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

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

A warm run in just under 30

Today's run was good. I finally ran 3.1 miles in under 30 minutes, in 29:09! Yea doggies! Unfortunately, I had heard that it was only going to be 74* for a high today but when I got outside to run, it felt a lot warmer than that. I knew I was going to be in trouble even before running. Sure enough, at the end of the run, the bank said 80*.

When I first started running, I was already hurting. See, it's a few days before my period so my breasts are swollen and hurting. I have small breasts, A cup. I hated my breasts when I was younger, always wanted bigger ones. Until I started running that is. Now I'm glad that I don't have to deal with them bouncing or keeping them in place with 2 sports bras. Especially after today. With them swollen and painful, the bouncing of my runs are not comfortable. If I had B or C cups, I'm sure they would be bouncy but not painful like today. But if they were, I'm glad I don't have them! I only have to deal with this once per month and that's more than enough for me.

I ran past my boss on the bike path. She was going the opposite way than I. I knew she was running but have never seen her out and about before.

Apparently, I also have now ran 500 miles on Nike+! I was given the option to buy a shirt that says this but it's out of stock. :-(

Olympic Women's Marathon is this Sunday. I haven't decided who I'm cheering for. While I want Deena Kastor to win and get above her bronze medal (her finish at Athens is sooo moving), I also like Paula Radcliffe since she's overcoming an injury! The defending champion from Japan is out after an hamstring injury she got during training.

Categories: boss, female troubles, nike+

Another accident

My 3 mile runs are not getting any faster. I used to run it in 26, 27 minutes. Now I can barely make it under 30! I know, I know, I only started running again after a month off a few weeks ago. It's gonna take some time to get my cardio back up and going but damnit, I liked the conditioning I was in before. I know I won't be placing in any age categories for my upcoming races.

Today something new happened to me again. Well, not really new. It's happened in 2 of my races. My very first one and my 8k this year, in which I never really trained and pushed way too hard at the end. I had a leaky bladder. I was walking a few steps after stopping running and boom it felt like I had to pee. I stopped, stooped over and tried to hold it in. A few many drops managed to trickle out. Yuck. I'm not alone, see here. It even happens to men!

Now off to take a shower before my Northern Illinois Trail Runner's Organisation seminar. It's on Pilates tonight!

Categories: bathroom, NITRO

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

More like noRun

I never ran in the entire month of July. Wow. I haven no idea how I did it. There were times in which I wanted to run or needed to run but never got out there and did it. My weekends were busy with the boyfriend and then at the end of the month we were getting his place all packed and together and then of course I had RAGBRAI the week before his move.

I mostly biked in July. So my muscles should still be in good shape, save for my knees.

I went running last night for the first time since June 29th. I ran 3.1 miles in 30 minutes. Pretty slow. First 1.7 miles were just over 10 minutes. Second part I sped it up so that I was running faster (yay negative splits!) and was going 9:10 or so. The last half mile I sped it up even more and was going 8:48. For an average of 9:47. Not bad as that's probably what I'll end up doing for the marathon and my training pace need to be slower than that.

Today, the muscles outside my hips hurt. My thighs hurt a little. Calves I feel nothing. I didn't feel any pain in my knee today but did after my run last night. I put it up, didn't use ice, and it feels fine this morning. I must always remember my knee bands.

Brent rode his bike with me last night. It was good to have someone else there with me, able to talk to me. I eventually told him to help me. Then I told him to count and with each number, I planted my foot down. It helped with my foot rotation and kept my mind off my pain. My lungs were also dead, mainly because it was still 78 when I left high humidity and I didn't have any water. I could hear the phlegm in my breathing. Next time, he'll have to bring a water bottle to put on his bike so he can douse me with it every now and then.

Oh and since I run on a bike path that's through some wooded areas, I need to spray down with some bug repellent. Mosquitoes were all over me last night and kept distracting me from my running and disrupting my form.

Saturday is 6 miles. That'll be interesting. I bet I'll be going way slow or even walking some of it. I also plan on doing that out at the Great Western Trail in Sycamore. Maybe early in the morning. It's gonna be 80 that day.

Categories: Brent