to be a long, stupid hot, sweaty road to the start line, but I think I'll make it.

Workouts this week...

2011-07-22T13:07:00.003-05:00

This Week's theme is "flexibility"...sometimes things don't quite go as planned with the workout schedule, so you've got to be flexible. That can be hard when you're a type A.

Monday – 7/18, Run- 6 miles
I had the day off, so I despite the tired legs from the previous day’s ride, I decided to head out for a run. I had two choices – 1) wake up before 5 am, so I could be back home before the hubby left for work or 2) sleep in and go for a run after taking the kids to school.

Can you guess which option I chose?

Even though it meant I’d be running in warmer temps, I opted for #2 – sleep in. Although, with my kiddos that means I get to sleep until 6 am. It was warm and muggy, but overall it was better than my last 6-miler!

Afterwards, I spent the day with my mom to celebrate her upcoming birthday. We had lunch and cupcakes and just hung out. Fun times!

Tuesday, 7/19 – ~~Rest~~ Insanity
Okay, so I was going to rest, but it was a stressful day and I needed to blow off some steam. I decided to do Insanity’s Cardio Circuit and it did the trick. It’s hard, but you definitely get out the days stress and frustrations!

Wednesday, 7/20 – Run and ~~Swim~~ Run again
I had one of those mornings where I just couldn’t drag myself out of bed. I had 5 miles on the schedule, but after hitting the snooze button too many times before work, I only had time for 3 miles. Then, I was limited on time after work, so opted to finish up my mileage in the afternoon heat rather than swim.

Thursday, 7/21 - ~~Spin~~ and Swim
Thursday’s workouts did not go as planned. I had plans to go to spin class during lunch, but I ended up meeting with someone that I needed to talk to at work…hey, work comes first…afterall, it pays for these races, right? So, I decided rather than swim after work, I’d ride my bike. Then, I’d swim on Friday, which was supposed to be my rest day. Well, as I travelled home it started raining. With thunder. And lightening. So much for a ride. Instead, I headed to the pool for a 50-minute swim workout. Better than nothing, right?

Friday, 7/22 – Rest
Ahhh, a rest day at last! Gotta get ready for 9 miles tomorrow in the heat and humidity. Ick!

So, how flexible are you with your workouts? Do you go with the flow, or freakout when your workouts get derailed?

KatyFLATland Ride (55 miles of happy fun)

2011-07-20T09:51:00.005-05:00

Katy FLATland. Also known as:

Tour de Flat

Flat-o-Rama

Flatsville

Flatinator

you get the idea. Let's just say that this ride was educational.

Lesson #1 – Don’t trust Mapquest.
The nice thing about going to these organized bike rides is that once you start getting closer to the venue, there are always people around with bikes attached to their vehicles. At least some of them know where they’re going. I tried following the directions Mapquest gave me and it was a FAIL. However, a quick turnaround and was able to spot the bikes and follow.

I arrived in plenty of time to pick up my packet and swag (i.e. water bottle and t-shirt). I checked my tires, changed into my bike shoes, hit the bathroom, etc. Tri buddy, Jen, arrived and headed out on her 76-mile ride. One thing we noticed is that these events aren’t like running races.…afterall, they aren’t races. There are no timing chips and there’s not a lot of fanfare at the start. In fact, there weren’t any people lining up at the start at all. People were just casually starting whenever they felt like it.

Lesson #2 – Yes, you really need that spare tube and CO2 cartridge.
Never leave home without either.

Before the ride, I met up with Houston Fit peep, Kay and we headed out. We had a pretty good pace going when I noticed that something just didn’t feel right on my bike. I had a freaking flat tire. That’s right folks, 5.62 miles into a 55-mile ride and I had a flat. No worries, though. I’ve watched the Hubby change a flat tire and I knew what needed to be done….I also knew what would take an experienced tire changer 5 minutes would more than likely take me about an hour. True dat. I turned my bike upside down and had the rear wheel off in no time. A guy slowed down and asked if he could help. He looked like an experienced tire changer (I can tell these things by just looking at a person...impressive, huh?), so I took him up on the offer. He had the tube off in just a minute or two, checked to make sure the wheel was clear and put the new tube on...all in about 5 minutes. The SAG wagon stopped and aired up the tire, which was lucky because it turns out that I’d need my CO2 later.

We thanked our friendly helpers and were off again! About 5 miles later, I started noticing that the bike didn’t feel right again. Kay confirmed that my right tire looked low. We tried riding for another mile or so, and then had to stop. I used my CO2 cartridge to fill the tube and we kept going….the goal was to just make it to the next rest stop. We made it there (around 14 miles into the ride), but the tire was already low again. The line for the bike mechanic was pretty long, so we opted to air up the tire with the pumps that were available and try to make it to the next stop which was 17 miles away.

Lesson #3 – Bring more than one CO2 cartridge and money!
For some reason, the next 17 miles seemed to take forever! We stopped once to put air in the tire. At that point, Kay suggested that we take the tube out, make sure the wheel was clear of anything that could have punctured the tube, and check the tube. Together we managed to take off the tube. The wheel seemed to be all clear and we could not figure out where the leak was. So, Kay donated her CO2 to the cause and aired up the tire again and we kept going. Finally, we rounded a corner and one of the volunteers told us the next stop was 1 mile away. She lied…it was more like 2 miles, but whatever. We made it. It was there that I finally decided that we needed a new tube. This stopping and going was slowing us way down and it was getting freaking old fast. The problem? I only had $5 on me. Fortunately, Kay also brought cash, so I had to borrow some from her to buy the new tube and have the bike mechanic dude put it on. Yeah, we could have done it, but at this point we didn’t want to. Also, the bike mechanic dude noticed that the seam on my tube was leaking. What are the odds – a flat and a defective tube all in one ride?

Lesson #4 – There is really no good reason to ride 55 miles (or more) at one time
But yet we do it anyway.

Kay and I were on our way again. We tried to pretend that we were biking in the beautiful Tuscan countryside. In fact, right after Kay suggested this, we turned a corner and saw fields of grapes! Overall, this isn’t a bad ride…it’s flat, there were crosswinds and a few miles with headwinds, but overall not too bad. The problem is that riding for 55 miles, even with the best company, can get boring. Let’s face it, there’s not much to look at in Katy – cows, roadkill, and miles of prairie.

Lesson #5 – No matter how painful the last few miles are, it does feel good to know you kept going and got’er done!
We took our time at the last rest stop. They had PB&J, oranges watermelon and best of all, OREOS! Yes, I took one and enjoyed every last crumb. Once we got going again, I was definitely feeling the heat and my “get up and go” was all gone. Kay and I took turns leading, so that we could draft off of each other. Note to self – drafting only works if you can keep up with the lead person! Kay still had the "get up and go". I didn't.

The good news – even though it took us about 45 minutes longer than expected (thank you tires), we finished. This was the longest distance I've ever done and it felt good to do it, but I’m not sure I want to do it again anytime soon.

Lesson #6 - Take pictures..that way you can laugh at yourself later!
So, in 55 miles and 3 tire changes (sort of) , I don't have one picture to memorialize the event. Just one of those "doh!" moments, I guess. I blame it on the heat - it fried my brain and I never thought to take any pictures. Oh well, there are always the memories!

Strep - take 2

2011-07-13T13:58:00.002-05:00

Remember how I mentioned a sore throat on Sunday?

Yep.

Strep throat. again. That would be 2x in 2 months. This coming from someone who never had strep before last month. Ever.

Another small setback. This is getting really old. The sore throat, the aches, and well, just feeling like crap in general is no fun.

So, I'll be a good girl and take a couple of days off. Okay, maybe three. I think I didn't give myself enough rest (as in none) last time I had strep, so this time I will be a little more cautious. I will take it easy and maybe try to run on Friday, then rest on Saturday...afterall, I have that 55-mile ride at Katy Flatland on Sunday! It's paid for and I've been looking forward to it, so I better be rid of all the sickies by then.

Yeah, yesterday's bike/strength training and today's run/swim ain't happening. Bummer!

Little bit of this and that...

2011-07-11T10:55:00.004-05:00

Well, another weekend come and gone. I love my weekends! So here’s what was up:

Thursday, July 7 – Spin class & Swimming
I’ve discovered that Thursday spin classes are actually a little tougher than the Tuesday class…I like that and think I’ll keep going! It was grueling, but fun. After work, I headed to the gym to swim. This swim was much better than my Wednesday swim! Much smoother, much less effort...I did some drills and then a ladder. Overall, I swam 1,200 yds.

Friday, July 8 - Rest

Saturday, July 9 – Bike ride and parties
I joined my biking homies for a nice, new route. This route was along some pretty country roads about 30 minutes from my house. It was definitely more challenging than our usual, flat route – this ride included some nice, rolling hills and less protection from the wind. We had some views of the countryside, some views of a lake and even some flowers…naturally, we had to stop and enjoy! We did a little over 40 miles. It’s nice that 40 miles doesn’t seem too bad, even on the more challenging route. Although, I have to admit that the last few miles were tough mentally - by that point, I was sick of the rolling hills and felt like I could barely make it up the last couple.

Taking a little break...

Yes, we took time to stop and smell the flowers...these were growing on the side of the road! So pretty!

Later, after doing the grocery shopping and some laundry, we headed to a friend’s house to celebrate their daughter’s graduation from high school. Crazy, because I remember this daughter when she was just a baby…and now she’s graduating…kinda makes me feel old! The Hubby and I debated on whether or not we wanted to bring the kids along, and we’re glad we did. They had an awesome time playing with all the other kids and just being silly. Great food, great friends, great fun…

Sunday, July 10 – Run and swim
Sunday I had the option – get up at 4:30 to run, or wait until 7 pm in the evening. The Hubby was planning to meet up with his tri training group for their weekly run at 6:15 am, then we’d head to the lake for a swim after…this meant that I either had to run and get home before he left for his run, or I’d be running later in the evening. With the “feels like” temps in the 100s, there was no way I would be running in the middle of the day! After waking up before 5 am for 6 days in a row, I decided to sleep in. The Hubby enjoyed his group run and we still had time for breakfast together before dropping off the kids at my parent’s house and heading to the lake.

We were surprised to see such a large number of people out at the lake. Then we realized that there was an open water swim clinic being held. That group had already finished their swim…this made me happy, because I hoped they’d already scared away any snakes or other creepy crawlies out in the water. LOL! This was the hubby’s 1st open water swim and he did great! He was actually in the water before I finished putting my swim cap and goggles on. I was pretty proud of myself too…I had absolutely no anxiety whatsoever. After having a handful of really crappy open water swims in the spring, it felt good to have a good ows! I swam a little over 1,000 m, so it was a pretty decent workout!

Here's the lake where we have ows practice...looks nice and serene, huh?

Once we were home, we hung out with the kiddos and finished the laundry…exciting, huh? Then, it was finally time to head out for my run. I wasn’t really feeling it…I started to get a sore throat earlier in the day and just felt kinda crappy. Plus, my quads were sore from the bike ride the day before. Plus, it was hot! I really didn’t want to run.

Did I mention it was hot?

I had a horrible time. I walked, I whined, I cursed, I walked some more. Let’s face it, I am a morning runner. It’s about 10 degrees cooler and the sun doesn’t glare down on you at 4:30 in the morning. I know a lot of you out there run in this stupid heat and deal with it…and I don’t know how you do it. I am sure I need to get acclimated to it, but ugh, why? I’d much rather run in the morning. I don’t think I felt really good until I got to mile 5…by then the sun was low enough for me to be in the shade. At least there was a breeze. So anyway, it is what it is – a horrible, slow, walked way too much and I hate running kinda run.

I am kinda bummed that I am calling 6 miles a *long* run! Before the whole toe incident, I was easily running 8 – 10 miles, heat and all. And now, well, I’m a pansy.

It’ll get better, right?

I hope so.

HAVE A GREAT WEEK!!!

STS-135

2011-07-08T08:03:00.003-05:00

The final shuttle launch is this morning at 10:26 central. Gather your families, co-workers, whatever and watch it!

I heart short weeks!!!

2011-07-06T21:54:00.000-05:00

I love, love, love 4 day work weeks! Hard to believe hump day is over and tomorrow is Thursday! Yippeee!

I’ve managed to get in some good workouts this week and I am back on track with my healthier eating again…I was starting to see higher numbers on the scale (especially after the holiday weekend) and my clothes were starting to fit a little, um, differently. I’ll admit, I have not been eating the right things for the past several weeks. I am such an emotional eater…stress of stuff going on in my life (I won’t go into details, but just think Jerry Springer), combined with being bummed about not running has led me to making some really unhealthy choices. I know, excuses. But, I am ready to regain control and get myself headed in the right direction!

So here’s what’s been going on in my workout world –

Tuesday, July 5 – Run, 2 miles and Ab Ripper X
Okay, so 2 miles is not much, but Tuesday is not normally my run day. The hubby had his very 1st track workout after work, so instead of my usual Tuesday swim, I decided I’d run in the AM and bike ride once he was home from track. Balancing training between the two of us is not easy, but I think if we’re both flexible it will all workout. The Hubs did great at track, so I am proud of him for that! So, I headed out in the early AM hours for a run. Overall, it went well…about the same as last week – 10:34 pace. It was warm and humid, but I tried to convince myself that it wasn’t all that bad.

Later in the afternoon, on my way home from work, the wind started blowing and I could hear thunder in the distance. By the time I made it to our neighborhood, it was pouring rain and there was a lot of thunder and lightening…looks like I would not be riding my bike! Instead, I did Ab Ripper X. I’ve committed to doing this workout at least 2x per week, so I figured I might as well get it out of the way.

Wednesday, July 6 – Run, 4 miles and Swim, 40 minutes
I managed to roll myself out of bed early enough to squeeze in a 4-miler before work (but just barely). Since it had been so long since I had been running in the mornings, I hoped my Monday / Wednesday running “buddy” was still following his same schedule. My “buddy” isn’t someone I really know, he’s just someone from my neighborhood who happens to run at the same crazy-ass hours and on the same days that I do. It’s just a little more comforting to have someone else out there when the rest of the world is still asleep! And luckily, he was there! We exchanged our “Good Mornings” as our paths crossed (we run in opposite directions) and I even got a “It’s good to see you back out here!” from him. My overall pace was slow (even for me) – 10:50 – but it was better than Saturday’s 11:01 pace. I am blaming some of the slowness on the heat and some on not running for 7 weeks.

I headed to the gym after work for my swim. See, this is where I swim...

I wanted to get it done early, so that the Hubby could also squeeze in a swim (he biked after leaving work, but before picking up the kiddos). Not sure what was going on with my swim, but it felt like crap. I couldn’t seem to get my breathing right and it just felt like so much more effort than normal. I went ahead and did my drills and cut some of my freestyle laps short….instead of an hour, I only swam 40 minutes. I guess a crappy swim is better than no swim at all! I’ll try it again tomorrow and see if there is any improvement.

So that’s it for today. How’s your week going? Are you enjoying the 4-day work week???

Workouts

2011-07-05T08:02:00.004-05:00

Just catching up with the recent workouts...

Saturday, 7/2 - Bike, 20 miles

Met up with Kelly & Jen again, but this time we also had runner bud and newbie biker, Stephanie, join us. We decided we needed a change of scenery - especially if it meant we would be closer to Starbucks for post-ride trash talking - so we hit a different local neighborhood that is known for having lots of weekend cyclists. We took it kinda easy and cut the mileage a bit since we had a newbie with us...turns out that we really didn't need to, because she did fan-freaking-tastic! It was a great ride, well except for when a lady in a SUV flipped us off....actually, that just made us laugh. Afterwards at coffee, we actually had almost our entire original Woodlands Fit group together (from my 1st year wit Wfit in 2008). Great friends, great conversation!

Sunday, 7/3 - Run, 4 miles

In all honesty, I really wanted to do 6 miles this weekend. But, after my little 2-miler on Friday, I decided that baby steps might be better than just jumping in. I waited a little later than normal to start my run, which was dumb...once the sun is up, it just feels hotter. I think it's a mental thing...it's not that much warmer, but with the sun shining on me, I think it's warmer. So, I did 4 miles. My overall pace was 11 min/mile...pretty pathetic, but I did take a 1 minute walk break after miles 2 & 3. It will get better with time (I hope).

Monday, 7/4 - Bike ride 16.6 miles

Hooray for holidays! That meant I could squeeze in another bike ride. I headed for the nearby neighborhood for a quickie ride. Everyone must have been sleeping in, because I only came across one runner and no other bikers. Average pace was 16.6...I think I can do better.

Happy Independence Day!

2011-07-04T14:06:00.006-05:00

Hope everyone out in the blogosphere is having a great July 4th weekend! Here are some pics of how we've spent the past few days.... Happy Independence Day!

The kids played in the water in an attempt to stay cool in this crazy heat!

The Munchkin decided he'd rather play with his cars...at least he was in the shade!

We also had cool cars to look at while the kids played...forget the Ferraris and Maseratis, just gimme one of these!

Feeling patriotic!

The kids getting ready for the neighborhood July 4th parade..fun times!

Happy 4th of July and thanks to all the men and women who serve our country and protect our freedom!

TX Runner Mom

Q & A - all about me!

Hodge Podge O' Crap

My 1st Love

Workout Summary

Lawdy, I'm 4-0!

Race Weekend Re-Cap

The Courage to Start

Houston Marathon: Almost here!

Hip Update: Internal conflict and another Dr's appt

:-(

Houston Marathon: Getting Excited (and nervous)!

Stupid Hip: Update

New Year, New Goals

Happy New Year!

Update on the hip

Stupid Body

Blogger Gift Exchange

Weekly Re-Cap*

The Good, The Bad and The Hideous

NYC (FINALLY)

Peas in Pants

'Tis the Season!

Monday Re-Cap

All I want for Christmas...

Ye of Little Faith!

Haiku Humpday

Vacation time to get away...or run errands

Weekend Randomness

Brrrrrrrrrrr....part II

Haiku Humpday

Brrrrrrrrrrr!

Yada, Yada

Quickie Re-Cap

Justification

Spin and a Sssllloooooooooowww Run

Shiznit

No Rest for the Weary...

The Crazy Train has arrived...

Randomness

Decisions, Decisions

NYC - Day 5

The NYC Swag

NYC - Day 4

NYC - Day 3

NYC - Day 1

Random thoughts from the NYCM...

NYC Marathon Race Report

NYC Marathon

Here we go!!!

Let the obsessing begin!!!

New York, New York

New York State of Mind

A little of this, a little of that

Oh The Places You'll Go....

This week so far...

RIP Jakey Boy

road-block

Long Run Update

Long Run Re-Cap

Bridgeland Tri Race Report (finally!)

It's Just STUPID HOT!

Weekend Re-Cap

Stupid-thirty, take 2

Pot smokers and Stupid-Thirty

The long lost brick...

Workouts this week...

KatyFLATland Ride (55 miles of happy fun)

Strep - take 2

Little bit of this and that...

STS-135

I *heart* short weeks!!!

Workouts

Happy Independence Day!

I heart short weeks!!!