Eugene

I've been really busy lately!

Lots of traveling for work had me in San Francisco and Denver recently. When I'm in the office, I've been pre-occupied with coordinating a training and getting ready to renew some grants that I hardly have a life.

One thing though...

I ran Eugene. Not the full. I did the 1/2. I had the best time in Oregon as the hubby and I made a 5-day journey out of the whole thing.

2:38:05

Not my best but I was a warrior because I ran the damn thing while fighting a bad sore throat just days before and enduring all 13.1 miles with bouts of coughing.

Hope to have a race report up within the week.

Tonight: 6-8 miles or bust.

On Tuesday, I managed to put in a 4.4 mile run on the treadmill. I averaged a 12:01 min/mile pace which is standard for me and normally I wouldn't whoop too much about it but I did this with some hill simulations. I'd run for about three minutes at 0.5% and then 1 min @ 2%, 1-2 min @ 4%, and then 1 min back at 2% before I returned to another 3 min at 0.5%.

I'm noticing that I am not as sore as I usually was after running. It was wonderful to walk up and down the stairs pain-free at work on Monday - the day after my long run. This never happened before. My legs are so bomb!

I was going to go on another buddy run with my co-worker this week but it's already Thursday and I already have tonight reserved for my mid-week long run. My plan has 8 miles in store for me but I'm going to run anywhere form 6-8 miles. I am somewhat in agreement with what Jeff Galloway touts about only having one high mileage run a week solely to prevent injury. Everything is working for me so far so I'm not going to change a thing.

I was bummed on Tuesday's run though. I found out that my new shoes are indeed snug at the toe for me and it's too late to exchange them so I've decided to either sell or just give the shoes to my sister. I'm hoping that it will inspire her to start exercising. She's been stagnant since giving birth to my niece 1.5 years ago.

I realized yesterday that me and the hubby's trip to the Oregon Coast and to Eugene for the 1/2 marathon is only a month away! I'm so freaking excited!! I get paid next week and I think this is when I'll be officially paying for my registration for the Rock n' Roll marathon in San Diego. Gosh, my hands all of a sudden got sweaty just thinking about it. haha

12 under my belt

Total Mileage: 12 miles
Average: 12:04 min/mile

I truly rock!!

I ran this morning's long run of 12 miles with little difficulty. And though some of it may be attributed to the fact that I woke up earlier and started at 7:00 am instead of 9:30 am, I definitely felt stronger and more positive.

The Arizona Dragon Boat Festival was in full swing this morning at Tempe Town Lake and added a bit more visual excitement to my running atmosphere. I even ran into my buddy who was also running 12 miles for the morning. She is a part of a relay team from the Salt River Maricopa Pima Indian Community that will be competing in the Ironman here in Arizona and she's doing the marathon portion. That's only two weeks away! We were running in different directions so I'd meet her twice around the lake. Nice having someone else there.

I have taken to running and walking for approximately 3 miles in the beginning of my runs to help with warming up my legs, particularly my calves. I THINK I may be developing medial shin splints on my left leg. It's a bit of a stinging sensation but not too much that it's annoying. After 3 miles, the pain goes away and I can run normally.

On Thursday evening, I ran at the lake with a friend/co-worker and asked her what her shin splints felt like as she was telling me she had them in high school when she ran cross country. I asked if her lower legs ever felt like they got weak as the miles dragged on in a run to the point that it felt like her legs were going to give way and cave in. She said she had felt that way so I think I definitely have a case of this on my hands.

I don't know what else to do other than icing, massaging, and strength training. So I've been doing the walking breaks a lot more. Not a bad thing at all because I'm able to get through my runs without needing a stretcher.

For 12 miles, Garmin says it took 2:25:00 but I stopped the clock during my long stretch breaks and water refueling breaks. There were only 3 of these. I'm more interested in seeing my mile times than my overall time since the whole goal of running the marathon is just to finish. But if I were to add these in - I'd have to add about 12 minutes to my time.

My Lap Times:
1 mi - 12:32
2 mi- 11:58
3 mi- 12:21
4 mi- 11:45
5 mi- 12:18
6 mi- 12:04
7 mi- 11:45
8 mi- 12:39
9 mi- 12:16
10 mi- 11:31
11 mi- 11:48
12 mi- 12:04

Week 7 of Marathon Training completed!

P.S. Finally bought a couple new iTunes.

1. An Honest Mistake - The Bravery (An old running favorite from 2005)
   
   
2. Holiday in Cambodia - The Dead Kennedys (From playing too much Guitar Hero 3)
   
   
3. I Feel It All - Feist (All about the steady melody)
   
   
4. Barracuda - Heart (Another GH3 favorite)
   
   
5. Touchdown, Turnaround - hellogoodbye (I needed something 'poppy' and guilty pleasure-ish! :P)
   
   
6. Alec Eiffel - Pixies (this is the jam!!!)
   
   
7. Send Me an Angel - Real Life (I'm an 80's music lush and my favorite hangout always plays this song.)
   
   
8. Anarchy in the U.K. - The Sex Pistols (I think GH3 is a problem. lol)
   
   
9. Someday - The Strokes (Hear this on the radio all the time.)
   

New Shoes!

After work, I usually endure a 40-minute commute to where my husband works in Scottsdale to pick him up before we start to head home for the evening. When I was about 5 minutes away from his building, I suddenly remembered that I had left my running shoes at work. I used to have an old spare that I used in case of emergencies at home but somewhere in the last year, I misplaced them. I hit the steering wheel and yelled out, "Dammit!" (my favorite curse word. haha)

It was too late to go back to my office building. So I thought that it was about time to head over to my favorite running shoe store in Tempe to get some new shoes. I had a coupon from my participation in the Lost Dutchman 10k on my bib that imparted me to a discount of $20 off any Asics brand shoe.

I'm a big Athena girl and the best shoes for me have been Brooks and Asics.

So the hubby went home to get my coupon and left for the shop. I didn't want to get a motion control shoe because my Brooks felt like they took forever to break in. The sales girl allowed me to try on several stability shoes but I felt that they didn't have enough cushion in the heel which is kinda a big thing for me at the moment from all the excess weight I have pounding on my poor feet.

In the end, I selected the motion control shoe from Asics...the Foundation 7.

It's a lot like the first pair of Asics running shoes I ever owned. They were the best I ever owned and I was very sad to have to retire them back in '06.

These shoes are solely for 3-6 mile runs. I'm trying to extend the life of my Brooks Ariels - the shoes I'll be wearing to run the San Diego marathon.

Sometimes I find it funny that I can be so miserly when it comes to buying new shoes for work or casual wear. $40-50 seems like so much for a pair of heels or loafers but I can shell out close to $100 for a pair of running shoes at the drop of a dime. hehe Priorities!

I may have to return my new shoes and exchange them for a wider size though. Maybe tomorrow.

A Happy Tuesday Morning

Whenever you visit a grocery store or trading post on the Navajo rez, you are bound to see a huge section just dedicated to the meat product, Spam. Navajos love their Spam! It's the best when diced into cubes and cooked with sliced potatoes. It's the ultimate when this perfection of a meal is rolled in a Navajo tortilla to make a "spam and potato burrito". Yum!

I tried to find a picture on the net but no luck. This morning, my friend and co-worker made some of these delightful treats for a group of us here at work. She mixed in a little jalopeno bits to make it even more awesome.

So I didn't do any form of exercise yesterday. I take Mondays seriously as recovery days. I was psyched to find out that I wasn't very sore all day after a 10-miler. Usually, I am wincing as I walk up and down the stairs at work. It must have been the cold shower I took after the run and the stretching I did during the runs and afterwards that really helped.

It's warming up here in Phoenix so I must do away with my sweats. Hopefully after work today I can head to a running store to buy some new running attire. Yay!

Marathon Training Milestone

Today, I officially got to the point in my marathon training where I think, "What the &@$! am I getting myself into?!" To run 26.2 miles in one attempt is completely absurd! I haven’t thought this way since I did a 30k more than a year ago.

This morning I set out to do 10 miles. The first thing I did wrong was starting off later than usual. I forgot to set my alarm for 6am and therefore, slept in until 7am. I checked myspace and did some other time wasting activities before I started to fuel up with cereal and yogurt. I scurried around the house for nearly 20 minutes getting together all of my essentials: Garmin, iShuffle, Fuel Belt w/filled water bottles, sunblock lotion, socks, cap, etc.

By the time I was out the door, it was already nearly 9am. I had to make a quick pit-stop at Safeway to get some Gatorade and a bagel. Got to Tempe Town Lake just after 9am and put on all of my essentials like a Gladiator going to war.

I knew this run was going to be challenging because I could feel the warmth but luckily there was a breeze and it was enough for me not to dart back to my car and go home.

The first 3 miles were easy because I employed the Galloway method. After 4.5 miles, I could start to really feel the sun taunting me. I looked at my arms and they had darkened considerably. I thought about finishing up and then doing the remaining miles that evening but continued because I need to train my body to do all the miles at once. I worried because I didn’t have enough water in my bottles but thought that I could make it to the next water fountain by the time I downed all the water.

The last 4 miles were killers and I had to take longer walking breaks to prevent overheating. I took a long break under the Mill Ave. bridge when I was just shy of 8 miles. I lingered there for about five minutes - stretching, drinking water from the fountain, and filling up my water bottles. Starting back up with a mutha!

Somehow I made it through.

My body seems to hate me right now for it refuses to walk. Little does it know that next Sunday calls for 12. (evil laugh)

Get With It! But so Tired

This was basically how I was feeling this week. I didn't do so hot racking up the miles. I'm even embarrassed to put the numbers up here.

It was a relatively tame week in comparison to the past two weeks I've been out of the office and jet-setting about. On Wednesday and Thursday, I took a short trip to Whiteriver, Arizona - on the White Mountain Apache reservation. It was simply beautiful out there! Great hiking and camping country.

Anyway, I was trying to make myself put in some miles on Thursday and on Friday evening but my body was still tired from all the traveling. It felt like I wasn't fully recovered from ALL of the traveling because my body never really got a rest on the weekends. The weekends were always full of long running. I think I need something like a massage to get the effects of full relaxation or something.

Anyhow, I am about to put in a 4-mile run this morning on the treadmill.

I need to commit.

I will be starting a hard copy of my running journals. I think I feel more rewarded when I right down things on paper with pen. BUT, today - hopefully new shoes!