6 days and counting

The taper paranoia has begun.

The other night, I dreamt that I forgot my Garmin and I was freaking myself out because then I wouldn't know what pace I was going. Luke was there but he wouldn't go back and get it.

Then on my run yesterday, my right achilles had a dull throb to it. I was thinking that it might be something. I haven't felt it since then. My knee is tight after yesterday's run. It was fine immediately afterwards but then Luke's family & myself hit & caught baseballs in the backyard and I think with all the stopping and going suddenly was not easy on the knee.

I got my compression leg sleeves in the mail (finally, so much for 2 day air) over the weekend. I'm gonna definitely wear them in my marathon. They hopefully will help keep the cramps away in my calves.

I also looked through pictures online of my first marathon the other day. I think it helped me to get excited for running another marathon. I remembered all the feelings I had then, with my family around to cheer for me.

I ran too fast yesterday. 8:40 for the first mile. All together 8 miles at 9:20 pace. Not too shabby. I always aim for 10 minutes a mile but never get there. I'll NEED to get there for my marathon on Sunday. And unfortunately, NO PACE GROUPS. Well, at least no mention of them on the website.

Yesterday was also my last day of eating poorly. Pizza. From now on, healthy stuff. The pigging out will be reserved for after my marathon. Though, it's funny, someone saw me eating a few pieces of chocolate after my first marathon and they had the nerve to tell me "Just because you ran a marathon, doesn't mean you can eat a bunch of chocolate. You should still watch what you eat." Um, excuse me, I ran 26.2 miles. HA! I'm gonna do whatever I like! Including taking the rest of the month off from running.

Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 878 ft Location: -- Elev. Gain: +0 ft Date: 05/09/10 Up/Downhill: [+295/-295] Time: 10:31 AM Difficulty: 2.8 / 5.0 Performance Distance: 8.00 miles Time: 1:14:45 Speed: 6.4 mph Pace: 9' 21 /mi Calories: 846 Map Elevation (ft) Pace (min/mile) Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Elevation Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 8' 42 -0' 39 6.9 +0.5 +9 ft 2 9' 26 +0' 05 6.4 -0.1 +13 ft 3 9' 18 -0' 03 6.5 +0.0 -26 ft 4 9' 35 +0' 14 6.3 -0.2 +13 ft 5 9' 20 -0' 01 6.4 +0.0 -10 ft 6 10' 13 +0' 52 5.9 -0.5 +29 ft 7 9' 38 +0' 17 6.2 -0.2 -20 ft end 9' 45 +0' 24 6.2 -0.3 -9 ft Versus average of 9' 21 min/mile

Posted from bimactive.com

Categories: 8 miles, Perryville Path

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

Chest congestion

Not quite what I had hoped for today's run.

It's perfect weather, cloudy and cool considering that it's August 1. So because of that I slept in (cause I didn't have a good night, more on that later) and I got running about 8:40am but that was OK since it was still 65 when I started. Amazing. Well, as soon as I took off, my legs felt heavy and I knew this was going to be a tough run. I ran past the 1 mile marker and my Garmin said that it was 1.13. Whoa, that's way off. At 2 miles it said 2.15 miles. And it's always been on target before. So I stopped at that point and turned off the GPS and started it again. I figured that it just didn't get a good connection and I reset the timer and started again. This time it was a lot more "on" pace.

But I only was able to run 2 more miles up and I turned around and ran the 4 back. Well, kinda ran the 4 back. More like jogged it with a little bit of walking. I had debated going out for 3 more and 3 back to give me the 14 miles all together but there was no way possible. On my way back I was averaging a pace of 11 minutes a mile, which is SOOOO not like me.

Here's what I'm thinking. Somehow I got a chest cold/congestion. It's summer, I'm not supposed to get sick! So I've been coughing quite a bit since Thursday. Mucus and everything. I know, lovely right? Anyway, I coughed all night even though I took a decongestant and I have no idea what time but I eventually got up and took 2 swigs of cough syrup and was finally able to sleep. I woke up and got going but was still coughing. Still mucus too. I ran anyway. I feel fine physically like I have the energy just this damn cough. I didn't cough too much on the run but I did feel like I couldn't take that big of breaths which probably also didn't help with the run. At least I'm hoping that's part of it. I promised myself that after I pick up my shoes today that I'll try for another 6 miles tonight to get my 14 miles in total. We'll see if that happens.

The good news is that it got me to the pace of which I'm supposed to run my training miles in. Not faster pace that I've been doing. So far since I've been back I haven't coughed that much. And when I have, nothing has come up. I had thought about going down to the walk-in clinic today but decided to wait until tomorrow to see how another night goes and how I feel tomorrow. The funny part is my voice is about 2 octaves lower. So weird hearing myself. Doesn't sound like me at all!!

I remembered something that I wanted to share about Wednesday's run. I had a lady play chicken with me. I kid you not. I was on the right of the path, which is the way people drive in America and the way we walk on paths. So I'm just running along, and this Asian lady is walking towards me. On my side. With her dog. I'm waiting for her to move on over but she never does. I'm thinking, you wanna play chicken, fine we'll play chicken and I gear up for it. Finally as I'm getting closer to her, I point to the other side and tell her you're supposed to be on that side. And while she moves, she doesn't get over all the way just enough to let me pass on the CORRECT side of her. And then I look behind me, she's back on my side. WTF?! That pissed me off.

What reminded me of it is that it happened again today out on Great Western Trail only it happened with bikers. 3 wide were coming towards me and they never greatly moved over. One was in the middle of the lane. I've been passed by others that have moved over and gone single file which was nice of them to do. But not this group of 3 boys. Not happy about that.

Note: I stopped in the second mile of the 2nd part of my run for quite a bit at the turn around point which is why BiM is showing a 14 minute pace for that mile.

Also, my shoes have come in so I'm heading up to Rockford to pick them up! I'm excited since my current shoes have about 354 miles on them. Almost time to retire them to my everyday shoes. Must break the news ones in before my marathon in October.

Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 869 ft Location: Sycamore, IL Elev. Gain: +32 ft Date: 08/01/09 Up/Downhill: [+45/-13] Time: 08:40 AM Difficulty: 1.8 / 5.0 Weather: Partly Cloudy 65 F temp; 83% humidity 65 F heat index; winds SW 14 Performance Distance: 2.15 miles Time: 0:19:14 Speed: 6.7 mph Pace: 8' 57 /mi Heart Rate: 157 bpm (Avg) Calories: 226 185 bpm (Peak) Pace (min/mile) Heart Rate (bpm) Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Heart Rate Elev Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 8' 09 -0' 48 7.4 +0.7 133 +23 ft 2 9' 33 +0' 36 6.3 -0.4 171 0 ft end 10' 00 +1' 03 6.0 -0.7 166 +9 ft Versus average of 8' 57 min/mile

Posted from bimactive.com

Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 876 ft Location: Sycamore, IL Elev. Gain: -29 ft Date: 08/01/09 Up/Downhill: [+75/-104] Time: 09:01 AM Difficulty: 2.2 / 5.0 Weather: Light Drizzle 64 F temp; 89% humidity 64 F heat index; winds SW 16 Performance Distance: 6.00 miles Time: 1:03:39 Speed: 5.7 mph Pace: 10' 37 /mi Heart Rate: 166 bpm (Avg) Calories: 648 185 bpm (Peak) Pace (min/mile) Heart Rate (bpm) Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Heart Rate Elev Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 9' 53 -0' 44 6.1 +0.4 165 -10 ft 2 14' 33 +3' 56 4.1 -1.5 177 +13 ft 3 10' 27 -0' 10 5.7 +0.1 162 -13 ft 4 11' 24 +0' 47 5.3 -0.4 167 +10 ft 5 10' 58 +0' 21 5.5 -0.2 160 -7 ft 6 10' 28 -0' 09 5.7 +0.1 169 -23 ft Versus average of 10' 37 min/mile

Posted from bimactive.com

Categories: 8 miles, Great Western Trail, shoes, sick

Summer marathon training

This is my first summer in which I'm training for a marathon. And I already don't like it and I'm only in my 2nd week*!

Got up at 6am, ate a bowl of oatmeal and was running by 6:33am. Still not early enough for this heat. 62° when I started w/84% humidity. 71° when I ended. This was according to Weather.com. Though the bank by the start said 68° and 77°. Either way it was hot.

So looks like I'm gonna have to go with the 5am crowd. I am not one of those people that can thrive and run just fine in the heat. I need the cool weather to excel. Especially as the runs get longer, I'm gonna have to go earlier and earlier and brings LOTS of water with me. I just had one big bottle and ran out.

Ended up running 8.75 miles. I kept the pace really nice and even with the exception of mile 6.5 to just after 7 miles. There was a long slight hill that just killed my average pace. And I stopped for quite a while at half way to eat some beans.

But also keep in mind that this is the first time I've done over 6.2 since my marathon back in April! I attempted 8 miles last week but that was again another failure thanks to the heat and only managed to squeak in 5.6 miles. I was aiming for a 10 min/mi pace but 9:3X works for me!

Interesting things:
I was saluted on the path. I kid you not! I was running towards NIU, the guy was coming from that area. He had on pants, like a cross between khaki and cargo pants and a backpack on. He had a doo-rag on his head and a bright blue shirt. I thought the guy was crazy for wearing that in this heat. When he passed me he put his hand up to his forehead in a salute and said Ma'am. Now I am the type that waves at EVERYONE so I waved as he wsa doing that. Took me back but quite awesome! Kinda made my day!!

Just after that, I passed what looked like the NIU motorcycle classes. On my way back to the same area I saw that they had all the motorcycles out of the trailer so I was right! Yay motorcycles. I love to ride on the back of them!!


I nearly got eaten alive by a dog or two. First time I almost got bit by one. Down by NIU's Music Building, I was coming up behind a father with a baby stroller and the mother with 2 small yappy dogs. I told them I was coming up behind them but they still took up the entire path and they weren't reeling in their dogs on the retractable lease. Finally I said On Your Right and passed them. Then the dogs started running towards me, barking and yapping up a storm. She couldn't get them to stop and couldn't pull them in so I had to do a hop skip knee lifts in the grass and run faster. I started yelling and saying stuff like Hey watch it! I finally said "Thanks a lot!" in a sarcastic way and she said something back to me that I couldn't hear and I might be glad I didn't cause it would have ruined the rest of my run.

I couldn't stand having my shorts on anymore so I rolled them up and under the built-in briefs of the shorts and felt like Deena Castor or Kara Goucher** wearing the bikini shorts! It did make me feel more comfortable but man, I looked funny I'm sure!! I've got a biker's tan, my thighs are half white half tan.


Speaking of biking, today I'm heading up to Baraboo for an small air show and then to Madison to spend with friends. Tomorrow we're gonna head on the bike paths and do some biking!! Wheeee!!! A weekend full of exercise! YES!

Northern Illinois University's Altgeld Hall Castle

*Technically I'm in my 2nd week of the plan but have only been running officially for a week. So far I'm doing ok with skipping that first week. Thank goodness for a base!

**I said I FELT like them, not that I LOOKED like them! HA!

Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 851 ft Location: DeKalb, IL Elev. Gain: +3 ft Date: 06/27/09 Up/Downhill: [+183/-180] Time: 06:34 AM Difficulty: 2.3 / 5.0 Weather: Fair 69 F temp; 70% humidity 69 F heat index; winds SE 6 Performance Distance: 8.75 miles Time: 1:23:56 Speed: 6.2 mph Pace: 9' 36 /mi Calories: 931 Map Elevation (ft) Pace (min/mile) Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Elevation Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 9' 31 -0' 05 6.3 +0.0 +37 ft 2 9' 24 -0' 12 6.4 +0.1 -39 ft 3 9' 29 -0' 07 6.3 +0.1 +4 ft 4 9' 24 -0' 12 6.4 +0.1 0 ft 5 16' 05 +6' 29 3.7 -2.5 0 ft 6 9' 36 +0' 00 6.2 +0.0 0 ft 7 9' 45 +0' 09 6.2 -0.1 +16 ft 8 9' 51 +0' 15 6.1 -0.2 +16 ft end 9' 26 -0' 10 6.4 +0.1 -30 ft Versus average of 9' 36 min/mile

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Categories: 8 miles, 9 miles, pictures

8 miles in Bluford

This time around my running around Bluford wasn't that bad! I only had 8 miles to go around the town. And I manage to find it pretty well. I of course mapped it out the night before on mapmyrun.com.

I decided to run to Bluford Lake to take pictures down there. It got me another .5 mile of the run or so. While running up to my former 7th grade teacher's place, I saw someone pull out in their SUV but I couldn't catch up to them. She's now on Facebook so we got back in touch that way. Would be nice to talk to her for a while. But come to find out it was her husband, Dale, (former superintendent of Bluford Schools) who went down to the Ruitarn Building across from the Grade School. He said hello and asked if I was training for a marathon. I told him I was, for St. Louis the next weekend. He said that his brother's (Donnie, who taught Driver's Education classes to both my MOTHER and I!!!) son & his wife were running some marathon this weekend. I told him it was probably the Illinois Marathon in Champaign. He said that his brother & his wife headed up there to watch the kids while "Mom & Dad" ran in the marathon. I told him to say hello to Kathie, his wife and went on my merry way.

Running over to Markham City again, I passed some horses and one of them was laying down. Usually horses don't lay down, even to sleep (they only sleep 4 hours a day). They are flight animals so they need to stay on their feet. I thought maybe it was hurt because he kept looking behind him at his hind foot. Then on my way back, passed him again and this time the horse was completely lying down in the sun. I stopped at the gate and waited to see if I could see the chest rise but couldn't. So then I called out and he turned to look at me. The pony in the enclosure across the pasture did the same thing. Eventually the horse got up and walked over to me at the gate without a limp so now I feel bad because I got him up from his wonderful slumber in the sun! But we got to chill for a little while and I petted him and blew in his nose. Then again on my merry way.

I got back home and looked at my watch and I finished 8 miles in 1:14! That was a nice pace. Maybe after my marathon, I should start doing more half marathons and work on getting my pace under 2 hours. That would be pretty sweet! We'll see how this one goes on Sunday.

Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 518 ft Location: Bluford, IL Elev. Gain: +0 ft Date: 04/11/09 Up/Downhill: [+328/-328] Time: 09:31 AM Difficulty: 2.8 / 5.0 Weather: Fair 50 F temp; 53% humidity 50 F heat index; winds N 8 Performance Distance: 8.00 miles Time: 1:14:30 Speed: 6.4 mph Pace: 9' 19 /mi Heart Rate: 173 bpm (Avg) Calories: 850 184 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' 42 -0' 37 6.9 +0.4 161 -13 ft 2 9' 18 -0' 01 6.5 +0.0 173 -6 ft 3 9' 28 +0' 09 6.3 -0.1 177 +26 ft 4 9' 53 +0' 34 6.1 -0.4 175 0 ft 5 9' 36 +0' 17 6.2 -0.2 174 +10 ft 6 9' 19 +0' 00 6.4 -0.0 176 -10 ft 7 9' 28 +0' 09 6.3 -0.1 173 -19 ft end 9' 00 -0' 19 6.7 +0.2 178 +13 ft Versus average of 9' 19 min/mile

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Categories: 8 miles, Bluford