A running date

I got to run in Fantastic weather tonight. And had great company too. I ran with a boy!! Not just any boy but the one from the race a month back! The one that WON the 5k in 18 minutes!! Yes, that one! Luckily, he knew (cause I repeatedly told him) that I am not a fast runner and I just ran 17 miles on Monday. But we got just over 7 out of it anyway. Took him on my regular route (as you'll see below).

The best thing about the whole run is that I really pushed myself on the last part and was going 7:33-7:40. Which is FAST for me. He could tell the pace we were going too and I looked at my GPS and he was right. I told him that this is not typically me, I was trying to show off in front of him. I kept it up rather well. Then when he noticed that it was coming up to the end, we ran in the road and I told him to take off. He just cruised on by me... SERIOUSLY... Just took off effortlessly. I was amazed. At the beginning I noticed that he was taking more steps than necessary cause of my short stride. He is 6'3" after all so maybe that helps with speed?? I kept telling him as we were walking back that I hated him. He barely had any breathing problems. Not fair.

Then afterwards we talked about going to Ollie's for some frozen custard but it was a tad too cold for it. And we played a round of Mario Kart Double Dash in which I totally whooped on him, like I told him I would. I can pretty much beat anyone in that game. Then we saw a movie; The Time Traveler's Wife which I've been dying to see since it came out last month. It stayed very true to the book and I am very happy with it!

In other news, I am now signed for a 10k 3 weeks after my marathon. What am I thinking? On top of that craziness, I am now thinking of doing the Indianapolis Monumental Marathon on November 7th. But I need to decide on this one rather quickly. My boss just called me today about whether or not I can help the college Foundation with a dinner at 6pm that night with the volunteers. I can't imagine running a marathon, driving back and then standing on my feet all night. I ran 18 miles the day of the dinner last year and I was limping all over the place.

The best thing is that I got to wear my No Meat Athlete shirt from none other than No Meat Athlete himself!! I ordered it from his site when he first announced it. On the back has his website but it's still pretty cool. Since it was pretty cool out, I decided to wear short-sleeves but still didn't look at the humidity. Sweat pretty good! And yes I wore my compression shorts on the run. Hey, it was a date after all! ;-) Hope I didn't turn him off that badly...

Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 858 ft Location: DeKalb, IL Elev. Gain: +0 ft Date: 08/26/09 Up/Downhill: [+269/-269] Time: 06:52 PM Difficulty: 2.8 / 5.0 Weather: Partly Cloudy 62 F temp; 93% humidity 62 F heat index; winds E 10 Performance Distance: 7.26 miles Time: 1:07:49 Speed: 6.4 mph Pace: 9' 20 /mi Calories: 777 Map Elevation (ft) Pace (min/mile) Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Elevation Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 8' 46 -0' 34 6.8 +0.4 +29 ft 2 9' 03 -0' 17 6.6 +0.2 -20 ft 3 9' 32 +0' 12 6.3 -0.1 -10 ft 4 9' 26 +0' 06 6.4 -0.1 +39 ft 5 9' 26 +0' 06 6.4 -0.1 -23 ft 6 10' 04 +0' 44 6.0 -0.5 -6 ft 7 9' 26 +0' 06 6.4 -0.1 +13 ft end 7' 35 -1' 45 7.9 +1.5 -22 ft Versus average of 9' 20 min/mile

Posted from bimactive.com

Categories: 7 miles, dating, DeKalb Nature Trail, Luke

Ahhh, PEOPLE!!!

Tonight I attended a planning meeting for the NITRO 10k/5k race that we're putting on at the end of May. I'm getting really excited about it! I signed up to run it but will also volunteer for the after crew. It's going to be such a fun race! A few of us stayed after to talk and it was soooo much fun to talk to people about running and training and races and experiences. I don't have anyone to talk with those things with (which is probably why I blog so damn much) and it was nice to have people that know what I'm talking about. Sure, people ask me about my running but when I tell them I ran 16 miles at a 10 min/mi pace, they don't understand how cool that is and they say that I'm crazy. That's NOT exactly the support I need to hear, ya know?

On to running: I ran 7.1 miles today. I don't understand why but Bones In Motion is no longer letting me publish to my blog. I wrote them an email so hopefully they'll get back go me. I didn't touch the settings with anything so I don't know what happened. Anyway, it was a very lovely day -- Except for the wind. Blah. I was actually nervous about it but I pysched myself up by saying today is just a fun run, going out there to enjoy the day and the springtime and not caring about time. The wind was pretty strong like 23 mph or so and coming from the south & west. I head south & then west first off. So great. I wore 2 layers on top & 2 layers on bottom. I also forgot my headphones and I didn't even notice it until I reached my starting point after a few minutes walk. I thought to myself well, this is going to be a boring run.

My splits were really fast for the first 3 miles. Then at 3 miles, I headed out of the woods and south so I knew then that my times were going to slow down and sure enough they did. Then into the park where it was a little more woods and along Kishwaukee River where it was flooded! Wow! It receded a bit so I didn't have to worry about slushing through too much though there was a place where the water was on the path and it was pretty deep.

Once I turned around and headed back north though, it seriously felt as if the wind had died. Like it wasn't going anymore. But of course that's just it was at my back and I didn't feel it against my face anymore. I also heated up a bit. I had to pull up my sleeves of both my shirts. Should have worn a short sleeve under my jacket. Along the path back, I heard a rustle in the woods. I looked over and I see deer again! Really REALLY close to the path! Awesome! If I had my headphones on I never would have heard them! So I stopped and got a few good pictures. One of them had a mark, missing fur, on her ribcage behind her left shoulder. Don't know what that was all about. I finished up the run pretty strong. I looked down at my Garmin and at one point it say my pace was a 12 minute mile. So something was wrong with that. But all together 7.1 miles in 1:06.34 for a 9:22 min/mi pace. Pretty happy with that.

Picture time!!! (click to see them bigger)

Whoops, had to run around that!

Kishwaukee River flooded

A little water on the path

I can't remember the name of this place but just noticed today that it closed!

More water on path inside Hopkins Park

Kishwaukee River flooded even more!!!

This puddle was pretty deep and I hate running up that hill

Role players?? I don't know I see them every Wednesday I run down this path though

Little bitty bit of snow left over!

This is the deer that has the bad spot.

He's ready for Easter this time!

Stats:

Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 858 ft Location: DeKalb, IL Elev. Gain: +4 ft Date: 04/01/09 Up/Downhill: [+269/-265] Time: 04:43 PM Difficulty: 2.9 / 5.0   Weather: Fair and Breezy   50 F temp; 37% humidity   50 F heat index; winds SW 23 G 28 Performance Distance: 7.10 miles Time: 1:06:35 Speed: 6.4 mph Pace: 9' 23 /mi Heart Rate: 175 bpm (Avg) Calories: 757 184 bpm (Peak) Map   Elevation (ft)   Pace (min/mile)   Heart Rate (bpm)   Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Heart Rate Elev Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 8' 58 -0' 25 6.7 +0.3 159 +23 ft 2 8' 59 -0' 24 6.7 +0.3 175 -13 ft 3 9' 16 -0' 07 6.5 +0.1 178 +23 ft 4 9' 26 +0' 03 6.4 -0.0 179 -33 ft 5 9' 49 +0' 26 6.1 -0.3 178 -7 ft 6 9' 50 +0' 27 6.1 -0.3 179 +40 ft 7 9' 34 +0' 11 6.3 -0.1 177 -20 ft end 6' 40 -2' 43 9.0 +2.6 180 -9 ft Versus average of 9' 23 min/mile

Posted from bimactive.com

Categories: 7 miles, NITRO, pictures

What a difference a week makes

Last week I had a 7 mile run. It was an awesome run. Average pace of 9 min/mi. I didn't even bring any water with me either. Today I had the same 7 mile run. It didn't go so well.

I had taken the last three days off after a sore calf muscle reared it's ugly head. Today, walking around, I felt just fine. I could stand on my tip toes and it wouldn't hurt. So off I ran today. Even before the first mile ended, I felt my calf muscle. I wasn't happy. But I still ran. Around the 2.5 mile mark, I quit being so tired and my body accepted what I was doing. After having 3 days off, it didn't know what was going on! Of course, it could also be because I ran the first mile way too fast again, 8:34 and then the second mile 9:10. After that I slowed way down. Around 9:30 min/mi - 10:07 min/mi. For an average pace of 9:38 min/mi, finishing 4 minutes slower than last week.

I did my half marathon with an average pace of 9:23 min/mi. If I did that then I would finish in 4:05, which is awesome and what I want to do. Maybe I should figure I'll finish the marathon in an average of 10 min/mi and then I'll finish around 4:22. Which I think is still good. As long as I beat Oprah, 4:29:20. :-)

I also didn't have my iPod with me on my run today. Well, I did but it wasn't charged up so I ran the 7 miles without music. I've never done that before. But it was all good. Of course then I heard my negative voices a lot more. As I was finishing, I was thinking of this is how I'm feeling at the end of 7 miles, I'm not even halfway on my 15 mile run for Saturday. It's going to be interesting to say the least.

Categories: 7 miles, mid-week run

Running

Brent and I has had this joke going on since we first got together. Kinda odd really. But a month after we started dating, he went off to New Zealand. He said, you better not get together with Paco. Why a Mexican name, not sure. His hookup girls name ended up being Jasmine. And now that he's moved away, we still play with that.

Anyway, so I ran tonight with my new Garmin (more on that later) and when I FINALLY got it synced with my computer (in the settings of the watch the pairing was turned off so it wasn't being recognised) it asked me to name my Garmin. I'm not very genius when it comes to that. So I called up Brent. He named his iPod, FlyPod. My iPod? Lindsay's iPod. Like I said, not a genius. But he didn't have a clue. So I got mad at him, a little, and said that I'm going to get off the phone so I can figure this out. He didn't want to let me go because I was mad. I was just going to name it Lindsay's Garmin or something. But then I thought of the little story up top and using Paco but decided nah, that needs to stay in that story. I always said when I was single that Running is my Boyfriend. So then I thought about naming him Brent. But what if Brent and I split? So then, I thought of the podcast that I listen to, Pheidippidations and decided to shorten it to Phil. Phil is named for Pheidippides, who was the runner that announced the victory of the Greek in the Battle of Marathon. After he ran the distance 150 miles in 2 days and then the 26 miles from the city of Marathon to Athens, he shouted "We have won!" and then died. The 385 yards (.2) came from the British family who wanted to see the start of the race from their castle so they moved the starting line to accommodate her request, or so the stories go.

OK, so now to the running. It was great. I didn't even notice it acquiring the satellite. All I had to do was set it up for training, then hit the button for start and started running. Then when I was done, the same button again to stop. I didn't notice the Virtual Partner until after I was done. So I haven't played with that yet. I was able to see my time, my pace and the distance all very clear. It seemed very accurate with what my last Nike+ (the one that was calibrated right) which is good to know. The pace was off very much though. At times it said I was doing a 10:54 pace. I can change that from Pace to Speed which would show me what speed I was going. So I thought I was running prety slow but once I stopped it, it said I was going at a 9 minute pace. Well, damn. I didn't know that. The GPS did feel kinda heavy on my arm, especially toward the end. When I was done with the 7 miles, my left arm just felt weird. I had the GPS and my iPod on my upper arm in the armband so it was full of gadgets. What's cool about the software is that it told me what my route was. That was neat to see. And then I can go to mapmyrun.com and make a route and send it to my GPS. Or at least there's a link for that.

I thought the Chicago Marathon was on October 5th. For the past two years it has always been on the same day as a 5k I run the first weekend in October. Well, this year, probably because of the heat of last year, they postponed it a week and it's held on the 12th not the 5th when I have my race. Which mean, I could very well, go in and see the race. I've never seen it. I think that'll be cool. Then I can print out my Amtrak tickets at Union Station too. I know a couple people running in it locally and then there's Jesse who I ran with last weekend. I know that I won't be able to point them out but it'll still be cool. I got nothing going on that weekend either. Well, besides a long run on Saturday morning. We'll see.

I mentioned in a few posts ago about listening to audiobooks on my long runs now. Well, I was reading through my Google Reader and noticed that Dean Karnazes posted a blog back on the 22nd about audio books. Someone in the comments put a link up to gutenberg.org which has free classic audio books, some even human read! I'm very excited to see this. I'm thinking of downloading The Time Machine, Huck Finn, Tom Sawyer, Romeo & Juliet, ALL of the Anne of Green Gables books, maybe a few Bible books, Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Emma.

I also ran in my new shoes. Didn't really notice a difference. Still hurt my toes. After I was done, I curled my toes and it hurt to do that. With both feet. Maybe I just need to stretch the arch more? Or my toes better? I don't know.

Best news of the night: I ran a 10k (6.2 miles) in 55:55! That's about the time that I ran my Pumpkinfest 10k last year during my half marathon training! We'll see how the 10 miles goes on Saturday.

Categories: 7 miles, Brent, garmin, shoes

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

7 mile run

My 7 mile run this morning went better than I expected!

I started at 7a but when I went to start my Nike+ my iPod froze on me. So I had to reset it and walked back to the starting point. Then the Podcasts that I thought I brought over to my iPod through iTunes didn't transfer so I had to listen to music today. I am really hooked on Steve Runner's Podcast.

Once I got that all figured out, I see this gaggle of 12-14 girls running towards me on the path. They were from the local high school since they were all wearing the school's colours. Mind you, the Great Western Trail isn't that wide at the beginning. They were running 4 wide but were not moving over to allow me to keep running on the path as we passed each other. Finally someone scooted over and made enough room for me but I ended up hitting elbows with one of them. I said "Excuse you!" as I ran by them. I wasn't too happy with them.

Then I got settled into the run. Ran past the 2 water stations. Made it to Bob-Jo were the turn around point was and ran back to the last water station on my to so it would be the first water station. I stopped for some Gatorade and water. While there I saw a woodpecker pecking at some dead tree above me. I also had a mosquito hold on to me after I started running. I felt this stinging and glanced at my shoulder and there she was. I smacked her and saw that I had blood on my hand and shoulder. So for the next two miles, I was bugged (hehe) by that itch that she created.

Then got back to the car in 1 hr 6 minutes. I was really happy with that time! Average of 9:27 min/mi! I think I do have to remember my gloves if it's under 60* though. Or find those damn arm warmers that Ryan Hall and Paula Radcliffe wear. I want those bad!!

Categories: 7 miles, Great Western Trail, long run, Phedippidations