Morning Runs

Ok, I'm going to tell you guys a little known secret about me...you ready?

I'm not a morning person.

There. I said it. The cat's out of the bag!

Unfortunately, it seems that most races are in the morning. So this week I decided it was time I started incorporating morning runs into my workout, and trying to get used to it. Not only will this hopefully help me to feel acclimated and not shocked when I go to a race far far too early in the morning, but it will also allow me to try out different eating options to see what works for me (I tend to get really nauseated if I eat before I run...so if anyone has any good suggestions...I can easily do short runs without eating first, but above maybe five or six miles and I get hungry and run out of energy).

So this morning, I got up at 5:45 so I could run at 6:00. However, I didn't think about the fact that it's still dark that early, so I didn't end up going until 6:20 which meant I had to cut my 35 minute run down to 20 minutes. Nevertheless, it went pretty well. I was very tired, and didn't want to do it but I'm sure I'll get used to it after a while.

Also, last night I dreamt that a snake was on the trail and attacked me...like, saw me from several feet away and chased me down. Fortunately rattlesnakes aren't out in the cool mornings, so don't worry I didn't get bit to death.

END!

Run Runny Run

As Jenny mentioned, we are doing a half marathon in November. I am looking forward to it right now, but we'll see if my tune changes in a couple of months.

Until then, I have started my training this past week. My schedule consists of 2 days of cardio kickboxing because it's just plain badass, 3 days of running but ZERO consecutive days right now. I learned last time I get really burned out and tired if I run consecutive days, so I'm breaking the 3 days up with 2 days of swimming. This is especially necessary because apparently my lungs have decided to revolt. Curse them.

Anyway, I'm only running 20 minutes right now, but am bumping up to 30 tomorrow. I didn't feel like working at work so I took a few minutes to come up with the training schedule.

In the course of training, I am going to do both of these races, both to help with nerves on race day AND to help with running in the freaking morning:

Bridge to Bridge 12K

Faith Fancher Breast Cancer Challenge 5K

You all should do them too! Let's go!

New shoez

I bought new running shoes today.

Then I ran up all but one of the 8 blocks of the hill from hell.

YAY!

yeah....

Alright! Alright!! *throws hands in the air* I will admit, I've been lazy. I have ran probably three time since I've been back from my holiday. It just seems school holds your life screaming by the throat out the window of a fast moving car and says, "HAHA SUCKA! Now whacha gonna do!?!" I always give in and beg, "please just let me live!!!!" It lets me....but barely.

But that is over now!!! I am tired of letting this thing called school hold my life ransom!! I will rise up in revolution! (...me and my cells!) Together we will over come this bourgeoisie rule! ....wait...that's Marx, *cough* wrong revolution...but you get the picture. Anyway, so what really made me start thinking about how wimpy I am and how I need to whip this ass into shape is the 11 mile hike up the side of a mountain I went on last weekend at Pinnacles National Monument. It was awesome and I felt really bad ass once we were done and my whimpering had subsided. But the day after I thought I was going to have to ask someone to shoot me seeing I couldn't move, roll over in bed, sit on the toilet or NOT do anything that didn't make every muscle in my body scream bloody murder. Just so you can get an idea of how hard this hike was, here is a picture of Bekah and I half way up the mountain....


As you can see, we are suffering.

So, like I was saying I realized I'm a big lump and although I have a good excuse, scary professors who are ready to swoop down on your dying corpse at the first sign of weakness or slacking, I really need to get in shape.

After our hike I went to the gym the next couple of days just to help alliviate the stiffness of my muscles. What I found was after I went to the gym I was actually more productive and less stressed out. Picture me before the gym: hyped up on coffee and worrying about the state of her fieldnotes, do they have all the right details, did I remember everything, etc etc. Now picture me walking out of the gym: "I'm the king of the world!!! Hear me roar! Who gives a shit about fieldnotes! Actually, what fieldnotes? Those fieldnotes? Oh, I already finished them in my sleep!"

So yeah, at least I'm going to the gym now. Next step, running outside.

Runrunnyrun

It's been a while!!!

A while since...what? Since I blogged of course...and um...ran. hah.

The half-marathon went pretty well. I did not have a good time. But I learned a couple very important things. 1) do not have any milk before you go run that early in the morning. 2) I do not do well with gu packets on a mostly empty stomach - they make me nauseated.

Anyway, I basically felt like puking the entire time because of the aforementioned things...but I still finished the race! I ran most of it, but had to walk the hilly part in the middle. I really really want to do it again though and figure out how best to eat in the morning without making myself sick!

It was a gorgeous route - you see a LOT of San Francisco and then end up on the ocean! aaaah, I love this place.

Anyway since then running has been sparse for a variety of reasons. But last week I went a couple times and ran my first sub-9 minute mile! That was exciting.

As soon as finals are over, running must get back to a regular schedule. I'm trying to run at least twice a week right now though...

At least there is now SNOW here like for some people. wahahah!

Time to Pay the Piper...

In less than 48 hours I will be running my first half-marathon.

I'm kinda nervous and kind of excited at the same time. I'm really worried that when I get there I'm going to get so nervous I'm going to do horribly. But my plan is to tune everyone out except to cheer them on in my head. And the route is going to be GORGEOUS so I'm looking forward to distracting myself by looking out to the ocean.

I've trained enough, I know I can do the mileage. It's just making sure my mind doesn't get the better of me! And, seeing how fast I can do it :) I am aiming for under 2:30 but I'd really like to do it and average 10min. miles (so a little over 2:11). I generally can average 9-10min miles, unless there are hills and then it's variable (depending on different factors) - well this run has HILLS let me tell you.

Anyway, I am looking forward to it 'cause I think it will be fun, and I am gonna feel happy to have just finished it!

Wish me luck :)

Entertainment as I Run

Bright and early this morning I embarked on a 9 mile run. It's been pretty hot in Berkeley the last week or so (90s, even 100 sometimes WHOA!) so morning seemed the best time to go. Unfortunately I didn't actually want to go in the morning so we didn't get going as early as we were supposed to (we were supposed to get up at 7 and leave by 7:30 at the latest...well Jess was up at 7, but I didn't emerge until like 7:25. What can I say, I'm not a morning person), as such it was still kind of hot near the middle and end of the run.

The nice thing about running in the morning, however, even when it's hot is that there are plenty of other runners out on the trail. As I ran, sweating like a pig and fogging up my new hip runner sunglasses, I found solace and distraction in the oddities that were passing me on the Bay Shore trail.

First I saw a guy who was running fairly fast, but not sprinting or anything. And his form was just a little...odd. He swung his arms so voraciously that he was literally swinging them up past his face to the sky and back down. I wondered if perhaps he was trying out a new technique for human flight.

A little ways further I passed someone doing the other extreme. He kept his arms down by his side, and seemed to be trying to keep them as still as possible. He looked like a hardcore runner in every other sense - he was fairly muscular, had his little wrap-a-round fannypack/water holder thingie, and looked like he'd been running about 20 miles already. He just...didn't move his arms at all. Didn't even hold them bent at the elbow - just straight down and static. I figured he must have been running so long that he was simply incapable of moving his arms any longer.

And finally, as I ran I saw a woman coming the other way down the trail and I was immediately impressed. From what I could tell, this woman was such a hardcore runner that she didn't even let the recent birth of her infant stop her from running. It appeared that she had strapped the baby to her front in one of those baby carrier dohickeys and was running with it. As I got closer, though, I was disappointed to realize that she just was rather well-endowed (can you use that for a woman? Well I am.) and her shirt + her bust moved and looked like a baby strapped to her front from further away. I was immediately grateful that I don't have boobs.

Runners are weird people. But all these oddities kept me entertained and helped me ignore how thirsty I was and the fact that I couldn't breathe!

Later on in the run, I saw a beautiful monarch. As I watched it flutter around I noticed it had what appeared to be a spiderweb string trailing behind it. I though, "oh it must have escaped from a web or something" and as I thought this, I realized there was a little spider at the end of the string trailing along. There are clearly 2 possibilites for this: 1) the monarch got caught in the spider's web and escaped at just the last minute. The spider, however, grabbed on to the string in hopes of salvaging such a scrumtrulescent and large meal...he probably doesn't know that monarchs are poisonous... OR 2) This is the insect/arachnid world's form of parasailing into which we rarely grasp such a glimpse.

I truly appreciate being entertained on these long runs. I have begun to make it a point to try and look around as much as possible so as to distract myself. Besides the previously mentioned sights, today I saw pelicans dive bombing, and comorants fishing. Aaah, thank you world for your endless entertainment during my self-inflicted torture.




p.s. I finished the run in 1:41. I was aiming for 1:40 so I was pretty pleased...11 minute miles so not too fast, but that's the longest I've ever run and I was pleased I finished in a fairly reasonable time at all! :)

Long run #2

I did another long run today. 8 miles, and I only stopped to stretch and to take some gu at the 4 mile mark. I was proud of myself because usually I try to hit red lights so I can rest. But this time I challenged myself to try and run through them all - so I sprinted towards every one so I would make the green light. It wasn't nearly as hard as I thought it would be!

I didn't think I was going to make it the whole way though because it was HOT today, plus I was just exhausted anyway. I think just the 7 from Tuesday, plus swimming yesterday tired me out. So the first 4 miles were pretty hard, and I went really slowly. It took me 95 minutes to finish the whole run, but with the heat and such I didn't really care. Around 4.5 miles it finally started feeling cooler, because the sun was down, and I started to feel better and like I could keep it going for much longer.

I actually felt really good for the most part though, probably because I was running like a snail. I felt like I could have kept going for quite a bit longer and even the hills at the end didn't seem so bad. I felt a lot less tired overall at the end than I did on Tuesday.

I wish I had stopped for some water though. But when I got the the one water fountain on the route there was a guy sitting right next to it who looked like the caveman from those Geico commercials. So I didn't stop, 'cause cavemen make me a little nervous.

Anyhow that's all I have to say. I was happy I finished it - that's the longest I've ever run. Only 5 more miles to make the half and I have another month and a half to train. I may not finish the race in a really fast time, but I CAN DO IT!

I Did It!!

Well, I did it! I went for my 7 mile run, and I only stopped to take my gu, to stretch, and I hit 2 red lights. I finished the run in 75 minutes - not too bad for a slowpoke like me!

I took much of Jenny's advice to not get discouraged by faster looking people i.e. not comparing. Instead I pretended we were all out there training together and I encouraged them and was inspired by their stories...the ones I made up in my head as they passed.

Near the end, as I got really tired of going up block after block of uphill I began to sing inspirational songs in my head. Songs such as, "Another block bites the dust! And another one's down and another one's down, another block bites the dust!" It kept me going.

Working on my stride was hard though. I just can't tell if I'm even on the right track. Though I did notice focusing on my arms, actually, seemed to help a little...at least I felt less tense and I felt like I was being more efficient.

Anyhow, the point is I felt really good for most of the run, I finished it in no less time than usual (I thought I'd go way slower by myself), AND afterwards I ate a wonderful huge salad with lots of carrots in it. So if that cat from the last post doesn't want his, I'll take it.

Oh yeah! AND I used my sexy new sweat band. That thing is awesome! I didn't have to wipe the burning sweat out of my eyes once! I think that helped me a lot, since I didn't have to worry about being able to see and stuff. I was able to focus more on just running. Yay for sexy accessorizing.

It is time

Today I am running alone again. Jess has hurt herself and is probably not going to run again EVER.
haha no, she'll probably run again on Thursday, a shorter one.

Anyway, so in the spirit of setting my own goals and not comparing with anyone but myself, I am going to go for a 7 mile run today. My goal is to try and lengthen my stride every other section (I'm running on the Ohlone Greenway Trail and it is split up into 1 or more blocks per section), and to only stop at lights and at the 3.5 mile mark (to take some gu of course). I want to get more comfortable with the long runs, because I can do them but they still always seem insurmountable at the beginning.

The trail is pretty flat so I think it will be a good place to attempt to achieve such goals. The only uphill is the last 1.5-2 miles or so and at that point the only goal will be to survive.

Running Accessories

Bekah and I made a quick stop at Big 5 today. She has a slight sweating problem, aka, she sweats like a horse and randomly screams in the middle of a run, "Ahhh! I can't see!! My eyes are burning!" So, we bought her a sweatband. She will now look like a hardcore runner! I sadly had to buy fat people stretchy shorts cause I keep getting a rash on my long runs from my legs rubbing...gross!!! Stupid legs! Get skinny NOW! We shall look like quite the pair...chubby girl...and sweaty girl unite!

The End.

Death Run

Bekah is in Davis for the weekend and we ran 5 miles this morning...well almost. We really thought we were going to die a couple of times and had to take a couple walking breaks because the sun was beating down on us and making us feel like we were crossing the Sahara Dessert! When we saw a buzzard sitting a top a poll Bekah exclaimed, "Ah cool!!! Look! Its a buzzard!! Wow! He's soo cool! Look how big he is! Wow, I wonder what he's hunting for!" And then I glanced towards the sky and realized there were more buzzards circling in the sky...waiting for us to die!!! Bekah's excitement soon turned to fear which only motivated us to continue running.

We had decided to try a new route, one I had never done before. We followed some roads that are mostly used for researchers and farmers, so I think we had a total of 2 cars pass us the whole hour we were running. Thus it was a bit scary, we just hoped we made it through!

When we finally made it back to the olive grove and the shade we both were seeing mirages of cool welcoming pools of water that we wanted to dive into. We resisted, we knew what was happening and that they were all lies!!!!

The shade brought back our sanity and we made it back to my apartment safe if not totally sound. We both collapsed in front of my fan and slowly came back from the brink of death! After which Bekah says she refuses to ever run in Davis again if its over 80.

After, I made delicious pancakes and we drank Ola Loa to replace our electrolytes that we lost in our death run.

Stride

My turn to post!!

Today I'm doing a 4 mile run. Jenny and Jess keep yelling at me to lengthen my stride. ;) So I'm going to try today since it's a shorter run and I hopefully won't already feel like dying. We will see how it goes!!!