This weekend's long run

I'm supposed to have 18 miles this week. Two weeks ago I did 16. Well, unfortunately, I'm going to be out of town attending the baptism of my best friend's twins. I'll be one of theirs godmother!! And I'll be taking the train out there. Leaving Friday afternoon and arriving Saturday morning at 2:34 am!!

So when showing Luke the city where I'm going, I noticed that the entire city was very grid like. I started immediately thinking that this would be very easy to get a run in and it was Luke who actually said that! So I mapped it out. Whoa. Intense. http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=3565119

But then when I showed it to my best friend, I told him that I wasn't sure what the plan was for Saturday and come to find out we're leaving at 9am for another town 2.5-3 hours away. He suggested doing the run in that town but it's a lot smaller, there's no way that I could get 18 in that town. Plus, I wouldn't want to just get leave for 3 hours while visiting some of the mother's family and be all stinky & in pain when I get back.

After I told that to Luke, we started talking about it. The only other option would be to run a few miles that weekend and then do my 18 mile on Monday night after I get back. Check this out: My train leaves on Monday morning at 1:34 am. I arrive in Chicago at 3:30 pm (baring no delays) and then I catch a 4:30 pm train out to Geneva. That's where Luke will pick me up at 5:30p and make me run 18 miles down the Fox River from Geneva to Aurora. I made him pinky promise me.

It's gonna be an interesting run. Luckily, I'll have Luke beside me. He said that he can bike beside me while I run, which will be helpful. He doesn't think I'll have the energy to run that far after a 14 hour train ride. But having him beside me should encourage me to go on (as long as he's encouraging that is) or just to prove him wrong. :-)

Categories: long run, vacation

Heat Wave

My 8 mile run was great this morning! I had a bagel before I left. Yay food!! Good weather, good company and the pace was not so bad after all! Average pace of 9:55 min/mi. You'll see in my stats that the pace kept going downhill but I knew I couldn't keep that fast of a pace. And then when we started going west, where the 20 mph winds were coming from, that slowed me down a whole lot, especially near the end when I was tired and

I wore my Under Amour tights and my new Hind Pants and that worked out great!! I wore my ColdGear Under Armour shirt, with my new Hind Shirt over that. I also threw on my softshell jacket but even before the 2 mile mark, I had it off. Luckily, I wore my water bottle belt so that held it up around my waist. But it did keep me from easily reaching my Gatorade. I had a feeling that I shouldn't have worn the jacket but when I saw Joe with one on, I figured I better put mine on as well. I took off my gloves around the 1 mile mark. No pins & needles today for my fingers!! I had on my visor thankfully since the sun was bright and I also had on my sunglasses. Only wore a fleece headband, no full on hat. Apparently the 40's are a good number for me to run in!

Tonight I hope to run another 5-6 miles on the treadmill at the YMCA. Let's hope for that. I'll go an hour before they close. This way hopefully I can stay on the treadmill for an entire hour and get that in. Then I would have ran 13-14 miles and while it's not the best to do for marathon training but no way could I have done a whole 14 miles in one outing today. I'm not that trained yet. Hoping to get up to 9 next week in one run!

My cats are loving this warm weather finally. They are out on the balcony since the majority of the snow has finally melted away last night. Seriously, before I went to bed the snow was from front to back. This morning, it was just on the front. One of my cats is getting a little jumpy because of the wind but it's keeping her excited and on her toes.

Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 876 ft Location: Sycamore, IL Elev. Gain: +0 ft Date: 02/07/09 Up/Downhill: [+193/-193] Time: 08:07 AM Difficulty: 2.4 / 5.0 Weather: Fair 41 F temp; 96% humidity 41 F heat index; winds SW 17 Performance Distance: 8.00 miles Time: 1:19:10 Speed: 6.1 mph Pace: 9' 54 /mi Heart Rate: 177 bpm (Avg) Calories: 857 190 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 9' 06 -0' 48 6.6 +0.5 168 +36 ft 2 9' 38 -0' 16 6.2 +0.2 178 +10 ft 3 9' 41 -0' 13 6.2 +0.1 179 +33 ft 4 9' 59 +0' 05 6.0 -0.1 180 -13 ft 5 10' 06 +0' 12 5.9 -0.1 179 +14 ft 6 10' 36 +0' 42 5.7 -0.4 174 -36 ft 7 10' 27 +0' 33 5.7 -0.3 177 -7 ft end 9' 36 -0' 18 6.2 +0.2 183 -36 ft Versus average of 9' 54 min/mile

Posted from bimactive.com

Categories: 8 miles, cold weather, Great Western Trail, heat wave in winter, long run, pictures

Longest run of my life

Well, from here on out every Saturday for 2 weeks then skipping a week, I'll be able to say that.

I signed up to do the World Wide Festival of Races. This has a 1/2 Marathon, 10k and 5k that one can sign up and "virtually" run with other racers from around the world. You also receive a virtual goodie bag as well. It worked out perfectly since I had a 15 mile run to do today.

I got up at 5:30a, ate my oatmeal and didn't have any bagels to eat so the oatmeal was it. Got running at 6:45. Right away I started to feel my calf being a pain in my rear end. But I managed to keep on running. And I kept on going and going on going. I got to see the sunrise. It was dark when I left my house.

I ran past the "town" of Virgil. I ran past the bar that Brent & I stopped at that is a biker bar but we were on our bicycles and luckily, no one gave us a hard time for it.



Then at 7.3 miles, I ran past horses. Yay! A new view! Then I turned around and started my trek back. I listed to 2.5 Podcasts while doing this run today.

By 11 miles, I had slowed way down. Averaging 9:40 min/mi. At 11 miles, I started going 10:30 min/mi. I was going at I looked at my watch and at 13.1 I noted the time. I ran it in 2:10:05. Which is not bad since I knew I had 2 more miles to go! My feet were burning by this time, more specifically the balls of my feet. I tried running on the grass but that didn't work.


I finished my 15 mile run with a time of 2:29:37 and at 9:14a. Just what I estimated. Pretty cool! My breathing also got a lot easier as I reached those slower paces. It didn't sound as laboured. but I slowed down so that's why. I also burned a total of 1,568 calories.

During the run:
Mile 3, I drank some Gatorade. At mile 5, I brought out my Shot Bloks and ate three of them but it was so hard to do that. I felt like I couldn't breathe because they were so chewy and gelly. I chewed them with water. At mile 7, I drank some more Gatorade. At mile 10, I ate only 2 Shot Bloks since that was all I could ingest. I'm not buying them again. Something new to try though. I also grabbed some sour gum that I had but I think it was opened a bit so it kinda dried out and didn't taste so good. It wasn't turning into gum so I just ended up spitting it out. I drank a lot more Gatorade and water in those last 5 miles.

I stretched for a little bit and then I headed back home to take a cold bath and head to Chicago to meet up with Jesse. Weeeell, that didn't happen. I headed home to take the cold bath but I got out at 9:45a when I should have already left to the train station. I ended up not taking a full shower but enough to get my hair wet and wash the salt off my face and got dressed quickly. I grabbed my camera, Runner's World in case I got Ryan Hall to autograph it.

I left at 10:05a from DeKalb, train left at 10:25a. I flew down Keslinger but it didn't work. I was pulling into the parking lot as the train left. I was sooo disappointed with myself. I checked Aurora's time table and they had a train that was leaving at 11:20a and by the time that Jesse and I talked about it, I tried heading over to Aurora. But then I got stuck by a freight train in Elburn and by the time I got over to Geneva, it was already 11a and I knew that I wouldn't be able to make it in time. So Jesse called me and I told him that he doesn't have to wait for me. Otherwise, I wouldn't get into Chicago until almost 2p since the next train from Elburn left at 12:25 (every 2 hours).

So I headed back to DeKalb and met up with a friend and ate at Baker's Square. I was just dying for some grease! And I even had a half slice of pie too!

Now I'm just chilling on the couch, writing this, watching America's Test Kitchen on PBS. The kitties are sleeping on the couch with me. I'm going to read a Runner's World from July 2007 about a guide on self massage. Then I'll need to take a real shower later on tonight and sleep well to prepare for the Chicago Marathon event tomorrow! Plus, I still need to head out to make a sign for Jesse tomorrow!

Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 871 ft Location: Sycamore, IL Elev. Gain: +0 ft Date: 10/11/08 Up/Downhill: [+177/-177] Time: 06:43 AM Difficulty: 2.6 / 5.0 Weather: Fair 61 F temp; 67% humidity 61 F heat index; winds S 7 Performance Distance: 15.00 miles Time: 2:29:37 Speed: 6.0 mph Pace: 9' 58 /mi Calories: 1568 Map Elevation (ft) Pace (min/mile) Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Elevation Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 9' 40 -0' 18 6.2 +0.2 +23 ft 2 9' 44 -0' 14 6.2 +0.1 +7 ft 3 9' 36 -0' 22 6.2 +0.2 -10 ft 4 9' 52 -0' 06 6.1 +0.1 +9 ft 5 9' 38 -0' 20 6.2 +0.2 -16 ft 6 9' 48 -0' 10 6.1 +0.1 +7 ft 7 9' 38 -0' 20 6.2 +0.2 0 ft 8 10' 12 +0' 14 5.9 -0.1 0 ft 9 9' 50 -0' 08 6.1 +0.1 0 ft 10 9' 46 -0' 12 6.1 +0.1 -4 ft 11 10' 27 +0' 29 5.7 -0.3 +13 ft 12 10' 27 +0' 29 5.7 -0.3 -9 ft 13 10' 32 +0' 34 5.7 -0.3 +10 ft 14 10' 39 +0' 41 5.6 -0.4 -7 ft 15 9' 52 -0' 06 6.1 +0.1 -23 ft Versus average of 9' 58 min/mile

Posted from bimactive.com

Categories: 15 miles, Great Western Trail, long run, pictures

This Morning

OK, so I didn't go running this morning after all. My alarm went off at the normal time for work but I just couldn't bring myself to get out of bed. I did turn on the heat after all last night, it was going to be 36 for a low.

So I did get up at quarter to 9a and decided to start eating. A bagel for one and then I added a bowl of oatmeal. After talking and hearing how much Jesse eats I decided to take his non-advice advice and eat some oatmeal too. Maybe that as well contributed to the EPIC FAIL of my 13 mile run last weekend. Hard to believe that it was only a week ago, it was 80* and very warm. So now I have another hour to wait before I can go running (food digestion) but I might head out early anyway.

And Brent is still asleep. Told ya. :-D

Categories: cold weather, long run

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

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

Day of firsts

I ran 6 miles today. Wanted to wake up at 6a and on the limestone path at 7a. Weeeeel, that didn't happen. Slept in until after 7a and at 7:40a it started raining so I decided to wait until 8a and if it was still raining I'll go to the Y. Luckily, it stopped so off I went to the path in Sycamore.

Ran the 6 miles. It was tough. I did manage to do it in an average of 9:47 min/mi. which is just under 59 minutes for 6 miles. Not too shabby. Considering that I haven't ran 6 miles since the springtime! I take that back, not since Feb 16!! WOW.

Also, I had several firsts today. I had to poop about 2 miles into it. I thought I could hold it but it started to get uncomfortable so I found a corn field and off I went! HA! I peed and pooped in a corn field. Lots of mosquitoes but I did it. The thighs were sore after getting up from my squatting position. But I felt a whole heck of a lot better after that!! I guess running loosens my bowels which I have read can happen.

Another first was taking a cold bath. You're supposed to take an ice bath. I have yet have the courage to do that. So I put in cold water in the bath, stood and complained as my feet got used to the cold water and then sat down. I was naked except for a sweatshirt to keep me warm. I had enough water in the tub to cover my thighs. I stayed in there for about 8 minutes. To get the best out of an ice bath, it's supposed to be 10-20 minutes. Oh well. It's my first time. But I did get used to the cold water after a while and it did feel good. After driving back after my run, I got out of the car and my thighs hurt. They don't hurt now as I sit here and get up every once in a while.

Now I'm off to eat something. I should note that I didn't eat anything this morning. After the delay, I should have. Oh well.

Categories: 6 miles, bathroom, cold bath, long run

11 miles baby!

So I thought I was impressive with my 10 mile run last week. But today I did 11 miles! Boo-ya! Again it was hurtful though afterwards. Like even just walking home I was already feeling the effects. I could hardly cross Bethany Road before a car almost hit me and then honked at me.

I did stop at the music building to go to the bathroom. Bad idea. One, it was really hot inside since it was cold outside. Two, I was sweating buckets by this time so my clothes were sticking to me like crazy. Three, when I got outside, I could see the steam rising off my arms because of my heat and then the heat of the building. I started running again and things just didn't feel right from that point on. But it was just about halfway point so I knew I had to keep on pushing. And I managed to another 5.5 miles!

I also went a different way. I went back through Hopkins Park and then up through the subdivision near Joanne Rd that leads to 1st Street. I knew I was going to encounter a hill but I was going to encounter a hill on the bike path anyway. I nearly died going up that hill though. Blah.

And I still have my cough too. It wasn't bothering me while I was running but after I did a lot. So it's not that it's bothering me while I'm running which is good just afterwards. I hope it goes away!

Categories: 11 miles, long run

10 miles baby!

I ran 10 miles this afternoon. I started late but that was fine since it was freezing out! I dressed warm for the run but I was doubting my coverage when I was walking to my starting place.

I knew I had to run and I was a little worried about where I was going to run at. I knew that I could make it down to northend of campus taking my normal route but that would only get me just over 3 miles one way. So I continued on through campus and down to the lagoon. There's construction on the main highway through town so I couldn't cross it so I just ran back up through the campus area. I kinda felt like Forrest again with the whole running as I ran thing.

I did do a bad thing though. Kinda embarrassing to mention this but I didn't go to the bathroom beforehand and I paid the price. Things hurt towards the end of my run.

But other than that, I felt fine with this run. I hurt at the end but I did 10 miles. Only 3 more miles, a 5k, and I got my race! Very exciting times!

Categories: 10 miles, long run

Longest run yet.

Lance is sooo good to me! He told me that I just ran my longest run yet tonight. 9.5 miles! Whoo-hoo!

This morning I was going to run at lunchtime. But then it was way windy and I just didn't feel up for it at noon. So I didn't. Decided that I can run at the Y after work and before the basketball game tonight. I looked at my schedule and I was supposed to run 5 at an easy pace so I got to 5 miles and then I decided that since I didn't do my long run on Saturday and haven't in a while, I went ahead and decided to do it tonight. I'll bypass the basketball game.

The longest run I've had was 8 something. I did a cumulative run of 9.16 one day so I decided to do 9 and then push it over 9 maybe running to 1 hour and 30 minutes. Once I hit 8, I moved my Nano up and then once I hit 9, I kept my iPod in my hand so I could watch it and decided to stop at 9.5 miles. I could have kept on going but I didn't want to push myself to injury and I didn't want to set the bar so high that I couldn't get over it.

I did get hungry during my run. But I kept on going. I also didn't have any water so maybe that's why it worked for me. I didn't have to stop and take a drink or hold my breath to swallow the water. I also wore a short-sleeved shirt instead of tank and tucked the front of it up and under the bottom of my bra. It was nice, showing off my abs and all that! :-)

Apparently it's like running over 140 football fields!! That's quite a thing to think about!

Categories: long run

First run of the day

Today is a bit different. I ran 6 miles this morning. That's the part that's not so different. This afternoon, I'm going to run 3 more miles for a race. That's what's different. It's going to be interesting to see how well I do in the race. I feel good after my 6 miles. I want to take a cold bath though but I can't. Here's also something that might hurt me race time. I'm going to be sitting for 2.5 hours in a car driving down to said race! :-/ We'll see how it goes.

Today's run: 50-55*, dressed perfectly!

Categories: long run

Long run: 8.5 miles

Well, I did 8.5 miles today. Lance again congratulated me on my run. He's always so nice.

When I started off though, my left toes were stiff. I crack my toes a lot and I do so by pointing them. So I'm thinking that's why. Also my right Achilles tendon was tight too when starting out, it loosened up though. I didn't quite know what to wear this morning, so I just went with my long HeatWear tights and my HeatWear long-sleeved shirt by UnderArmour. It all worked though I'm wondering if my shirt could have been short-sleeved instead. I wore all 4 bottles of my water belt. Two with water and 2 with Gatorade Rain. I didn't fasten tight enough around my waist, kept moving on me.

I also got 2 war wounds today. At mile 5, I started feeling a blister on my left toe. At mile 6, I felt another blister on my other foot. Great. Then that was all I could think about from those miles on. My other wound was chaffing. Not from my clothes but instead from my arm rubbing on water bottle. I noticed it only once I stopped running and man did it smart. Not so much anymore. I hope that I never have a toe nail fall off from running. Gross.

Though I will admit that I was hurting near the end of my run. My feet were stumbling about. And right before the last leg of the run, I was crossing a road, getting ready to step into the crosswalk, this woman driver wouldn't even slow down and stop for me. I had to stop or I was going to get run over by her. I had three other people stop for me while crossing other intersections. But this woman wouldn't do it even after I lifted up my arm and gave her the stop signal with my hand. That got me hot, I gave her the finger, called her a bitch out loud and that look a lot of energy to get mad like that.

It was cool today but not like that one night I ran and it wasn't raining. I'm thinking rain has something to do with my good runs.

Now off to take care of this blister. Any recommendations?

Another 2 miles, and I will have reached 200 miles on Nike+!

Today's run: 9:45am, bike path, 58°F to 66°F, post-run weight 129.4 lbs

Categories: blisters, clothing, long run

8 miles

Today's run was a 4 on a scale of 1-10, 10 being great. I got up at 9a (actually slept in a bit!) and checked the weather and it was 72. I added some new songs to my iPod, went to MapMyRun.com and planned out my route and didn't get out on the road until 10:15a. I don't know what the temperature was by that time. I did end up running my full 8 miles. Well, I ran most of it. I did walk a bit but I didn't bring enough water with me. I only brought down 2 bottles with me for my water belt. I filled one with water and the other with PowerAde. I figured out my route and printed out the directions. Unfortunately, I didn't know that it was going to be so out in the open. I ran on the outskirts of the town so I wasn't running with traffic and had the room to do it. With that though, I ran on a lot of roads with no shade at 10:30a and 11a.

I also got stopped by a train. I heard it coming and I was going to cross the tracks earlier than I needed to and not at a crossing. I turned around to go back to the tracks and when I did my knees went together and knocked off one of my knee bands. I turned around and went back to get it and by that time the train was louder. So I decided against doing that. Figured that by that time I was tired enough I probably would have tripped over the tracks or something anyway. I had to stop for the train and it was 3.5 miles exactly. I wasted a lot of my water waiting on the train. I put the water on my head, on my face, down my back and in my mouth. PowerAde is not a favourite of mine. I don't like it. Made my mouth all cottony. Gonna stick with my Gatorade Rain.

I'm not doing Pere Marquette after all. I chickened out. Plus, after my run today, I really don't feel like biking. It's too late in the day anyway. It's gonna take 3 hours just to drive over there and I don't feel like spending the money on the gas to go over there. So Rock Cut it will be in a few weeks.

Categories: biking, long run