Pay day and now no money

I went up to Rockford again today to see my Daddy. I like that he comes back to Rockford every now and then and has classes at his former workplace so I can see him.

I had a few stores to hit up before we met up. So I go to Best Buy first to look at the GPS watches. They had the display of the Garmin 405. I went to look for a box underneath in storage but I didn't see any, just the 305. A guy came over and asked me if I needed help. I asked if he had any of the 405's. He said "I think I do." I replied, "I think you don't!" The website says that it's backordered so I doubted it. Well after a few minutes of digging behind some boxes, he found one! And it's black!! I was so happy that I couldn't stop smiling! The price rang up as $299.99 but I told him that the price on the website is $269.99. I also had $30 off which made the price $239.99. Yay!!

Then off to Target. I saw this shirt and had to take a picture of it.

Then on over to Dick's Sporting Goods were I picked up my Ascis 2130's. I posted a post on Runner's World asking about my foot print and my shoe situation. They pretty told me that if the 2110's were working and the Nimbus 9's weren't then they 2130's should work and stick with what works. So I bought them. Dick's Sporting Goods says that their return policy is 90 days and has to be pretty clean and non-scuffed. So I asked about my limestone path and if I clean off the bottoms of the shoes, could I bring them back. They said yea, I should be able to. As I explained to them, I can't quite tell if these shoes are going to work on the measley track around here. I have to out and RUN in them.

Then on over to Old Chicago for dinner. Where my father and his co-worker, Tony, showed up a few minutes later. I was playing with my new Garmin but it wasn't charged so wasn't much playing I could do. I put it on and boy, does it feel weird on my wrist. 1) it's longer than the width of my wrist so that's weird. B) It's kinda heavy III) It has a rubber band that I have to pull really tight to make it stay put. I'm hoping that I'll get used to it. Brent says to get a wristband to go under it to make my wrist bigger. Not a bad idea. But then Tony and I were talking running so that was fun. He has a Garmin himself but he wasn't sure of the kind. He bought his like 4 years ago though. He also said that he always carries pepper spray with him to spray at the wild dogs in Mississippi and he said that I should have it myself. I am a girl and will be running, by myself, at night. So I told my Dad, there ya go, Christmas present! We had a good talk, watched a bit of the Sox game, eh. And that was that. I won't be heading back up there this week and he'll be leaving on Friday sometime.

Now I'm home, charging up my Garmin. I have to let it charge fully before using to get the best performance from the battery. I can only use it once this week though, tomorrow. I got a program to go to at 5:45p on Thursday and I dont' think I'll be able to squeeze my run in and get showered, dressed and back over to the college in time and not look all flushed. So I just hope I get it figured out tomorrow after work and before my run and BEFORE it gets dark! So it's tomorrow and then Saturday.

It's also really cool out now so the weather is perfect for running. I got redemption for my EPIC FAIL on Saturday by running 3 miles in 26 minutes on Monday night!

Categories: garmin, shoes

St. Jude & Chili's!

Dine at Chili's today & 100% of your bill will be donated to St. Jude Hospital! How easy is that?! http://tinyurl.com/4bvpq8

Categories: St. Jude Marathon

Running in Chicago

So let me tell you about my run in Chicago.

After Jesse and I hammered out all the details, I set my alarm for 5:30a. When it sounded, I put the other pillow over my head and just groaned. Realised that I should probably get up, looked at the clock and it was 5:43. SHIT! That's what time I was supposed to leave! Luckily, my bag was already packed, all I had to do was just get dressed, make my bagel and pack the bananas and Gatorade. I got out of the house and turned around to get a sweatshirt. It was still dark when I left that morning at 6am. And I realised that I forgot my camera while I was driving to the station. Camera phone it is!

I made it to the train station with a little over 2 minutes to spare. *whew!* I listened to my iPod and ate my bagel. I realised that I forgot my morning banana at home and hoped that just the bagel would pull me through the run. Drank my Gatorade.

Found Jesse and off to Millennium Park we went. I noticed on the train that there was quite a few Race For The Cure shirts going on, must be a race. Sure enough, after we got all set to go with our water belts, we had to walk across Columbus and hurried our butts right through their running line!

We started our trek, 13 miles, at the Montrose Harbour and headed south from there. It was 8:51a. Not the best time to start. About a 1/2 mile into it, I realised that I forgot to wear the black knee bands I always do. I knew I couldn't go back for them though. Whoops. I hoped that the pounding on the concrete wasn't going to mess up my knees.

We stopped for water at a fountain about 4.5 miles. Turned around at 6.5 miles. Before that though, Jesse already had by this time, been in front of me for a while, leading the charge. Because I had kept slipping back. We were running side by side at about a 9:15/9:20 pace. But then I just faded, horribly.

After the turn around, I walked sooooooo many times. And Jesse, bless his heart, walked as well. He got me going again so many times too. There were times in which I just felt like I just couldn't do it anymore. It was insane! So hot. The lakefront doesn't have much shade but the breeze did feel nice. My left ankle and the toes (where they bend) were starting to hurt. So I wondered if I needed new shoes. By the end of the run, both feet were burning too. Haven't had that feeling for a while. I did get that cool shot around mile 9 though.

Once we were done, we did some stretching and I poured the cold water over my legs. I needed the cold water. There was a fountain .1 miles from where we needed to stop but I was out of water and knew I needed to get them iced down a bit.

13 miles in 2:20. That's a 10:46 min/mi pace. So much for 9-9:30 pace. Ick. I only wonder how the run would have been like if it would have been like today. 67* and cloudy.

When we walked back to Millennium Park, we went down to Crown Fountain where a whole bunch of kids were playing in the water. The water was cold but felt so good on my feet! Then I headed over to one of the blocks and stood under it to cool down and wash off the sweat. Then I noticed that now's a good time to check out my foot stomp. So I walked in the fountain and walked out on the concrete blocks and you could see a very nice imprint. Apparently, my left foot as a high arch and my right foot is a normal arch. That was pretty cool to notice. Then again, I had just run 13 miles so I thought maybe it had something to do with that. The kids I notice have absolutely no arches. All the kids foot stomps were flat as flat could be. Interesting how that happens. I never did stand where the spout out of the "mouth" happens. I didn't want to get too wet, just enough.

After we sat in the sun and dried off, we went to the bathroom at the Park Cafe building where I changed real quick and then off to get something to eat. We were starving by this time. I went to Au Bon Pain for sandwiches. Don't even ask me how to pronounce it. Good selections though. While eating outside, we saw the saddest and sweetest thing. It was a German Sheppard in a doggie wheelchair. He seemed happy though. It was across the street otherwise I would have gotten one myself.

Then off to see the WIRED NextFest. Walked in and the first thing we noticed was that it was incredibly hot! It's a tent building and with all those electronics, it can get quite stuffy. They have a few fans going but not enough. We got there about an hour or so after opening and it was already getting busy. I think the best time to go is during lunch in the week. They had a WIRED Magazine that you could grab. I love WIRED. And this place was amazing. The best part was the Peronalised Mobility. Crazy to think that this could very well happen. It was a Toyota exhibit. Check out the pictures and you'll see it and more stuff.



We stood in line for like ever to take a survey and get a free t-shirt. As I said to Jesse, the things we'll do for a free shirt. Run 26.2 miles... stand in line for 30 minutes. :-)

Then on back to the train station where we had a few minutes to grab something to drink. Luckily, both of our trains left 5 minutes apart. And that would be that.

It was good running with him, I just wish that the Elburn train would leave sooner. Next time, I'll have to stay in Chicago.

Categories: 13 miles, Jesse, pictures, running in chicago

Define Yourself

I need to remember to bring my water belt on my runs for Wednesday, especially as they're getting longer. I am now up to 6 miles on Wednesday, a mid-week run. The longest I'll run is 10 miles by November. Today was warm, 80* and a small amount of humidity (as it's supposed to rain sometime today and it hasn't yet).

I also should get some new insect repellent. A friend had a spray that was pretty neat. When you sprayed it on, it was dry immediately. No stickiness or wetness. Since I run through some woods for part of my run, I need to use it. Today, I have 4 new bites on my back. Ick.

Listening to the Phedippidations podcast is something a bad thing for me on my runs. Today's podcast had a race report from a guy doing a 50 mile race. Listening to Steve Runner read his email, got me all choked up. WHILE RUNNING! Stupid emotions. Anyway, this runner was reading an older issue of Runner's World before his 50-miler and saw this title of this blog and repeated it as his mantra.

I'm not quite sure how I missed this movie. http://www.journeyfilm.com/deankarnazes/. I watched the Spirit of the Marathon and thought, "wow, I definitely want to do this!" I bet that if I watched this movie with Dean, I probably would have decided NOT to do it! HAHA! I did read his book, UltraMarathon Man and I must say, it was a good book. I'm debating getting it on audio so I can listen to it again while running.

Grumpy Old Men is such a good movie and especially moreso now that Walter Matthau is gone.

Categories: 6 miles, mid-week run, Phedippidations, podcast

Running in Chicago!

Guess what I'm doing on Saturday?! Running in Chicago!!! Along the lakefront! I'm so stoked!

Jesse from Blogspot just finished his second 20 miler on Sunday. So I knew that he was still going to have a high mileage day but not that high so I could run with him. Sure enough, he's got 12 and I got 13. I left a comment on his blog asking if he wanted to run together along the lakefront. And so we're meeting at the Bean and running south from there since it's less crowded than going north he said.

I think I'm going to crash at Wes' place Friday night. I'll be driving to the Green Line, less than a mile from his place, taking that to Millennium Park and the Bean where I'll meet Jesse. Google Maps is telling me to take two buses. I'm not sure what to do. I need to have everything all ready to go and bring everything with me that I need since i won't have anywhere to store it. The Millennium Park skating rink (or what is the skating rink in winter) has lockers but I don't know if they are in useable in the summer. Jesse says that he stuffs everything in a zipper bag and hides it in a bush and in the past 4 months, no one has found it yet he said.

I almost got hit on my run today. I was three paces into the road when this guy, talking with his hands, zooms past me as I stop in the middle of the road. Not fun when it totally disrupts the forward progress I had going! I yelled at him, YIELD, he yelled back BITCH. Nice.

Yep, my Nike+ is totally off. So I guess I'll have to recalibrate it. Again. For the umpteenth time.

So the other weekend when I was in St. Louis, Brent went biking while I ran. I finally have the pictures. If you want to see me in a sports bra and a running skirt and then later cooling my legs in the very cold swimming pool at Brent's apartment complex, click here. :-)

Categories: Brent, pictures, running in chicago

My 12 mile run

I haven't run that far since my half marathon in December last year! I can't believe how fast I'm gaining mileage in this training.

I put a message on my Twitter this morning that I thought my run was not going to go well. I went to bed at 2am. My alarm went off at 6:45a. I didn't eat breakfast. I didn't have my visor. It was like 68 degrees. I started running at 10am (I slept in).

I went to Rend Lake where they have a path that goes around the lake. It was pretty nice. I went biking on it last year. I figured 2 hours of running. The path went up and down some small hills. It was really good for training for my St. Jude Marathon where they'll be some hills like those. Nothing like the ones I encountered in St. Louis, that's for sure.

I finished my run in 1:59:24. Luckily, the path had mile markers on the way starting at 0. So I knew where I was at which came in handy since by the time I was finished my Nike+ had me a whole .5 miles off! Not cool by me. I finished my HM in 2:03:01. So I was about 4 minutes shy of doing 12 miles in a 13.1 time. So I figured that if I continued on for another mile, I would only have been behind by 4 minutes. Not bad considering that I had 16 weeks of training for my HM while I've only had 7 weeks of training now.

After my run, I came back to my brothers house for an cold water bath and ate a rice and beans Lean Cuisine. It was soo good. Then a shower. Then I laid in bed reading my marathon training book and my eyes started to close. So I closed the book, laid down and closed my eyes. I was sooo tired. I laid there for a while, getting a couple text messages bothering me. Then a phone call from Brent and then I decided to get up.

My calves are a little tight. My ankles are stiff. I noticed that I have some chaffing. I wore my water belt, with two 10oz bottles one with water, one with Gatorade. I kept pulling down my tank top below the bottle but I guess I didn't do it often enough as I see that my left hip is a little rubbed raw. It hurts. Even touching it is sore.

Tonight I'm going to stand on my feet at a concert tonight in Carbondale. Lets hope that my feet and ankles will hold up! I need a rub down bad! I can't believe that I'm going to run 3 miles on Monday!

Categories: 12 miles, chafing, long run, Rend Lake, southern illinois

7 mile run

From my LJ blog...

I am from northern Illinois, not really known for the humidity but there can be some hanging around sometimes but luckily, this summer has been relatively quiet so I haven't had to deal with it too much. I am currently in the St. Louis 'burbs visting my boyfriend. I knew I needed to do a 7 mile run today as I'm in week 6 of my marathon training. Last week, I told my boyfriend to go to Queeny Park, about a 15 minute drive from his place and check out the paths in the park.

I got up at 6am, wanting to hit the road on my feet by 7:15a at the latest. I already knew it was going to be a humid day. 72% humidity last night at 10pm! Stupid boyfriend didn't wake up and get out of bed until 7:15a. He was going to be beside me on the bike. He drove me over to Queeny Park and I got on the road at 7:45a. Grrr. Off we went.

There are plenty of hills in that park. I only went walking in there once and there's one big hill near the AKC Dog Museum and it's a monster! I ran up one hill near the 2 mile mark and that wasn't too bad but it was also near the beginning of my run. Then luckily, I ran DOWN the monster hill. I put on the brakes big time. I ran past a lady in the skirt and I was also wearing a skirt, I said "Nice skirt!" with a smile on my face. She took offense to that, my boyfriend said, and she kept pulling it down. Geez...

Then it was sun time, I was out of the shaded forest. I was feeling bad, my run was going so slow by this time and I hadn't even reached the 5k mark yet! Got there in 32 minutes (though my Nike+ is a bit off but I'm sure it was over 30 minutes time anyway. My boyfriend was helping me by encourging me to get going and up and over these tiny hills and telling me where to go; I told him, you lead, I follow. I just didn't want to think about where to go at that point.

Around mile 6, I ran up the same hill that I ran up around mile 2. This time though, I was crying up. I wanted to walk so bad, my legs were heavy limbs that I just couldn't drag up the hill. I was literally crying and with my crying jag I couldn't breathe. It was HORRIBLE. My boyfriend talked me through it though and he was on his bike and I could hear that he was having a hard time talking to me and biking up it himself. Back down the monster hill. More brakes.

Finally, the end is in sight!

Since I knew my Nike+ is off a bit, I decided to go 7.2 miles. I told my boyfriend, .2 left to go. He said just aim for the light post. So I started trucking it. I made it! 1:16:33. Then I realised that on my 3.1 mile run on Thursday, I completed my normal 3.1 route before Nike+ said I did. So then I would have completed my 7 miles around 6.8 or so. So I stupidly ran FARTHER than I should have gone! Like I said, I wasn't thinking right by that time. I could hardly figure out what milage was left when I saw 6.69! I just couldn't do the math! :-)

Needless to say, we came back to boyfriends apartment complex and I jumped in the pool. HAHA! It was cold but oh so refreshing! I needed it for my ankles and my poor poor hamstrings and quads. I used to hate cold water baths but now I'm all about them! They make me not hurt the next day! Stupid hills.

So while it may have sucked and while I did have a total breakdown (which I feel more letdown on that then on the time of the 7 miles) on the last hill, I did manage to run 7 miles. This Saturday is running 12 miles. I'll be doing it alone. No boyfriend (to delay my start OR to help me through the rough times). And I'm still doing it in southern Illinois, just over by Carbondale this time. Hopefully, it'll cool off a bit by then.

Categories: 7 miles, Ballwin, Brent, hills, humidity

Long Run: 9 miles

I'm off on my marathon training. I was supposed to run 9 miles last week but I only did a 5k race and then nothing the rest of the weekend. So today was supposed to 10 miles. I decided to go between 9 and 10 miles, whichever I could end up running.

I ate peanut butter & jelly on toast this morning before my run. I took 2 small water bottles with me on my water belt. During my run about the 4.5 mile mark, I ate my SportsBeans. Luckily on the way back, I was empty with one bottle so I filled up with the Gatorade that the running club I belong to and was helping drinking that.

Here's the run ended. 9.58 miles in 1:29:11 for an average of 9:18 min/mi. I need to remember to NOT take standing breaks. Both times I stopped, it was hard for me to get back going again. If I do stop for a break, I need to keep walking, even if only in circles.

I listen to a podcast now while running. I am really starting to enjoy it instead of music. The podcast I listen to is called Phedippidations created by Steve Runner. It's all about running and then in today's episode he talked about CPR. Some of it is done while he's out running himself. So it's good to hear him huffing and puffing while I'm huffing and puffing too! I just figured out last night how to make it so that if I listen to one podcast, it will automatically shift to the next one. It would never do that before. So his podcasts usually lasts about an hour so on my marathon, I should be able to listen to about 5 of them.

I will need to go out and get a supply of Gatorade and bagels and cream cheese for my Saturday runs. Next Saturday has me running in St. Louis! So excited! Gonna run in Queeny Park and Brent's gonna ride his bike beside me!

Categories: 10 miles, 9 miles, Great Western Trail, Phedippidations, podcast