Playing catch-up

I know, I know. I haven't been a good blogger lately. But I have been a decent runner, y'all just don't know about it. :)

I have been running. In fact, I ran just 6 days after my marathon and that was a 10k in the middle of the afternoon on trails (read: rocks & hills). Just over an hour time too. Needless to say, this has been, by far, the best marathon & recovery period of my life. I might actually say screw pace groups from now on. I know my body best after all. Phil (my Garmin 405) and I all the way baby!

I have actually only been running 10k distances in the month since my marathon. However, I decided after dropping off my nephew with his parents and driving back to northern Illinois (7 hour car ride round trip), I'm going to get back to it. And I ran 10 miles at 7:30p Sunday evening. That was epic. I was sore that night but it was great to hit double digits again. Even my first 4 miles were really consistent at 9:35 pace!

But now I'm thinking forward. I really have no plans for any races this summer. I haven't signed up for anything yet. I have a few in mind. An 8k in Rockford. Found out about a 5k the day before the 8k. I figured that will be a challenging weekend and might be good to test. Other than that, I really don't know of any races to do. Nothing really stands out as something I want to do. I'm still debating whether or not I am going to a fall marathon. If I do, it's going to be the Indianapolis Monumental Marathon in November. (Which will be tough to train for with a 2 week trip to India happening at the end of August but we'll see.) So yea, if there's a race out there in the far western suburbs, let me know about it. I would still like to try for a half marathon PR sometime as well. Preferably while NOT training for a marathon. :-)

Then I've been thinking more and more about a triathlon.

Now, I haven't been swimming in months, thanks to canceling my YMCA membership. But I might join Luke's here rather soon (more on that later). But I would like to see a triathlon happen first before jumping in. I especially want to see how a transition is done between the swim & bike part. (What exactly do you wear under a wet suit?) There was one last weekend but I had my nephew and couldn't drag him out of bed at 7a to go stand around watching a bunch of people do crazy stuff. There's another triathlon at the end of July. However, it's the day after Luke's sister's wedding. And the one that I actually want to do, is August 1. So I don't think I'll be able to do a tri this year. But I would still like to see one happen.

I have my first official bike ride this weekend. I plan on getting together with my good friend, Kevin (with whom I've done many bike rides with -- RAGBRAI being one of them) and we're going to go around the southern Wisconsin countryside for 31 miles. Luke will be joining us on his mountain bike but I don't think he'll have any problems keeping up with us.

To get my saddle bones ready for the mileage, Luke & I went on a bike ride Monday night. We went almost 18 miles. And we both felt really good afterwards. Even though he had a high mileage weekend (30k total) and I had ran 10 miles the evening before. The only part of me that's sore is the top of my shoulder/neck muscles. That's just from having my shoulders so high up by my ears. I really want to get aero bars and I will one day!

I haven't lifted any weights in 2 weeks and Monday after work was my first time so I only did the circuit twice. I also opted to go down in weight by 10 pounds for each machine. Except for the butterfly. I still managed to do that at 30 pounds! My abs are a little sore but other than that I feel fine.

Tonight is going to be packing and packing. That counts as weight lifting right? :-) But really, I'm going to be getting out of DeKalb and moving to Geneva. I've already been living there since the beginning of May, which is why you haven't seen any of my normal running routes and why they've all been over there. It's an interesting transition for both of us. I remembered why I decided to go broke my 3rd year after they raised the rent on me quite considerably. I hate packing & moving. What sucks is that I've helped several people move but of course, I helped them all move OUT of town, so they can't come back to help ME move. Luckily, I now have the boyfriend's friends to help out if needed. :-)

Categories: 10 miles, biking, Indianapolis Monumental Marathon, moving, races, triathlon

Week 1 of marathon training

My shoes after the run. They don't look too bad but they were!

What a hard run Saturday was. 8 miles was on tap, the first week of my marathon training.

I came down to southern Illinois in hopes of getting away from the cold weather and snow. Alas, it was not meant to happen. Ended up snowing quite a bit on Friday night. Started when I was 6 miles from my brother's house. Overnight it was just a dusting at his place but further south it was 5+ inches. And this is where I planned on taking Luke.

We bundled up and heading south to Rend Lake. Luckily the sun was out but the wind was also up. Come to find out, we were the first people at the majority of the paths. I totally forgot my camera and really didn't want to bring my cell phone with me on the run so I didn't get any pictures. But I took plenty of mental images.

Luke was nice enough to run with me the entire 8 miles. It was so much of a joke of a run for him. Running HALF his speed. He said he didn't get bored cause he has an active imagination. But he barely worked up a sweat I bet. Me, on the other hand. Yea, I wanted to call it quits about mile 6. I was so sick of the snow. Now I know how my friend Joe felt when I was pacing him for the 10k back in October.

The snow was up to our ankles so it took quite a bit of effort to dredge our own path. At some points, I was actually following in Luke's footsteps. On the way back, he was still making his own way down in the snow. I was stepping in my footprints instead.

Luke's sweat pants got all wet but he said he didn't feel it while running

If it wasn't for Luke, I would have walked around mile 6 or so. Mile 7, we hit the pavement with no snow so I was able to pick up pace. It was a nice break and a good pick me up. It was the only time I was able to go the pace that I was hoping to without the snow. The only good news is that according to Runner's World Smart Coach, I am supposed to go 10:43 min/mi. And that's exactly what I did on this run. Only because the snow slowed me down. :-)

Oh and we saw a Bald Eagle while out running. My first time seeing that in southern Illinois. No river, just a man made lake with a dam so it was a surprise to see it. Saw it around mile 4 and then again around the end of the run back near the dam. Not sure if it's the same one or if we saw two but it was quite a sight especially when we just went Eagle watching a few weekends ago!

My hips & thighs hurt after the 45 minute drive back to my brother's house. Ouch! So what did I do on today's "easy" run? I ran at 1.0 incline. Luke suggested it and figured I might as well since it's just a 3 miler.

In other news:

I think I decided not to do the triathlon this year. I decided this a couple weeks ago.

Today I decided that I am going to cancel my YMCA membership. I had thought about joining up with Luke's gym membership but a couples membership is $20 a month more than what I am paying for YMCA. And I would probably go there with Luke just as much as I do the YMCA now. Maybe even more. But now that I have my workout partner in my co-worker, I can just go down to my work gym. The only reason I was keeping the YMCA was because of the pool & classes. I hardly went to any classes and the pool, well, that was if I wanted to do a triathlon. Obviously, I canceled that plan for this year. And if I REALLY wanted to swim, again, I can go to Luke's gym pool and pay the $15 a day fee. We'll see. I have until the 15th of this month to really decide then they take out another $34.

Also, will probably not really plan on doing the 50 states thing. That was such a lofty goal. I should get rid of it from my mind in case I fail. I mean, really, me travelling to random places by myself and run marathons? Yea, I really don't see that happening. I had thought for a fleeting few days of running the Richmond Marathon in November with Runner's World. It would be so much fun! I get a running plan from Bart Yasso, access to VIP areas and a massage after the marathon. Only will take a 14 hour drive down there. So yea, I'm tempted but we'll see. I've got time to decide. Maybe I should go with more local races first; Iowa & Indiana & Kentucky really only ones left.

Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 404 ft Location: Benton, IL Elev. Gain: -39 ft Date: 01/30/10 Up/Downhill: [+259/-298] Time: 12:31 PM Difficulty: 3.3 / 5.0 Weather: Partly Cloudy 27 F temp; 57% humidity 27 F heat index; winds NW 9 Performance Distance: 8.00 miles Time: 1:26:08 Speed: 5.6 mph Pace: 10' 46 /mi Calories: 859 Map Elevation (ft) Pace (min/mile) Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Elevation Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 9' 57 -0' 49 6.0 +0.5 -30 ft 2 11' 12 +0' 26 5.3 -0.2 -10 ft 3 10' 39 -0' 07 5.6 +0.1 +39 ft 4 10' 41 -0' 05 5.6 +0.0 0 ft 5 12' 52 +2' 06 4.7 -0.9 0 ft 6 10' 54 +0' 08 5.5 -0.1 -23 ft 7 10' 33 -0' 13 5.7 +0.1 -16 ft end 10' 56 +0' 10 5.5 -0.1 0 ft Versus average of 10' 46 min/mile

Posted from bimactive.com

Categories: 50 States, 8 miles, Luke, Rend Lake, Richmond Marathon, Runner's World Challenge, snow, triathlon

A swim, then a run

To make up for Sunday's crappy run, I decided to give it to myself Monday night. Originally I was gonna run at my work after but I got to the door of my building that morning and realised that I forgot my socks at home. And then walking about the office, I realised that I hurt way too much for any sort of running. Decided to try out swimming. With a triathlon in 8 months, I gotta have a base to start from for the swim training. I decided to run a few miles and then go swimming. But of course, once I got home, I ate and putzed around the apartment, I was a little late heading over to the YMCA so I went swimming first since the pool closed earlier than the Wellness Centre.

I wore my new Ironman Triathon watch that I bought from Woot. It has interval & laps that I could use for swimming. And since it's a triathlon watch, it's water resistant! So for once I was able to keep track of the times. I also wore my swimming cap for the first time. I gotta practice putting it on apparently!

All together I went 5 laps, 5 laps, 6 laps, 5 laps, 4 laps = 25 laps. Each lap is 25 yards. So 600 yards total. Also each lap, I was really impressed and was able to do each under 30 seconds, normally around 26 or so. With all my rest, I swam for 31 minutes. The triathlon I plan on doing is 750 meters or 820 yards. So I have quite a bit left to do; 33 laps all together for the tri. Eep! I think I'm gonna be dead in the water.

After the swimming, I went running on the treadmill.
Stats:
Mile 1 in 6.0 mph
Mile 2 in 6.5 mph
Mile 3 in 7.0 mph
Mile .1 in 7.5 mph
3.1 miles in 28:38

In the first mile, my legs felt weird. Not quite weak but definitely not as strong as they could be. After a mile I decided to step it up a notch. However, in the first mile, I was experiencing numb feet. Like from the middle of my foot to my toes. I think it's cause of my new shoes. Need to break them in and not have them as tight across the top of my foot.

Total + Cooldown:
3.39 in 33:39

My YMCA has a Indoor Triathlon that I may just do this year. It's in February. Meant to do it the last 2 years but just never signed up. Need to get a practice trial in there, even though it's all timed and not by distance, this will work just as well!

Categories: swimming, treadmill runs, triathlon

Take It and Run Thursday: Relays, Ultras and Tri's, Oh My!

I'm writing my first Take It and Run Thursday blog! Woo!!! Today's theme is Relay's, Ultras and Tri's. Which is perfect since I was going to write about my first triathlon. :-)

Relays:
There's only 2 relay's that I would like to do. First is the River to River Relay in southern Illinois. It goes from Mississippi River to the Ohio River across the Shawnee National Forest. Our fmr governor Blagojevich ran it one year. It takes place around the middle of April. Stats are as follows:

Teams of eight runners compete on an 80-mile course. Each runner completes three sections that range in length from 2.5 to 4 miles. Teams are started in groups every 30 minutes beginning at 6:15am and continuing until the last group is started at 8:45am. The finish line closes at exactly 8:00pm.

There's another one called the Bourbon Chase in Kentucky. This is a weekend/overnight event so it's a big longer. I doubt I'll ever be able to do this. But it's still an interesting thought! Info:

The Bourbon Chase will take place October 9-10, 2009, with the starting times staggered based upon each team's estimated finish time. Beginning near the Jim Beam American Outpost & Homestead, the first flight of teams will start the 200 mile course at 8am. During the next 12 hours, every 15 minutes a new set of teams will begin their overnight journey through the Bluegrass State. Teams are made up of 6 or 12 person teams. Each member of the team will run three legs over distances varying from 3 – 7 miles. Each team will provide two support vans to drop off and pick up runners at designated exchange points along the 200-mile route.

Ultras:
On Twitter someone completed a 50k in 6 hours and 13 minutes on May 30th. After reading all the talk back and forth about 50k, I decided that in my 31st year of birth (2011) I'll run a 50k! Which is 31 miles. Sounds perfect to me right!

There are two options for me to run. Chicago Lakefront 50k at the end of October or the Rock Cut Hobo Run 10k, 25k and 50k (pdf) in September. I already plan on doing the 10k and 25k run in September of this year. The 10k is on Friday night, the 25k on Saturday and the 50k on Sunday. I'll probably go for the Hobo Run because it's in Rockford and it's a trail run. Sounds like fun!!! Plus, I can walk and not feel bad. :-)

Tris:
I've always thought about doing one. Nothing big or long, just a sprint tri. I knew of one called HRMS in August that was not that far away from me in Naperville, IL. This was a definite doable race. And had decided on trying it in 2010.

But then I received an email from the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund (OCRF) stating that OCRF is the Official Charity of the US Women's Triathlon Series. Then they went on to mention that they have a triathlon on June 14 in Naperville, IL!! When I clicked on the link to take me to their website, I found out that this is a Sprint Tri! Sprint Competition - 750m swim - 22.8k (14.1mi) bike - 5k run. Awesome! So I can raise money for Ovarian Cancer and some of you may know how it's important to me! So I think I'll be doing that next June! Problem is... how do I train for a tri during the spring?? But now it's time to start looking for a triathlon suit and a swimming cap.

===============================
So in a similar thought of the triathlon, I found a pretty easy way of getting a 'brick' workout in. I found a 10.5 mile bike ride route that starts from my house so that when I get back, I can go out for a run immediately afterwards!

Today I did this ride. I got all dressed for my ride and then I realise that I don't have my helmet! I left it in Kevin's car back on Memorial Day but hadn't received it yet in the mail. Come to find out he mailed it out yesterday. But I decided to go out and ride anyway. DON'T EVER DO THAT! I'm gonna head out tonight to buy a new one so I can go on my ride on Sunday.

I dressed too warmly for today though. I had my winter running pants on over biking shorts and a lightweight rain jacket on. I warmed up on both top and bottom. But it was a fun ride nonetheless. I even wore my Garmin! Just to see how it would be out on TOMRV next weekend. So here are my stats from the bike ride.

Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 889 ft Location: Sycamore, IL Elev. Gain: +0 ft Date: 06/04/09 Up/Downhill: [+190/-190] Time: 05:30 PM Difficulty: 2.5 / 5.0 Weather: Fair with Haze 68 F temp; 17% humidity 68 F heat index; winds N 5 Performance Distance: 10.41 miles Time: 0:44:48 Speed: 13.9 mph Pace: 4' 19 /mi Calories: 472 Map Elevation (ft) Speed (mph)

Posted from bimactive.com

Categories: biking, DeKalb/Sycamore Trail, relay, sprint tri, Take It and Run Thursday, triathlon, ultra

Farkers rock!

I totally kicked arse on swimming tonight. Rob gave me his googles and sure enough, they helped so much! I managed to do 4 laps in a row and then a quick breather and then started up again. Towards the end I even managed to change the way I was putting my head back in the water and it helped even more, so at the end of my 40 minutes, I was still doing laps in a row even though I was tired and totally out of breath. I also did 4 laps of arm exercises or whatever and 6 laps of just kicking.

I bought a new bike on Tuesday. It's a Trek 4300, a mountain bike. Weird thing is that it's a men's bike. Once I found that out I was like um, but I'm a girl? Tobie said that I would be too big for a Women's 18" and my knees would be hitting the handlebars. It feels weird to think of the fact that I'm riding a man's. I mean, I'm already guy-ish enough, do I really have to ride a guys bike too? I took it for a spin that night and went 9.5 miles. How do I know that? I bought an odometer that same night. Pain in the ass to install it though. But also very exciting! Since I plan on doing RAGBRAI next year, I bought better tires for road biking that will fit that frame. Now just need a good pair of padded shorts. My ass hurt after a Sunday ride and then a Tuesday ride!

I might be getting runner's knee again in my right knee. During my ride on Sunday, I felt it getting painful. Then on Monday, even while walking it hurt. Of course I ran that night but then iced my knee down. Then today I noticed that my right hip was hurting too (the same one in which was causing my problems last year) and I was limping. Once I took advil everything was fine but that's just a quick fix, not a permanent solution. Only solution is 6 weeks off with NO EXERCISE, not even swimming! Then once that 6 weeks is done, then I can start with swimming, go to biking and later treadmill. We'll see what I do with only 3 days of running though which is what my half marathon regimem

I have a new running partner. Well, kinda. Some guy I work with said that he wants to go rollerblading with me while I run. I told him that my long runs are on Saturday morning around 9a. He said call me this Saturday. Should be interesting! Then another friend said that he can bike with me while I run. It's so good to hear that people are at least interested in doing this with me, even if they don't follow through, at least they're asking about it! I warned them that I'm not incredibly fast; I don't want to be. I just want to get things done.

I was going to take my new mountain bike for a spin in Rock Cut yesterday but that got cancelled. Did do my speed work that morning at the Sycamore High School track but ended up doing it at 11am. Not the smartest idea with the 76% humidity we had that day. First speedwork ever was a complete bust. Completed 1 mile warmup and then 1 mile of my 2 mile workout at 8:17/mi with 1/2 mile jogs between. I hate speed workouts. Tempo runs I can do just not speed. I'm not fast.

So today while I was getting dressed after my swim, I wondered if I should go a triathalon. Jack thinks I should. Not a full one but a version called sprint. Swim 1/2 mile; bike 13 miles; run 3.1 miles. I'm reading a blog on our sister paper, Quad Cities Times, by a woman that is training for her Sprint Tri. She's 33 and has 2 kids. Apparently most women complete their first tri in their 30's. So here's my new set of goals. Halfmarathon this year; Marathon by the time I'm 30; Sprint Tri by the time I'm 33. They have a Sprint Tri in Naperville but I'm sure that's HUGE. I want to do one that's a bit smaller; like the one out in Iowa (the one that this lady is doing). But I'm waiting until then to figure out how the heck do I train for something like that... swimming and then biking? The transistions?!

Speaking of hurt, I think I figured out why I'm pushing myself to all these challenges but that will be saved for another blog when I get sentimental and detrimental to my pysche.

Categories: aches and pains, biking, friends, goals, speed work, sprint tri, swimming, triathlon