Labour Day weekend in Madison

What a funtastic weekend in Madison!

Friday had me going to a bar on the East side that had me watching the most wonderful view of a sunset on Lake Monona.

Saturday had me waking up and running 10 miles. I must say though, this was the hardest 5 miles of my running life. I had no idea when the next mile marker was going to take place or where it was or how to get there! At first I was on a bike path, then it went onto a sidewalk but I was still following the signs for the bike path and then I found another bike path through a high school football & soccer fields then back out of the path and onto sidewalks again. It was odd. I thought Madison had more bike paths then this! I'll look for maps later on since I have a feeling I'll be visiting Madison a lot! This was also the first time that I had a run that took me across major roads and I had to cross them. I also stopped for a long time in Mile 6 at a Citgo to fill up my water bottle since I had almost ran out.

Saturday afternoon had me going to Taste of Madison. Walked around the Capital Square and was checking out all the foods & bands. It's different than the Taste of Chicago where it's a ticket system, this is cash-based and no "tastes." Full portions here. I had a few different items, this one is a portebella sandwich on a bagel. I'm glad no one got a picture of me eating it! Messy messy messy!

Saturday evening was the highlight of the entire weekend. NIU vs. UW-Madison. I can't believe how great the seats were that we got very last minute! They were end-zone but only 5 rows from the front! We ended up losing 28-20 but scored 14 points in the 4th quater alone! We were staging a comeback! Kevin & I are NIU alum and his wife was born in Milwaukee and attended Illinois State so we were giving her a hard time for being a "traitor" and wearing UW garb! We were getting heckled a lot, especially in the 4th quarter when Badger fans started to get worried when their lead started to slip.

I was so sore though, walking back to the car after the game. From the run and then the walking around Taste and then the game, my body is definitely letting me know it's age!

On Sunday morning, Kevin & I tried to go on a bike ride. However, that ended up failing. At 4.5 miles into the ride, I heard this whoosh, whoosh, whoosh and then a whoooooooooooooosh. My front tire got a flat. Oh great. And this was happening on a pretty woody, downhill part of the ride and Kevin was far far ahead of me by this time. I yelled his name but he didn't hear me. Luckily, as I was walking my bike down the hill, a guy passed me and told Kevin (since he was stopped) that I was walking my bike. So he came back to find me. As we were at the bottom of the hill getting his CO2 pump ready, we were getting bitten by mosquitos big time. So we decided to leave the area and just have his wife come and pick us up. Up to a neighbourhood where the mosquitos followed us for a bit. We went to an intersection and sat down and decided that we both would try to change the tube in my tire. Apparently, we didn't do it right though since the tube went flat again as it was on my bike rack these past 2 days. I took it down to North Central Cyclery and got a new tube and they fixed it up for me. (On a side note, I got a NIU Cycling Jersey while down there too!)

We got it finished just as Jess was pulling up! HA! Kevin took off to ride back while Jess & I went to Wal-Mart to pick up a few things for...

The beach! Nothing really to report here. We pretty much just laid around getting some sun. The water was a bit too chilly to really get in there. Later on that night was a fire pit and rum runners and neighbours in the cul-de-sac. Good times.

Monday was a relaxing day. I didn't do any exercise but it didn't mean I was just lounging around! Down a local pool, they closed it down for humans but invited canines and their owners down so the doggies can enjoy the pool for a day! It was great fun seeing all the dogs running and playing with each other. Later on was grilling out and then I headed on out back to Illinois.

It was the first time that I was actually truly sad leaving Madison and going back to DeKalb. It was just that great of a weekend!

Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 1033 ft Location: Verona, WI Elev. Gain: -50 ft Date: 09/05/09 Up/Downhill: [+442/-492] Time: 07:56 AM Difficulty: 3.2 / 5.0 Performance Distance: 10.00 miles Time: 1:40:57 Speed: 5.9 mph Pace: 10' 06 /mi Calories: 1069 Map Elevation (ft) Pace (min/mile) Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Elevation Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 9' 05 -1' 01 6.6 +0.7 -89 ft 2 10' 00 -0' 06 6.0 +0.1 +16 ft 3 10' 14 +0' 08 5.9 -0.1 +7 ft 4 10' 34 +0' 28 5.7 -0.3 +4 ft 5 10' 32 +0' 26 5.7 -0.3 -39 ft 6 13' 28 +3' 22 4.5 -1.5 +82 ft 7 9' 53 -0' 13 6.1 +0.1 -46 ft 8 11' 11 +1' 05 5.4 -0.6 -3 ft 9 9' 53 -0' 13 6.1 +0.1 -27 ft end 10' 09 +0' 03 5.9 -0.0 +40 ft Versus average of 10' 06 min/mile

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Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 1004 ft Location: Verona, WI Elev. Gain: -98 ft Date: 09/06/09 Up/Downhill: [+318/-416] Time: 10:44 AM Difficulty: 2.6 / 5.0 Weather: Fair with Haze 72 F temp; 65% humidity 72 F heat index; winds Calm Performance Distance: 5.01 miles Time: 0:51:05 Speed: 5.9 mph Pace: 10' 10 /mi Calories: 338 Map Elevation (ft) Speed (mph) Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Elevation Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 5' 12 -4' 58 11.5 +5.6 -20 ft 2 4' 11 -5' 59 14.3 +8.4 -26 ft 3 8' 08 -2' 02 7.4 +1.5 -91 ft 4 4' 29 -5' 41 13.4 +7.5 +63 ft end 30' 46 +20' 35 1.9 -4.0 -49 ft Versus average of 5.9 mph

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Categories: 10 miles, biking, Madison

Life got in the way

Haven't done much running since my 20 mile last Saturday. Work has been pretty crazy. Stayed late on Monday until 7p and Tuesday until 6:30p. Couldn't even run at work either, ate lunch at my desk. Came home both nights and worked again from home. It was just that crazy. Finally decided that today, I would leave "on time" and run. I got 6.2 miles out of my run! Yay!

At the end of the run, I got the pain in the ball of my right foot back like I had training for my first marathon. Not happy about that. Will keep a thought on it and watch to see how it does. As I was walking back, that's when I noticed it, not while running. I can still feel the spot even though I'm not even on my feet.

For the past few months now, I have started my own version of Operation Beautiful, but with runners. Every runner that I pass, I take out an ear bud and say something positive; "Good Job!" "Keep it up!" "Looking Strong!" I've thought about saying "Looking Good!" but once I almost said that to a shirtless male runner and decided to hold back. I don't think that would have been good. :) So I just say those three sayings and said it to a few today when we passed each other (going in opposite direction). They usually just smile or don't do anything back. Not used somebody talking to them I guess. But I actually got a response out of one of them today "Hi, thanks, you too!" It's funny though; everytime I tell them something, I get a little charged up too. I get a little more spring in my step for a few seconds. But I'm a waver and a very friendly runner; get used to it DeKalb!!

Today's run was really odd in terms of speed. Started out fast but then I got really slow. It was bad. And it hurt too. I guess that's what having nearly 4 days off will do to ya! But still my average pace was decent for a training run. And my blister, that was flat and not puffed out at all before my run, is puffed out again. I guess I should have put a bandaid on it before I went running. I've never had to deal with blisters before so I don't really know what to do!

This weekend won't have me blogging at all. I've got mad super duper plans! I'll be in Madison all weekend visiting Kevin & Jess. Leaving work at noon on Friday from all the overtime I'm putting in, will be heading up there around that time and then hitting up Happy Hour (potentially) & a Meetup group with them. Saturday will have me running 6, 8 or 10 miles (yay for step back week!) in the morning. Then Taste of Madison that afternoon, followed by NIU @ UW-Madison football game that evening (kickoff at 6pm). Sunday will be doing a 30 mile (2 hour) bike ride to a beach that's a favourite of ours, relaxing on said beach. Monday will be at a water park (dogs are allowed to swim in the pool on this the last day, so we'll have their dog with us too!) where Kevin has a radio thing to attend. Then later that afternoon, one of his co-workers is throwing a party so we could potentially stop by that as well! A fully packed, fun filled weekend will be had and chock full of exercise too!! Plenty of room for that beer drinking I'll be having!

What makes me kinda sad about the weekend is that I won't be able to run my usual race in Rockford. It was my first race ever starting in 2006 and also the very first race that I placed in my age group! They hold thing thing called On The Waterfront, 30 blocks of food, carnivals, and 7 stages of bands. All sorts of great music comes out for this! It's a chance to see and hear bands that you normally wouldn't. Open your ears to something new. And I'll miss it. Since 2000, I've only missed it twice; 2003 when I was living in Mississippi and 2005, the year after my ex & I broke up and he forgot the promise he made about going with me (this was long before I was independent). I've been to every one besides those years. But this stuff I'll do this weekend will keep my mind off of it!

Have a lovely and enjoyable Labour Day weekend. It's the unoffical end of summer!

Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 858 ft Location: DeKalb, IL Elev. Gain: -4 ft Date: 09/02/09 Up/Downhill: [+219/-223] Time: 06:11 PM Difficulty: 2.6 / 5.0 Weather: Fair 63 F temp; 69% humidity 63 F heat index; winds E 7 Performance Distance: 6.20 miles Time: 0:58:41 Speed: 6.3 mph Pace: 9' 28 /mi Calories: 662 Map Elevation (ft) Pace (min/mile) Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Elevation Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 8' 52 -0' 36 6.8 +0.4 +26 ft 2 9' 14 -0' 14 6.5 +0.2 -16 ft 3 9' 20 -0' 08 6.4 +0.1 +4 ft 4 9' 36 +0' 08 6.2 -0.1 +10 ft 5 10' 07 +0' 39 5.9 -0.4 +7 ft 6 9' 42 +0' 14 6.2 -0.2 -33 ft end 10' 06 +0' 38 5.9 -0.4 0 ft Versus average of 9' 28 min/mile

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Categories: ball of foot pain, blisters, DeKalb Nature Trail, Madison

Rejoice, she conquers!!

A leaf I saw on the very beginning of my run. Drops of water were so pretty!!

So I've now attempted three 20 mile training runs. If you want, you can read my other fails HERE and HERE. Today was the first one that I've ever successfully completed. And I'm incredibly happy about that!! The weather finally worked in my favour on these tries.

Follow this link to see an animated version of my run using Garmin's Player feature. Pretty sweet! Kinda even puts in my pauses too.

I attended a Kane County Cougar game last night for a friend's birthday. We then went back to her parents house for some more celebrating. I kept the beer drinking to a minimum. Went back to the hotel around 1 am. I immediately went to sleep but decided that I was going to let my body wake me up whenever. I knew that my friends were going to come out to DeKalb sometime for lunch and hopefully I'll be able to meet up with them but I knew and they understood that I must get my 20 mile run in.

I got back to DeKalb around 10:30 am. Got dressed and when checking my email, I saw that a runner in NITRO sent out an email saying that he was going to run my regular route for his 20 miles, between 1st Street and Rt. 23. He figured 8 times for doing so. On the way to DeKalb, I figured it was a 2.5 mile jaunt one way and that's why he figured 8 times. But when I got to running it, I stopped and took a picture of the map that they have. One way is only 1.29 miles. So I figured out quickly that I'll do my regular route which is about 5 miles and do that 4 times.

The great thing about this is that I got some "hills" in. It's not exactly the flatest route like Great Western Trail. But it's not exactly hills either. More like slight elevation change. It really happened once I went off my trail and onto the sidewalks of the neighbourhood loop. Going down the sidewalks, crossing any roads and then back up hurt. Especially on the 3rd loop. The entire loop was actually 5.2 miles.

On the final loop, I decided to skip the neighbourhood run since the sidewalks stopping at the roads were hard on my legs. It didn't hurt my mileage though. I still was able to get 20 miles out of it, mainly becasue of the .2 miles that the route was from start to end.

I had Jelly Belly Watermelon on the route. Had my first Gu gel, Triberry which wasn't too bad. I really don't think I like any gels now that I've had the bloks. I also had PowerBar Gel Blasts, cola flavoured and they are great!! I loved them! Tasted great and wasn't as sticky on the teeth as the ClifBar Shot Bloks. I can't wait to find more of them! I also had my 4 bottle water belt. I was really good about limiting my drinking near the beginning because of the overcast weather. But then the sun came out and I started drinking more. Luckily, on the start of my final loop, I saw a hose hooked up to a facuet in front of some condos. I turned it on and filled up my 3 empty water bottles. I knew I would need them in final 4 miles.

My friends Rob, Chris and Melissa met up for lunch in Sycamore (a town bordering DeKalb) but were done while I was just on my 4th loop. I stopped at 18.34 miles to look at a text message Rob sent and stretch a bit. I asked if Rob could meet me at my place in 20 minutes as he was leaving for Missouri soon. I started cramping pretty bad while stretching; calves, thighs, hamstrings. He agreed to meet me and was sending me text messages how I was a superstar and telling me that I can do it. As I was coming up to the end, I sent a text back saying that I was crossing Bethany. He sent one back to me saying that he thinks he sees me. As I just crossed Bethany, I saw him and waved my arms. The cars probably thought I was stupid but they didn't know how close I was to the end. I started tearing up. Rob was running towards me and then he ran back to me and we ran the last .2 miles together.

And so I did it. My first successful 20 mile run. I've never hurt so bad after a run as this before. Rob and I went upstairs to my apartment but I couldn't stay up there, not enough room to walk. So back out we went. On the second loop of my parking lot, I started cramping. I think that's from not having enough salt in my body. I wasn't drinking any Gatorade. I'll need to buy a few bottles I guess.

Rob soon left and I hopped into a cold water bath. Didn't stay cold for too long though. My body was just so warm. I stayed in for quite a bit of time, enjoying this new feeling of accomplishment! Rob pointed out that I should order a pizza. And as I'm typing this, I ordered a medium pizza with onions, green peppers and red peppers and now chewing down. 3 slices left! Will I eat it all or should I wait for later?

Either way, I'm sitting here trying to keep my legs moving whilst typing this out. I do plan on going out this evening and celebrating!! I can't wait. I'll have a slight limp but shall be OK anyway. And then sleeping in tomorrow! Just hope I won't hurt too bad when getting up!

Just to tease myself, I went ahead and calculated how fast I would run a marathon if I did a 10:11 min/mi pace in it. That would end up being a 4:26!! I would finally have my under 4:30 marathon! While I don't think I could keep that pace up, it would be great to finally get that.

Beside the usual muscle soreness, the bottoms of my feet were burning. Specifically the pad under my big toe. I'm starting to think that the shoes are too wide for me? Supposedly these are narrow. But my feet keep sliding around and causing rubbing? Not sure. I do have a blister on the side of my big toe. That came from my 16 mile run and 3rd run in these shoes. Now it'll go down and then I run and it'll come right back. But I don't feel this particular blister on my run. Today it was just the rubbing of the bottom of my feet that hurt me pretty bad. And actually it was almost making me want to stop. I've got to fix this problem fast!! I'm thinking of popping this blister and getting it done and over with.

My lovely blister that keeps coming back!! :(

Below are my Garmin stats. Not too shabby. :)

Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 859 ft Location: DeKalb, IL Elev. Gain: -4 ft Date: 08/29/09 Up/Downhill: [+734/-738] Time: 11:14 AM Difficulty: 3.9 / 5.0 Weather: Mostly Cloudy 64 F temp; 69% humidity 64 F heat index; winds W 12 G 22 Performance Distance: 20.00 miles Time: 3:23:43 Speed: 5.9 mph Pace: 10' 11 /mi Calories: 2143 Map Elevation (ft) Pace (min/mile) Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Elevation Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 9' 23 -0' 48 6.4 +0.5 +36 ft 2 9' 52 -0' 19 6.1 +0.2 -17 ft 3 9' 33 -0' 38 6.3 +0.4 -7 ft 4 9' 55 -0' 16 6.0 +0.2 +3 ft 5 9' 54 -0' 17 6.1 +0.2 +3 ft 6 9' 53 -0' 18 6.1 +0.2 +6 ft 7 10' 16 +0' 05 5.8 -0.1 -10 ft 8 9' 45 -0' 26 6.2 +0.3 -6 ft 9 10' 02 -0' 09 6.0 +0.1 +3 ft 10 9' 53 -0' 18 6.1 +0.2 +16 ft 11 9' 52 -0' 19 6.1 +0.2 0 ft 12 10' 07 -0' 04 5.9 +0.0 -3 ft 13 10' 09 -0' 02 5.9 +0.0 -23 ft 14 12' 05 +1' 54 5.0 -0.9 -17 ft 15 10' 29 +0' 18 5.7 -0.2 +42 ft 16 10' 21 +0' 10 5.8 -0.1 -3 ft 17 12' 05 +1' 54 5.0 -0.9 +7 ft 18 10' 03 -0' 08 6.0 +0.1 -23 ft 19 14' 23 +4' 12 4.2 -1.7 +36 ft end 9' 53 -0' 18 6.1 +0.2 -23 ft Versus average of 10' 11 min/mile

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Categories: 20 mile run, DeKalb Nature Trail, pictures

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

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