Monday, September 17, 2007

Austin City Limits

Austin City Limits was one big hot and sweaty mass of humanity. And it was great, as we expected. We suffered through the heat, had our daily slushee around 5:00 -- those things do wonders to cool you down, and anxiously awaited the sunset. As the sun goes down, everything starts to seem better. It's cooler. The music is better. It gets hard to see anything in the dark except that there are bodies everywhere, and the whole experience becomes surreal.

We drove up on Friday morning and stayed with my college friends Leila and Brian. Despite the fact that they live less than 4 hours away, I hadn't seen them in two years. They moved from southwest Austin even farther out to Driftwood about a year ago, so this was the first time I'd seen their new house. Though they do live in the boonies (albeit a convenient mile from the Salt Lick), their house was beautiful. We didn't spend a lot of time there with the music festival and everything, but we did have time to play their Nintendo Wii. Extremely fun -- and a surprisingly good workout. Our arms were sore the day after playing an hour and a half of tennis, boxing, golf, bowling, and baseball.

Staying there also gave me the chance to go biking with Leila on Saturday morning. She's training for the 40-mile ride as part of the Livestrong Challenge next month, so she's been riding and spinning a lot. We drove to one of the areas that's popular with biking and rode about 17.5 miles at a leisurely 14 mph average -- and finally stopped because my front tire was losing air at a fairly rapid rate. (I haven't found the culprit yet, but I haven't actually taken the tire off yet. Will do that tonight.) It was a nice ride, though even the relatively small rolling hills of Austin did a number on this flatland cyclist. I was puffing and panting on any incline. As we finished putting the bikes back on the car, I lifted up my shirt to wipe the sweat off my face and trapped some kind of insect in there. It must have been a bee. When I lifted my shirt again in response to a stinging sensation, something fell out and there was a stinger stuck right there in my tummy flab. Ouch! I pulled it out, and the sting really hurt for a bit. The pain went away after a while, but then the itching started. It still itches like crazy. Itch itch itch.

Yesterday was Leila's birthday, so we celebrated with brunch at a restaurant downtown. The service left a little to be desired, but the food was great. Jose and I wandered around downtown Austin for a few hours after that before heading over to the final day of the festival.

ACL itself was, as previously mentioned, a blast. Favorite acts included Andy Palacios and the Garifuna Collective (a band from Belize that we discovered on Friday), Andrew Bird, Arcade Fire, and The Decemberists. The worst act we saw was Regina Spektor. She's very popular right now and I'd heard her most popular song on the radio and thought it was ok -- but I hated her performance. Ugh.

We had to leave after Decemberists (though heard some of Bob Dylan while waiting in line for the buses) to head back to Houston. I drove the first half feeling fine, then proved that as soon as I hit the passenger's seat, no matter what, I fall asleep. I feel really bad for making Jose drive from 11:45 - 1:30 with no one to keep him entertained. I am no match for the passenger seat and its sleep-inducing qualities.

Thursday, September 13, 2007

If you put together a group of four men of similar ability to run a 4 x 2-mile relay race, they might be likely to debate over who's the fastest. Put four women together, and we good-naturedly argue about who's the slowest. (I post the following because I know all four of us are able to laugh at how silly we are sometimes.)

"Woohoo, our team is registered! What order should we run in?"

"I'm not fast, but I can do 2 miles at 8:30 pace."

"Whoa, I'm slower! I can do 9-10 minute pace."

"It's funny that you guys are arguing, because I'm slowest. I'm hoping to do 10:30 pace."

"Last time I did 10:30 pace and it almost killed me. I win! I win!"

"Ok, back to the original question -- order. I'd like to go 2nd, so I can take start and finish photos for the HARRA website."

"I'd rather not go first because I've never run this race before."

"Ok, conventional wisdom says put your fastest two runners first and last, and slower two runners in the middle. How about Randi, Sarah, Jen, Margo?"

"I'm not really faster than Jen! And I'm already running 11-13 miles that morning. Let's switch those two."

"Wait, 'fastest' and 'running' are two words that are not associated with me...I don't think I should be last."

"What about Margo, Sarah, Jen, Randi?"

"I sort of wanted to go first, but I'll go last if necessary."

"If I'm the last person on the course, you guys better cheer for me."

"This is really funny! I was worried that I was going to be put on a team with a bunch of runners fired up to have a PR or place or something."

"Heck, let's just flip a coin for ALL of the spots."

We still haven't figured out our race order. Good thing we still have a week before the race.

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

A Rainy Conversation

"It is so nice outside. I have to run. I must run. It is too nice to not run outside today."

"Don't run outside."

"But it's cloudy, it's cool, it's breezy. It's perfect!"

"It's drizzling."

"So?"

"It's a tropical storm."

"Oh, it won't get bad until later tonight. Come on, I wanna run outside."

"If you must. But I wish you'd run inside."

"But the weather is so NICE..."

Ten minutes later, as I climbed onto the treadmill for a solid tempo run, it occurred to me that our conversation is perhaps the best indicator of what the weather is like in Houston during the summer -- so hot and humid that a tropical storm seems like perfect weather.

Monday, September 10, 2007

This morning marked the fourth day in a row that my alarm has gone off no later than 6:00 a.m. I usually try to maintain one of the two weekend mornings for sleeping in, since it seems that lately I am getting up earlier on Saturday and Sunday than I do during the week. It is crazy. It is exhausting. Sim, run, bike, load checkout. Tomorrow I have no early mornings committments. Hurrah.

It was quite a weekend. I ran the Bay Area Fit 5-Miler on Saturday morning, a private race with bibs and timing and everything. I guess the point is to give those who are new to running a taste of the race experience. I had a good run -- so good that I came home and slept for another two hours! (Glorious, but not enough to make up for the total weekend sleep deficit.) I'm tired of running with 100+ people yet running alone, so when Cathy from the tri group ran up beside me after the first half mile, I decided to join her. She's in one of the half marathon groups and was doing a 5/1 run/walk, which sounded perfectly good to me. We pushed pretty hard on the running portions, and finished with an overall average of exactly 11:00 per mile. That's fast for me at this point, with all the humidity, so I was happy. I had to walk around for quite a while before I felt like I could stand still without getting dizzy. I felt a little sick all morning until I finally got some significant food in my stomach at lunchtime.

The 600 sq mi opening on Saturday night was a lot of fun. Jose and I arrived around 7:25 and found the gallery so packed that it was nearly impossible to even move! There were appetizers (I did not partake) and a free bar (I did partake; the sangria was yummy). The photos all looked awesome. I hadn't seen my photos since dropping them off to be framed, and suddenly they were there. On a gallery wall. As part of a real show. It was very cool.

After making our way slowly down the wall, it had gotten so warm and crowded that Jose and I considered taking off. But Becca and Nick were both on their way, so we stuck around until they each finally arrived so that I could show off my work. I know there were a lot of the other photographers there, but it was so crowded and loud that it seemed pointless to try to introduce myself and have any meaningful conversation. I will have to go to one of the Flickr meetups soon to meet in a quieter setting.

Yesterday I was up before the crack of dawn again to meet Buzz, Darrin and Amy for a bike ride. The planned 45 miles did not happen for reasons far too complicated to explain, but I did get in 34 miles at an average of 14.9 mph. Yes, I said 14.9 mph. Normally, this number would leave me feeling frustrated at how slow I am. And yet yesterday's bike ride was absolutely fabulous. We rode at a comfortable pace. We took two short breaks. The weather was sunny and humid, but little wind. It was just the bike ride I needed to remind me that I don't always hate biking.

Jose and I saw 3:10 to Yuma yesterday afternoon. It started a little slowly, but picked up speed quickly and the end was fantastic. Highly recommended.

Wednesday, September 05, 2007

The inside of my left elbow has been throbbing on and off since yesterday. It's actually slightly uncomfortable. Not sure what's going on there.

I haven't been writing as much about running lately, but I have been running. I thought that maybe if I didn't write much about it, I wouldn't put so much pressure on myself. Because I get really bummed out when I see my times, and they're so slow, and the heat and humidity take their toll. I'm sort of confused about what my goals are at the moment. In theory I'm training for a marathon, but I'm not sure that my head's all in it.

I mentioned this to a running friend last night, and she looked at me and said matter-of-factly "yeah, but you never like training." I thought about this a lot over the course of the evening. Do I not like training? I do train. But I complain about it. I do train. But I often procrastinate and wait until the last minute to start.

It made me start thinking about why I run in the first place. I've been doing it for more than 5 years now, so I obviously don't hate it.

Who knows, maybe I need to quit concentrating on events and just run for a while. Because ultimately, I started running to lose weight. It's helped me do that (even though I've gained some back) and there have been a lot of other benefits that came with it. Meeting people, taking up new activities, being more self-confident in general.

I've lost 2 pounds in the last couple weeks. That's not shabby.

Last night with all that swirling around in my head, I went ahead and did the BAF-prescribed 4x400 workout. Actually, I did 4x0.25-mile, which is almost the same thing. I ran the repeats pretty hard -- not 100%, but definitely 95%. For the recoveries, I walked the first 0.1 and jogged the remaining 0.15.

2:13 (3:48)
2:16 (3:46)
2:07 (3:45)
2:12 (3:48)

With a 1 mile warmup and 1 mile cooldown, the run was an even 4 miles.

We'll see what tomorrow brings.

Friday, August 24, 2007

On Monday, I got an email from the Tri One O One organizers saying that their venue in The Woodlands had fallen through and that they were trying to locate another venue in the Houston area. Today, their website has disappeared and now simply reads:

All Triathlon One O One events have been cancelled until further notice.
All participant entry fees and 2008 transfers will be refunded within the next two weeks.

That pretty much sucks. And it's a good lesson to all races to make sure you have all your ducks in a row (like having the venue secured) before you start taking registrations. They had four races scheduled across the country this year, and had to cancel two of them.

I was going to do the 50.5 distance, which is a bit shorter than the half iron distance. Now I'm wondering if I should just go for the half iron at Longhorn in Austin or Ironstar in Conroe. Those are both earlier in the fall, so I probably don't have time to prepare. Looks like I'll just finish the tri season with a few more sprint races.

Friday, August 24, 2007

My fortune cookie today said: "Action with a brain. Today you should proceed with caution."

Action with a brain. I have no idea what that means.

On Tuesday, I left work a little early to squeeze in some speedwork before leaving for the baseball game. I was supposed to do 12x60-60, which is 24 total minutes. Well, despite knowing that I needed 12x60-60, I kept mentally calculating only 12 total minutes. That meant I'd have a solid 10 minutes for warmup and another 10 minutes for cooldown before having to head home to shower and meet Jen to drive to the ballpark.

It wasn't until I started my warmup that I finally realized my mental math mistake. I had to skimp on my warmup and cooldown to fit the workout in, but it was so hot outside already that I decided it would be ok. I did 5 minutes warmup and 5 minutes cooldown, and I didn't stop sweating for the rest of the night. It was one tough workout, but I made it. Later, I looked at the schedule again and it turns out I was actually only scheduled for 8x60-60.

Oh well.

I didn't run on Wednesday night since it was the first evening of fall classes at UHCL. I am taking a class called Technical Foundations of Digital Media. It is one of the core classes for the school's new graduate program in Digital Media Studies. When my classes counted toward a potential humanities degree, I wasn't as interested in going all the way to earning a degree. I just wasn't interested in taking the three generic English classes required for a M.A. in Humanities. With the new Digital Media Studies program, however, I am much more interested in going through with everything I need to earn another Masters degree. This class will be my fifth at UHCL, leaving me with 15 hours at the end of this semester. That's almost halfway to a degree already.

Anyway. When the professor walked in on Wednesday and began going over the syllabus, I was immediately worried. There are tons of pop quizzes, and he asked everyone for their level of expertise, and spent a long time carefully explaining how the class was to be run. His manner conveyed that the class would be far too simplistic to me. The textbook (which I'd picked up before class) also looked very simple. I was worrying and getting carried away with myself when the professor finally finished the syllabus and started class. And class was actually good! It was interesting, and not too simple, and he had good lecturing style. He's obviously a stickler for grading and attendance and structure, but I think the class will be interesting. It is the first class I've taken at UHCL that's a lecture class (and not in the computer lab).

Hooray for Friday.

Sunday, August 19, 2007

Ironbabe Sprint Triathlon Race Report

This race was awesome. Just awesome. In fact, it may be my favorite of all the triathlons I've done. A lot of tris are well-organzied, and a lot of tris are fun to do. But no tri that I can think of has had a course that I enjoyed as much as Ironbabe.

Jose decided to come along, and it was extra cool to have him there. We left Clear Lake at 5:30 and arrived at Deussen Park a bit after 6:15. The road signs were very hard to see in the dark, but we managed to make it with only one wrong turn. This was my sixth triathlon of the summer, which means that by this poing I've pretty much got my transition set-up routine down to an art form. Rack bike hanging from the seat. Fold towel such that it's long and thin, and lay it down to the right of my bike tire. Leave a spot at the front to wipe my feet on when I get there from the swim. Behind that, bike shoes, velcro undone so I can slip them on easily. Helmet sits on my bike seat so that I must touch it (and thus put it on) before removing the bike from the rack. Sunglasses are stuck between my handlebars and the brake cables, and I put them on once I'm riding. Running shoes sit behind the bike shoes, with quick laces. Race belt and hat underneath the shoes to grab and go.

When I first started doing triathlons, I had so much junk with me in transition. Now I've pared things down so much that I always have a nagging feeling that I've forgotten something!

The race started a couple minutes late because so many people had trouble finding the turns in the dark, but soon enough we were off! There was no Athena category (one of my two, and very minor, complaints), so I was racing with my age group -- but that meant I was finally in the first wave of a race! Woohoo! I love being in the front, because it means I get to see a lot more people on the run course.

The swim in Lake Houston was a straight out-and-back -- a line of noodles and buoys was set up to go 150 yards out, swim around a buoy, and 150 yards back in. I don't like out and backs for runs, but I loved it for the swim. It made sighting very easy, and luckily I swim pretty straight to begin with. I never got off course, and the crowd wasn't too bad since I'd started near the front of my wave and stayed there. I did get one hard kick right in the face with about 75 yards to go that almost knocked my goggles off, but thankfully they stayed in place. The water was pretty murky, but it's a big enough lake that the water has stayed fairly cool all summer. I did the swim in 6:50 and saw Jose as I came out of the water. Not bad, though I can do better. The cool twist, however, is that since I was in the first wave and since I'm a decent swimmer, I came out of the water in 10th place overall. It didn't last long, but it happened! :)

The bike was awesome. We rode out of Deussen Park to do two loops around Eisenhower Park before heading back in. The course went down smooth roads through tall trees and shade with a couple small hills, and the whole thing was so pretty that I could've done two more loops and still been perfectly happy. On the first loop, I rode mostly alone since I'd come out of the water early in the first wave. I passed one or two people, and a handful of people from the next wave passed me. When I started the second loop, there were a lot more racers around and they must have inspired me to really race, because I seemed to find another gear -- I flew around the second loop picking off riders as I went (to be fair, they were still on their first loop). A few more fast cyclists passed me, but overall I averaged 18.1 mph and finished the bike in 36:24. Jose just missed me coming back from the bike -- I'd told him to expect me in 40-45 minutes, so he was just walking over to transition when I was leaving on the run! Oops.

I was 10th in my age group in the swim, and 13th on the bike. Alas, I still had to run, and this is where I always lose ground. That said, I had a pretty good run for me. Though I did a lot of run/walk intervals and suffered some pretty bad jelly legs at the beginning of the run, I felt better and better as the run went on. I finished with negative splits of 11:32, 11:09, and 10:35 so even though I didn't manage a sub-11:00 pace, I was still happy with the run. The course was out-and-back, but again the scenery made up for it. The second mile was especially pretty along a shaded dirt and gravel forest road. I ended up 40th in my age group for the run.

I crossed the finish line in 1:19:03 and was 24/50 in my age group overall -- woohoo, I squeaked into the top half!

The post-race party was excellent, with plenty of food including breakfast tacos (my favorite) and Marble Slab ice cream! Since there was no Athena category I didn't get a chance to take home any hardware, but the prizes looked nice -- coffee mugs imprinted with the race name and date. I'm always a fan of functional prizes.

Overall, it was a great race and now ranks as one of my favorites. I will definitely be doing this one again next year!

Thursday, August 16, 2007

Eastside Sprint Triathlon Race Report

On Sunday morning I raced in the Eastside Sprint Tri, held behind a Honda ATV and jet ski dealership on I-10 in Baytown. It was a strange location -- racing next to a major interstate -- and I was apprehensive about the course, not to mention the hot, humid weather.

After driving over to pick up my packet on Saturday, I was still uncertain of what the course would be like. The feeder road that we'd be biking in and out on was under major construction west of the race site, and the idea of racing on a single lane of feeder next to cars was not appealing. Fortunately, the race was able to have the police shut down the feeder during the event, so traffic was not a concern on that portion.

I arrived at the race site with plenty of time to spare. The transition racks were open, meaning you could rack anywhere you wanted. This was a bit disappointing, since the race instructions had said that racks would be assigned by number, and discovering that they were open meant that all the good spots next to the bike exit were taken. Oh well. Since I can still jog reasonably fast in my bike shoes, I went with the next best thing in my opinion and racked my bike right next to the swim entrance and run exit.

We had to walk a few hundred yards over to the swim start. The swim was in a nice little pond behind the Honda dealership where I assume they test-ski their jet skis. The water was uncomfortably warm (nothing to be done about that -- it'd been hellishly hot all week), but very clear. I entered as an Athena and was thus in the very last wave, as usual. I hate how Athenas are always placed in the last wave!

After watching five waves start ahead of me, I was finally in the water and started the race! Now is the time to mention that oh yes, did I tell you that I had run 7 miles the previous day? I knew going into the race that I'd be just racing for fun and not to PR, but I don't think I realized how much the 7-miler would take out of me for the race. Yeah, I'm pretty thick-headed sometimes.

The warm water immediately made the swim tough. I felt more winded and tired than I normally do, and as I looked around, I saw that I was somewhere in the middle of the pack. The swim is the one event that I can usually hang in the top third, so I was a little bummed. I kept going, even though I did a fair amount of breaststroke. In the last 200 meters, the swim course became extremely challenging as it turned such that we were swimming directly into the rising sun. I couldn't see a thing! Sighting the buoys was extremely difficult, so much that I actually paused a couple times to shield my eyes with my hand just to make sure I wasn't too off course.

My final 500 meter swim time was 10:43. I didn't know my time until I saw the results, and I was actually quite pleased. I expected to be slower based on how I felt. That time was 87/204 overall, which is still in the top half of all racers, men and women. Woot.

I spent 1:16 in transition and headed out on the road. I never really felt great on the bike, and it's where I first began to feel the effect of the previous day's 7-miler. My quads began aching within the first couple miles, and never really stopped. Despite my issues, the bike course itself was nice. Miles 4-9 were especially pretty, following a country road with tall trees, some shade, and a couple rolling hills. At one point I was mesmerized by the sight up ahead of a cyclist pedaling through the visible rays of the sun passing through tree branches. You could see the rays of light in the air, and it was really pretty.

Miles 9-13 were pretty nasty, solely because the road surface was unsealed asphalt. It was uncomfortable, and it slowed me down by 1-2 mph. I had been tipped off about the road conditions by a post on the HRTC forums, but it didn't make it any more enjoyable. After mile 13, I saw some racers ahead of me continuing to ride on the unsealed shoulder of the road, but I moved onto the main road, where the pavement had been there long enough that there was a strip of asphalt that had been somewhat smoothed by passing cars.

I finished the bike course in 56:49. The race said 16 miles, my Garmin read 15.5, but either way I was under an hour so I decided to be satisfied enough with that. I really would've liked to average above 17 mph, but I didn't quite make it. I blame the asphalt! :)

I spent a quick 1:03 in transition and headed out on the run. Immediately, I knew that I would be run/walking, as I felt completely zapped of energy, and the heat was not helping. The run was entirely on grass and dirt (well, mud) and was basically an extremely zig-zaggy out and back around the U-shaped pond we'd swum in earlier. Because of an isolated but heavy rain storm the night before, the original race course was partially underwater. They'd had to design a new run course that morning -- which explained the zig-zags. They also had to cut the course from 3 miles to 2.5 miles, something that I was certainly not complaining about at that point.

I had forgotten to take my Garmin off my bike, so I had no indication of time or pace. I just ran, then walked, then ran, then walked, over and over. It was by far my worst run in a triathlon this year, and maybe ever. That said, I did manage to cover the course in 28:48 for a pace of 11:31. I had been certain that my pace was over 12:00 so I was actually happy to see the result.

My final time was 1:38:39. It was good enough for 1st place out of three Athena entrants, despite the fact that it was not a great race for me.

You can check out my race photos here. Just click on "next" to scroll through them. Tri shorts do nothing to minimize my giant hips, that's for sure.

I'd consider doing this race again next year, although I'm not certain. I liked the swim course -- except swimming into the sun was horrible. I liked the bike course -- except the road conditions were awful in parts. I liked the run course -- except for the zig-zags and mud. The course is what it is, and the race can't do anything about the sun and the road and the run course being underwater, but I wasn't thrilled. The race organization, however, was great and post-race was fun.

Monday, August 13, 2007

As weekends go, this one was not the best.

On Friday night, Jose finally got a chance to do the long night cross country flight that he's been trying to schedule for weeks. It kept getting rescheduled due to weather, the plane being down for repair, and his instructor having to cancel. But on Friday night, the weather was finally perfect, the plane was back in working order, and his instructor was ready to go. Off they went, with Jose having told me to expect him back around 10:00.

At 9:15, he sent me a text message from Brenham, so I knew that he wouldn't be back when he had predicted. Nevertheless, I inexplicably started to worry as the clock passed 10 and kept ticking. Worrying is absurd, because I don't really think that anything is going to happen. Jose is a good, if beginning, pilot and he's very careful with his flying -- not to mention that Jeff, his instructor, has thousands of hours in the air and is arguably the best instructor in the area (from what I've heard). But I still worried, even though I knew they were ok. Jose finally called at 11:30 to say that he was on his way home.

The inane worrying kept me up later than planned, and the thought of getting up at 5:30 to meet BAF for running made me tired, so I slept in on the condition that I would get my run done before noon on the treadmill. I kept my promise to myself with a trip to Gilruth where I did 7 slow dreadmill miles while watching the little league world series followed by some HGTV. I found it absurd that on Saturday morning, the Gilruth keeps two of the seven TVs tuned to CBS and NBC -- both of whom are showing kids cartoons. Sorry, but I didn't really feel like watching Trollz, or whatever that show was. I think it was a cartoon based on those little plastic dolls with all the hair. Weird.

As I was leaving the Gilruth, I backed up too far and bumped my car into a concrete pole. GREAT. It was about 3 feet tall -- or, just short enough that I couldn't see it out the back window of my Xterra. Yes, I looked. No, I did not back up without looking. I just couldn't see the stupid pole. Despite my slow speed, it made quite a bang. I didn't want to look at it right away, so I drove home hoping that it was the bike rack that hit, and not my bumper.

No such luck. It was my bumper. It was all bumper, so the good news is that it will hopefully be easy to bang out since it didn't touch the body of the car itself. The bad news is that it needs to be fixed soon, because while the damage isn't that bad, it crinkled the bumper upward by about an inch -- which is just enough to block my trunk hatch from opening. So I can't get into the back of my car. Suck. I felt like a complete idiot.

All the body shops I called closed at 2, so I decided to just forget about it for the rest of the weekend, and I headed out to pick up my packet for the Eastside Sprint Triathlon. I love triathlons, but I have one major beef: they very rarely offer race-day packet pickup. This means that I have to drive 1.5 hours round trip the day before the event to pick up my packet, and then do the same drive the next day for the race itself. I decided to take Beltway 8 on Saturday, only to discover that part of the beltway was entirely closed with all traffic being routed onto the feeder. UGH. In addition to that, something was burning on the other side of the highway which caused all sorts of rubbernecking.

I've come to the conclusion that you cannot drive anywhere in this stupid city without getting stuck in construction-caused traffic. Which is lots of fun when it's 100 degrees outside.

The rest of Saturday was a lot better, and I got to bed at a decent hour to rest up for yesterday's Eastside Tri. I'll post a better race report later today or tomorrow, but my time for the 500 meter swim, 16 mile bike, and 2.5 mile run (the course had to be shortened because rain put the original course underwater) was 1:38:39. That was good enough for 1st place Athena (out of 3 in the category) despite the fact that my bike was only so-so and my run was my worst tri run of the season.

Sunday was looking up. I had a yummy lunch at Panera, and Jose and I spent the afternoon running errands at Best Buy and Fry's. I got a new external hard drive -- which means I can now get rid of my desktop entirely! It still works fine, so I'm not sure what to do with it. Maybe see if I can get a couple hundred bucks on the swap shop... Jose finally got a printer, a refurbished Epson for half price. It does borderless prints! And they look great. I may abandon my printer (which I've had since college, though it does print good photos) in favor of using his.

I had a soccer game in the evening, which was hot and frustrating. I'm tired of losing all the team. My team is just not that good. We are a very defensive team; we lose all our games by scores of 0-3, 0-1, 0-2, etc. Our problem isn't that the other teams score. Our problem is that we never score. We end up playing defense for 90% of the game. And when you end up playing that much defense, the other team will score. It's not a matter of if, but when. When the game ended I was frustrated, sweaty, and absolutely exhausted.

I drove back to Clear Lake, ready to have a relaxing dinner with Jose. I was a mile from his apartment and talking to my mom on the phone for the first time in weeks when I noticed flashing lights a good distance behind me in my rear view mirror. I kept driving for a bit, not realizing that the flashing lights were apparently for me. I hung up with mom after telling her that "I think I'm getting pulled over." I still had no idea why. I looked at my speedometer and saw 50 miles per hour. The speed limit is 45. Was I really getting pulled over for going 5 mph over the limit?

The cop parked behind me and left her extremely bright lights shining into my mirror, forcing me to slouch down in the seat to avoid being blinded. She walked up to my window and shined her flashlight directly into my eyes, forcing me to turn my head away. At this point I'm wondering if someone in a red Xterra has kidnapped a child or something!

Nope. Apparently the police department of Clear Lake Shores -- a "city" that is about one square mile in area -- had nothing better to do last night. It turns out that for the 0.25-mile stretch of road through their pinhead of a "city," the speed limit drops to 40. I never knew that. In five years, I never knew that. So she wrote me a ticket for going 50 in a 40. Clear Lake Shores! A "city" that is so freaking tiny that I didn't even know they had a police department! When I told my coworker this morning (a League City volunteer fire captain) about it, he laughed and said "which one pulled you over -- the chick or the old guy?" The "city" has exactly two police officers. "Yeah, and pulling people over is their sole source of income," he said. In five years, I've never seen anyone pulled over on that stretch of road, so who knows -- maybe I've just been lucky. Now I'm just glad that I managed to fix my broken tail light last week. I'm sure she would've loved to give me a ticket for that too.

I was so mad. In the 3+ years I've been driving my Xterra, I have not been in a single accident or gotten pulled over. And in one weekend, I got both.

For once, I was glad to see Monday arrive.

Friday, August 10, 2007

I would talk about how hot it was during my tempo run last night, but I think you already know how hot it was. I ran a slow 15 minute warmup followed by 15 minutes at 10:55 pace followed by an even slower 15 minute cooldown. I was quite happy to discover that I could hold sub-11:00 pace for any amount of time in this weather, so it was a good run. I covered about 3.75 miles total.

I continued to sweat for over an hour, since I had a softball game immediately after my run. I played catcher, which turned out to be the equivalent of following my 4-mile run with an hour of squats. My legs hurt today.

Tomorrow is a 7-miler with BAF. I'm a little worried about making the distance. I'll follow it up on Sunday with the Eastside Tri, which I'll obviously just be doing for fun and exercise and not all-out racing since it comes a day after the afore-mentioned 7-miler.

STS-118 pulled off a very pretty rendezvous with the space station this morning. Everything went like clockwork. It's a funny thing about this business: you practice over and over and over again working through all sorts of hellish simulated situations, but when you get to do the real thing, nothing goes wrong and it all seems horribly boring.

Boring is good.

Wednesday, August 08, 2007

After checking out this month's edition of Stridelines and seeing the photos from the Reno-to-Tahoe relay team, one thing has become clear: I definitely need to find some of those Texas flag running shorts between now and March 1, 2008.

Why do I need shorts, and why do I need them by March 1, 2008? Well, for the Texas Independence Relay, of course. It's a 200-mile relay race from Gonzales, Texas to the base of the San Jacinto Monument here in Houston. I will be running with 11 of my running blogger friends as part of the awesome Battling Bloggers of the Texas Republic team, and we'll be having a casual competition (at least I'm going to think it's casual) with the Texian Road Warriors team of Woodlands-area runners.

I've been interested in doing one of these large, multi-day relay races for some time, so I'm really excited. Tons of runners, cramming into a van, sweaty, smelly, running through the night...what's not to love? I'm the slowest person on the team at this point, which is a little depressing, but I've still got 7 months to improve my times.

While I haven't been biking or swimming much lately, I have increased my running, even though I haven't been posting about it as much. I did 6 slow treadmill miles on Monday night, and the BAF-prescribed 8x30-30 speed session last night in the oppressive heat. I won't say much more, as they were pretty uneventful runs. The 6-miler was very slow. 12:00 pace. I was going for distance, not speed. Yesterday's speed workout was excellent, but hot. Good grief was it hot. Very, very hot. Did I mention hot? No? Well it was hot.

I've also signed up for a few more races, after planning to run last Saturday's Maribelle's 5K and having to bail when Jose and I decided to go to Corpus. This Sunday I'll be racing in the Eastside Triathlon, next Sunday I'll be racing in the Ironbabe Triathlon. Both of those are sprint distance. September is up in the air, since I'll be out of town two of the four weekends. In October I'll be doing the USA 10-Miler for sure. And in November I signed up for a bit more of a challenge. No, not another half ironman, but somewhat close: the 50.5-mile race being held in November as part of the Tri One-o-One series in The Woodlands. The 101 distance is somewhere between a half and full ironman, and I wasn't ready to tackle that. So I chose the 50.5 distance: .93 mile swim, 40.3 mile bike, and 9.3 mile run. It should be a great event.

Thursday, August 02, 2007

Houston Urban Adventure Race Report

I'm long overdue on this race report, but better late than never! Debbie and I did the Houston Urban Adventure Race on July 14 for the third year in a row, and it was a lot of fun. This was the first year we've done it that the race did not start on the field at Minute Maid Park (probably because the Astros were on the road), which was actually a nice thing because it meant we raced in the morning instead of the oppressive late afternoon heat. This was also the longest course of the three Houston urban races we've done.

The race started downtown at 9:00 a.m. with the entire group gathered in a bunch in the middle of the square. One racer from each team was sent back to the transition area and at the "GO!" yell, the remaining racer had to sprint to a corner of the block where a volunteer waited with maps and instructions. I headed to one corner only to discover that it was the one corner with a bogus volunteer -- no maps! I quickly ran down the sidewalk to the next corner and secured our map and list of checkpoints. I ran back to transition where Debbie and I began to plan our route.

We first had to get to David Adickes's studio (he's the guy who made the Sam Houston statue and is now doing giant presidential busts) almost 2 miles away. The catch? One person had to run, while the other had to bike. And we had to stay together.

We started with Debbie running, me riding. It made sense, as she is the faster runner and doesn't like biking as much. With her running along and me offering encouragement on two wheels, we made it to the studio 1.75 miles away. After gathering the washer to put on our bolt that we got in the bag at the beginning of the race (you usually have to carry something along and pick up an additional item at each checkpoint to prove you were there), we dropped the bike on the ground. We were both supposed to run to a specified street corner. We plotted our route and jogged there to find another washer in the bottom of a water-filled garbage can. With that in hand, we headed back to the bikes.

I assumed that I would have to tackle the run back to transition while Debbie biked, but she offered to run again! She's always been a little crazy. I felt a little guilty, but I let her do it. She ended up running the entire way back to transition while I biked along next to her. Just before entering transition, Debbie stopped at the porta-potty and immediately after coming out, she realized she no longer had the bolt that we were supposed to be carrying. It fell out somewhere! We looked all around the porta-potty and finally decided that it must be in the porta-potty. Ewwwwww. So we continued without. We knew we might be disqualified, but hoped that the race organizers would have a good sense of humor about it.

We grabbed Debbie's bike and headed out for the bike leg, riding all the way from downtown to the intersection of South Braeswood Blvd and Stella Link where Planetary Cycles has their store. That was a long way -- much farther than the bike leg in previous years! When we finally arrived, we had to use a zip tie to link one person's wrist to the other person's ankle and walk around a short course. That was pretty funny. It turns out that the "easy" way to do this was for one person to carry the other on their back, but Debbie and I didn't figure that one out. Instead we walked the course with me hunched over. Funny.

We rode our bikes all the way back downtown and dropped them in transition to being the last leg of the race, a run around downtown that included having to climb to the top of a 12-story parking deck. Oh man, that was tough!! We crossed the finish line in about 3:30 and the race organizers were nice enough not to disqualify us for losing our bolt. We finished in 9th place among female teams, and since the awards went 10 deep, we each got a medal! Woohoo!

Google pedometer produced the following distances for each leg of the race:

Run/bike to Adickes studio - 1.75 miles
Run to Oxford and back - 2.70 miles
Run/bike to transition studio - 1.75 miles
Bike - 16.5 miles
Run around downtown, up parking deck and back - 1.80 miles

So Debbie ended up running 8 miles and biking 16.5, while I ran 4.5 miles and biked 20. What can I say -- Debbie rocks! I would've really struggled to make it 8 miles that day.

Of the three Houston Urban Adventure races we've now done, I struggle to say which was my favorite. I like the Minute Maid Park start, but I like being able to race in the morning instead of the afternoon heat. I think the first year may have been my favorite, primarily because it had more than 10 checkpoints. This year's race only had 4 checkpoints -- pretty disappointing. The checkpoints and mystery challenges are what make adventure racing really fun.

Sunday, July 29, 2007

This morning's Orange group run was 5 miles, and it just about did me in. The humidity was absolutely brutal, and let's face it: I'm just out of shape. I keep telling myself that I'm so slow because of the weather, but I can't use that as the only excuse. I have not been consistent about exercise of late, and that's the second culprit.

We met at the absolutely ungodly hour of 5:30. Seriously, I am new to Bay Area Fit and have to know -- do they meet this early all year? The BAF Triathlon group never met at 5:30 a.m. so this was a shock. I mean, whoa. I only got about 4.5 hours of sleep, so I know that didn't help my performance either.

I ran the first two miles in 11:04 and 11:12, not bad at all. But the last three were about 12:00 per mile with lots of little walking breaks. Pathetic. By the time I got back, the group had already started stretching, which left me feeling pretty lame and left out.

The jury is still out on Bay Area Fit. Of course I like having a group to run with, but they're a bit cult-like. Not necessarily in a bad way, it's just...well, the best way to describe it is that the group is geared towards beginning runners, not people like me who have been running for years. (I did know that going in, so it was not a surprise.) The seminar this morning went over information that I already knew. That in itself is ok, but it felt a little too much like I was being lectured to like a child. "DO NOT wear cotton t-shirts! If you wear a cotton t-shirt, YOU WILL get heatstroke!" Ok, so I guess that could happen, but it's unlikely to be solely from your choice of material. You'll just be more comfortable if you don't wear cotton. If you choose to wear cotton, I think that's your choice.

Anyway, I was probably just cranky because I was tired and had a bad run. :) So we shall see. The benefit of having a large group to run with (and one that I don't have to drive into town to meet) is first and foremost. I'd hook up with the Striders free SMART program, but it's hard to justify driving all over Houston when I can run in Clear Lake. Next week calls for 6 miles. Not sure how well I'll handle it, although the meeting time is pushed back to 6:20.

In other news, after much (and I mean much, just ask Jose) debate, I bought an iPhone.

I have thoroughly read dozens of internet reviews, and feel like I know what I'm getting into. After three strikes, the fourth guy I talked to at the Apple store was able to help, as we talked for about 20 minutes about features including my one major concern -- synching with my Outlook calendar at work. (The first three Apple store employees were entirely unhelpful with the answers of "well, I'm a Mac person obviously, so I don't know about PCs..." I understand that they are Mac people, but with the number of consumers using iPods and now iPhones with PCs, you'd think they'd be more educated.)

Anyway, I believe the sync will out as I hoped, so that is good. I fully realize that the iPhone has many shortcomings, and I fully realize that it is overpriced. But I wanted it, and I could afford it, so I got it. It's pretty cool so far. I am in love with the Google Maps app in particular.

Thursday, July 26, 2007

It's called blood doping because if you do it, you're a DOPE...

Never fear JD, I did get in one run along the Charles loop while in Boston. Jose and I ran on Thursday morning, from our hotel across the Mass Ave bridge, along the river, back over the Salt and Pepper bridge, and back to our hotel: this route. It was an absolutely beautiful run, one that I feel like I could do every day and never get bored. Jose hasn't run in a while, so we walked half of the route, but it was still great. We passed dozens of other runners, and the feeling is contagious. It's inspiring. For the rest of the weekend, every time we saw a runner (which happened often) I wanted to lace up my shoes and join them. I had planned to run again on Saturday morning before we left, but our whale watching trip left early enough that I didn't have time to do it again.

I decided to do speedwork last night after all, and it absolutely wore me out. The schedule called for 6 x 800, but I felt like that was way too much of a jump from the 8 x 60-60 that I did last week. So I decided to compromise. I wanted to do speedwork, but not 800s, and I was tired to begin with, so I just bumped up a bit and did 10 x 60-60 with 1 mile warmup and 1 mile cooldown. I walked the 60 recovery, and did each 60 running at around 8:30 pace. The last couple repeats were tough, but I made it.

Here are some great running ads. The link was posted on the Bay Area Fit message boards. Caution that the first image is not entirely work-appropriate -- but rest-assured that runners will find them all funny.

I booked my room at the Hilton for January 13, the night before the marathon. I think this is the farthest in advance that I have ever made a hotel reservation. Six months.

On to another sport.

I have only been paying peripheral attention to the Tour de France this year, but the past few days have been pretty eventful -- and in a bad way. Big star Alexander Vinokourov and his team were ousted on Tuesday after he testing positive for an illegal blood transfusion. And yesterday after he won the stage in dramatic fashion, Michael Rasmussen -- the guy who has been in the yellow jersey for more than a week and who was looking likely to win the entire race -- was cut by his team and dismissed from the Tour for missing two drug tests this spring and not being honest to his team about his whereabouts. (Pro cyclists are required to tell their teams and drug testers where they will be at all times.) Those are the big names this year. In past years, other big names have been involved. Jan Ullrich, Ivan Basso, Tyler Hamilton, Floyd Landis. Never-ending rumors about Lance Armstrong who, for the record, I believe to be clean simply because he has been tested so many times in so many places that it seems that he is either 1) clean or 2) incredibly good at hiding drug use, far better at hiding it than anyone else. I choose to believe the former.

I haven't been able to solidify my opinion on drugs in sports yet, despite years of thought. One thing I do believe, however, is that the problem is no more rampant in cycling than in any other sport. People think that cycling has a worse drug problem than baseball, or football, or soccer, or basketball, or running... I don't believe that. Cycling appears to have a worse drug problem only because they are the one professional sport that actually has a rigorous testing program. As fas as I know, professional cyclists are tested more regularly than any other professional athletes. They can be tested at any time of year. They can be tested in any location. At the Tour de France itself, you are tested if you win a stage. You are tested if you are wearing a jersey. You might be randomly tested even if you are at the back of the pack.

Cyclists are scrutinized for drug use more than any other sport, and that is why I think they are continually discovering drug use. Eventually one would think that the athletes would wisen up, realize that it is only a matter of time until they are caught, and stop doping. I hope that happens.

Yet to say that cycling has a bigger drug problem than, say, baseball, is kidding yourself. I believe baseball has a pretty big drug problem as well. They just have turned a blind eye to it over many, many years and continue to do so even now.

Thursday, July 12, 2007

This New York Times article about air quality and exercise is interesting. I didn't have allergies 10 years ago, but now I am usually a bit sniffly, and my eyes itch regularly. I have often wondered if the air quality in Houston (which is bad, and living fairly close to acres of chemical plants doesn't help) is impacting my health. I'm not going to stop running and biking and going outside because exercise will always be better than no exercise, but it does make me concerned.

I rode 23.5 miles on my bike last night in just under 1:30. I averaged right around 16 mph. The first 15 miles went considerably better than the last 8. During the latter portion, I was feeling pretty pooped. While I don't notice the heat as much on a bike as I do while running, mainly because riding a bike provides you with a man-made breeze, I know it still affects me. And mentally, I was done. I have not been riding consistently enough to make the bike comfortable, and once my neck and back start aching, I check out. Nonetheless, I was glad to get in a ride. I double-booked myself this weekend with the Houston Urban Adventure Race on Saturday and Jeff & Brede's Intergalactic Triathlon on Sunday, so I'll get in two more bouts of biking before the week is through.

I know all my blog entries have been about running and biking this week, but there's not much else going on. I'm planning to see the new Harry Potter movie tomorrow night so that will be fun, even though it's been a while since I read the book. I forget books pretty quickly, so I'll probably be all confused about what's going on. Oh well. Harry Potter = good, Voldemort = bad. That's probably enough.

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

I sat down in the locker room at Gilruth last night and started pulling my running clothes out of my bag.

Running skirt? Check.
Tech tee? Check.
Hat? Check.
Sports bra? Check.
IPod Shuffle? Check.
Garmin? Check.
Shoes? Check.
Socks?
...
Socks??
...
I forgot to pack socks!

Dilemma. I have never run without socks. What to do? Finally I decided to go for it and see if I could run comfortably without socks. After all, most top triathletes do it, and if I discover that I can go sockless, it'll save me another few seconds in transition. (Not that a few seconds makes a difference when you're slow like me, but hey.) I was planning to do 3 miles, so I thought I'd just go as far as I could. If I felt hot spots on my sockless feet, I'd stop and walk back.

Amazingly, going sockless wasn't a big deal! It felt a little weird, and I don't plan to do it often, but I could certainly do a sprint triathlon without bothering with socks. I got one hot spot on my right index toe, but it was the same blister that formed on Saturday when I was wearing socks.

I ran my 3 miles outside, starting at about 6:00. I am still stubbornly trying to fight the heat, but thankfully I survived. There was a bit of a breeze that made things bearable, and I'm happy to report that I kept a relaxed pace and didn't take any walk breaks! (Walk breaks have become pretty standard for me in the heat.) I finished in 34:00 for an average of about 11:20 per mile.

Monday, July 09, 2007

Apparently I'm going to run another marathon. It must be true, since I joined Bay Area Fit's orange group on Saturday.

I really wanted to join the yellow group, because the coaches are also the triathlon group coaches, and because I have three friends in that group. But their pace is under 10:30 per mile, and I'm just not there right now, not for long runs anyway. So I joined orange, where I should fit in very comfortably on the faster end. Come fall and cooler weather, I hope to make the switch from orange to yellow. We shall see.

Summer heat and humidity has led to some nasty runs of late. I read a lot of blogs detailing bad runs, easily in the top ten worst runs ever, and I had a similar experience on Saturday morning. I met a guy from the tri group at 6:30 for a planned 6-miler at 11:00 pace before the BAF kickoff. While we covered the distance, an 11:00 pace eluded me. Steve was kind enough to slow down for me, even at the end when the walk breaks were plentiful.

The first 3 miles were at about 11:30 pace. The last 3 miles were at 12:00+ pace. UGH. I blame it mostly on dehydration, which I expected since I basically purposefully dehydrated myself on Friday. Rendezvous sims last 8 hours, and there's really no optimal time to take a break. I drank nothing from the time I got up Friday morning until about 4:00 that afternoon. (I haven't figured out a solution to this problem yet.) In retrospect, maybe I shouldn't be surprised that I had a really horrible run.

I have mixed feelings about doing another marathon. I am ready to do another one, but I am not sure I want to do Houston again. I always told myself that the next one I did would be somewhere else. Somewhere like New York, Chicago, Washington, or Hawaii. But I guess I can do Houston again. At the least, I know that training will be much more pleasant with a group; I trained basically alone when I did my only marathon thus far in 2005, and I suffered a good six months of burnout afterwards. I was so tired of running alone.

The final reason I decided to train was just in case I decide to do an Ironman. There, I said it. I know, I'm crazy. I haven't decided anything yet, but a bunch of people from the tri group are doing IM Arizona and I'd be lying if I said they didn't put a seed of a thought into my head.

The one thing I do know is that I train better and more consistently when I am being held accountable to someone or something else. A coach, a group, an event. So here we go...

Monday, July 02, 2007

It's absolutely pouring outside, and I am lucky to have made it from the car to the building without getting totally waterlogged. I haven't seen it rain this hard since...well, since yesterday morning, when we got dumped on at the Y Tri sprint triathlon in Pearland.

Is it me, or has it been ever rainier than usual this summer? I mean, we always get afternoon thunderstorms, but there have been an inordinate amount of rainy mornings in the past few months.

Actually, doing another triathlon in the rain wasn't too bad. It rained hard before the start, which was delayed about 10 minutes due to lightning, but then it stopped during my swim, and only drizzled lightly while I was biking. The wet roads made it necessary to slow to almost a crawl as I rounded the four U-turns on the bike course, but at least I didn't have to deal with the pins-and-needles feeling of raindrops hitting you as you pedal at 17 mph. No, instead, the rain came fast and hard on the run. It would have bothered me, but I decided that I'd rather run in a torrential downpour than in the heat!

Overall the tri went reasonably well. The swim was in the 50-meter pool at Independence Park in Pearland. I had mistakenly submitted a 300 yard predicted time instead of 300 meter, so at #69 out of 300, I was seeded slightly faster than my ability. The person behind me was a no-show, so there was a 20-second gap between me and the next person in the water after me. Still, two people passed me in the water. I will have to be more careful next time to avoid making that mistake again.

I haven't swum in a 50-meter pool since I was at Georgia Tech, and I have to admit I found myself waiting for the wall each length. I finished the swim in 6:42, a deceptive time since there was a 20-30 second run between leaving the pool and crossing the timing mat into transition. My actual in-the-water time was closer to 6:10, which is probably what I should've put down for my predicted time. That is under 2:00 per 100 yards, which I'm happy enough about.

The bike was a 12-miler (Garmin measured 12.25, which I think is accurate; tri distances are often a little bit off the nice round number advertised) that was pretty nice except for the four U-turns. I hate U-turns on a bike. Like I said, it didn't rain too much, but for whatever reason, I was just not feeling it. Maybe it was the 5-miler I did the day before. Maybe it was bad nutrition. Maybe it was just a bad day. I managed to push enough to average just over 17 mph, finishing the bike in 42:32, but I had hoped for 40:00 flat. One of the BAFT women was just behind me, and also competing in the Athena category. At every U-turn I could see her, and at every U-turn she was gaining on me. If the bike had been much longer, she would've caught me.

After the bike, I didn't have high hopes for the run, but somehow the rain actually helped. It was a 3-miler (Garmin measured 3.1, which matches a Google pedometer version of the route) and after some dead legs for the first half mile, I was able to settle into a comfortable pace and do the run with only two quick stops at the two water stations. (At the first one, in the middle of the downpour, I remarked that it seemed unfair that I had to stop to drink, and wondered why my body couldn't just absorb the massive quantities of liquid falling from the sky at that particular moment. I finished in 32:48 for an average of either 10:56 per mile if you go with an even 3 miles, or 10:35 if you say it was 3.1. Either way, it was under 11:00 per mile and I was happy with that.

My overall finish time was 1:24:45. That would've put me 12th in my age group, but was good enough for 1st place Athena. So far this year I've been 2nd, 1st, and 1st in the Athena group. The only race I didn't place in was the Half Iron, and well, those Athenas were hard core. I have to watch out or this stuff is going to go to my head. I know that placing in this category is totally dependent on who happens to show up and who happens to be willing to admit that they weigh more than 150 pounds. But I'll take it. Fastest fat girl in Houston, that's me! :)

I almost lost 1st place yesterday though. Second place was a minute behind me and third place was the Bay Area Fit woman who kept gaining on me on the bike, four minutes behind. Even more interesting: I finished 1st in the category, but did not have the fastest time in any of the splits. There were 5 Athenas. I was 2/5 in the swim and T1. I was 3/5 on the bike, T2, and run. But I was the most consistent, and therefore took the category.

Saturday, June 30, 2007

I did a long run this morning on the Seabrook trails.

Long, of course, is a relative term. When I trained for a marathon, my long run maxed out at 22 miles. Earlier this year while training for the Half Ironman, my long runs were the two Seabrook Half Marathons. But since the Charlotte Half Marathon in mid-April, I have only run 3-4 miles at any given point, so today's "long run" was a mere 5.1 miles.

I started just after 9:00, a little later than I'd planned but still early enough that the heat wasn't completely oppressive. The first three miles went well, and I followed the 11/1 run/walk pattern that I did on all my long runs this past winter -- 10:54, 11:24, 11:54. I slowed down over time, but that is typical of my running in the heat.

Mile 4 was horrible. I walked three times during that mile and the split showed it -- 12:12. I considered stopping at 4 and just walking the mile back to the car, but then I heard thunder. Woohoo!

I know, I shouldn't be excited about thunder, but in this case, it also meant that clouds rolled in to cover the sun, the "feels like" temperature dropped by 5-10 degrees, and it started to rain. I got all wet, but felt so much better with the slightly cooler air. I did the last mile at a much more respectable 11:34 and only the 11/1 pattern -- no extra walk breaks.

The summary? Summer heat and I just don't get along. It's frustrating to see my times slow so much, and it's hard for me to believe that I ran a 29:45 5K just a month ago. I just have to keep telling myself that even if I'm running super slow in the heat, the fact that I'm running at all will make me faster this fall.

Friday, June 29, 2007

Jose left for Corpus Christi after work yesterday. I had to eat dinner alone, and watch the Astros game alone, and when I messed around on the computer aimlessly for more than an hour, there was no one to make fun of me. I'm so used to having him around that not having him there made me sad and lonely, so I guess it's official. I'm attached. It only took a year and a half. But then, you probably all knew that months ago.

Last night I joined the BAFT crew for an open water swim right here in Clear Lake. Well, not actually in Clear Lake, but in this area. Turns out there is a landowner off highway 96 in Kemah who has a sizable pond on his property and he has started to open it to swimmers in a similar way to how Twin Lakes operates. We had to sign a waiver and pay $5, but then we were free to hit the water.

One lap around the pond was ~600-650 yards as near as I can tell, and the water was much cleaner and clearer than most of the lakes I've swum in. No nasty algae or plant life, and visibility was at least a few feet. I did get nipped by the fish at first, which I did not like at all (due to my previously mentioned aversion to fish), but they stopped as soon as I started moving. I did two laps, without timing myself. The water was comfortable, if a little warm on top because of the sun. Perhaps I'll see if I can organize another outing for any bloggers who want to try open water swimming. Anybody interested?

I still can't believe I missed that baseball game.

Thursday, June 28, 2007

If I had more space (which, as previously mentioned in the "to buy or not to buy a house" discussion, I do not), I would seriously consider buying a treadmill. Though I professed in the past to hate the evil machines, I think it would do wonders to eliminate my uncanny ability to talk myself out of running because it's hot, or dark, or cold. When there's a treadmill staring at you, it's hard to come up with enough excuses. And running on a treadmill is better than not running at all.

Last night I was going to run, but Jose told me it was too hot and that I should go inside on the treadmill. I hesitated, but ended up doing what he suggested. I've been having so much trouble in the heat lately that a relaxed run that didn't involve me ending up nauseated sounded like a great idea. Into the gym I went. I hopped on the treadmill and set the speed at 5 mph. While that sounded horribly slow, it felt very comfortable, so I resolved that I wouldn't worry about my speed (especially since I always run a little slower on the treadmill for reasons I've yet to figure out) and would just run relaxed. After a bit, I upped the speed. After another bit, I upped the speed another notch. But I never sped up too much, and ended up doing 4 miles in about 46 minutes. There's a part of me that's disappointed that I didn't push harder, but there's also a part of me thinking that I probably don't do enough of that type of run. The relaxed, no worries run.

I did discover a new "feature" of the Gilruth treadmills: they've programmed such that you can't set a time of more than 30 minutes. I understand their reasoning, as they limit use of any of the cardio machines (treadmills, ellipticals, and bikes) to no more than 30 minutes. But the sign specifically says no more than 30 minutes during peak hours. It does not specifically say what peak hours are, so I have always operated under the assumption that if I reach 30 minutes and there are people waiting, I will stop. But if there are open treadmills, then I can keep going. Which I did last night. After having to reset the program. Hmph.

Sunday, June 24, 2007

Yesterday I took Mom along to BAFT's prediction run (an idea which I think they may have actually gotten from me when I told them about the similar run that BARC did two weeks ago!). The distance was 3 miles, so I predicted 32:30 -- just under 11:00 pace. Mom predicted 58 minutes for her walk time. It was humid, but thankfully the sun was hidden behind a good layer of clouds. I finished just over my prediction in 32:37 -- dang it, I took one too many quick walk breaks! Mom shattered her prediction, finishing in 51:03. She was really surprised. Maybe it was because Houston is so flat. Who knows.

We spent the rest of the day watching HGTV (Mom's favorite), doing some errands, watching The Pursuit of Happyness (good movie but you have to wait a long time for the payoff), and visiting Gavin, Jen and Carina. For the first time, Carina was actually awake when I saw her and it was very fun to watch the funny faces she was making. I held her until she got fussy, at which point Jen took her back and Carina immediately calmed down. I guess she already knows who her mom is!

Thursday, June 21, 2007

STS-117 is hopefully coming home today after a wild 'n crazy mission. The weather is cloudy with scattered storms in Florida though, so they may not make it in. I worked the launch, but I'm only a spectator for the landing. But speaking of the mission, here I am in the backroom watching the undocking on Tuesday. Those are the undocking procedures in my lap. We weren't even looking at the displays because at that point we were watching the pretty pictures on TV. ;)

Can you believe they didn't take any photos of the backroom during launch? Dang! My first mission, and I don't even have a record of me working it.

My mom arrives tonight for a 5 day visit, so I spent some time last night cleaning. Now my mom has known me for, oh, more than 29 years, so she knows that my apartment is always in a state of clutter. I organize by the "pile method." I have a lot of stuff, and I keep most of it neatly stacked in various piles around the room. She knows this, so I don't feel an overwhelming need to hide my piles.

I do, however, feel the need to clean things that have the potential to make her question how successful she was in raising me. (For the record, she was very successful.) This means wiping down the countertop in the bathroom, vacuuming the floor, putting fresh sheets on the bed, taking out the trash, and cleaning out the refrigerator.

I threw away everything in the fridge that was old or expired. I was left with what's in the photo. While it's not quite approaching bachelor level, it's certainly proof that I eat out far too much. I'd be hard-pressed to make a full meal out of anything in there. (Go to the Flickr page to see notes on what's in there.)

I skipped BAFT's bike-run workout last night in favor of a solid hour on the bike, since I hadn't ridden in three weeks. I left my apartment at 6:00 and did two laps around JSC plus a bit at the end to end up with 15.5 miles in about 57 minutes. I felt good on the first loop. I felt horrible on the second loop -- tired and slightly nauseous. The slightly nauseous feeling has been common lately. My best guess is that I'm just not totally adjusted to the hot weather yet. I've always had a tendency to overheat quickly, and as a kid I often got heat rash. My guess is that the stomach discomfort is just a touch of heat exhaustion. Whatever it is, I hope it's just a passing thing.

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

So as you may have figured out by looking at my Flickr stream, I am on a vegetable-growing kick right now. It started with some basil seeds from Lowe's and ended up with two more trips to get already-sprouted tomato plants and more. I always thought that growing things was too hard, or that I just didn't have the talent. After all, I killed not one but two cactus plants in college.

Against all odds, my vegetables are growing like crazy! I have two tomato plants and a bell pepper plant. The cherry tomatoes and bell pepper are at Jose's apartment, where the balcony gets full sun for at least half of the day. I picked my first three tomatoes this week and they were TASTY. They were the early bloomers. The rest are still green. But I counted last night and I have 31 cherry tomatoes on the plant right now. 31! The bell peppers are growing as well, and I've got two big ones to show off.

I have a grape tomato plant at my own apartment, where it only gets about 2-3 hours of morning sun each day and is subjected to more wind. It's not doing nearly as well, but there are 3 tomatoes growing and I staked it the other day to hopefully keep it more protected from the wind. We'll see how it does. At some point I may take it to Jose's.

In other news, I ran 3.1 miles last night. It was supposed to be a tempo run, but only about 7 minutes were actually run at tempo pace because it was so damn hot. The entire run took 35:40, with a couple pauses to swig water. At the end, I felt like either throwing up or dying.

Also, it turns out that I pretty much suck so far at learning to fly the space shuttle.

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Well, I didn't get into this year's New York Marathon. Oddly, I am actually disappointed. I guess that means I wanted to do it, despite my uncertainty when I spoke about it a few weeks ago. Maybe I'll aim for the Seattle Marathon on November 25, possibly with my sister. The only problem is that it's Thanksgiving weekend...

Wednesday, June 06, 2007

If you are having issues with the HARRA website and came here looking for info, allow me:

The domain is being transferred and is currently propagating through the wild and crazy world of the Internet. For the next couple days, going to harra.org could take you to the old site, or it could take you to the new site. Here are some hard links for use during the transition.

Old Website - http://site371.mysite4now.com/harra

New Website - http://www.memberize.com/955dir

At the moment, harra.org might take you to the new membership portal, which is confusing to some people. Read the info there and follow the links to get to the new website or to renew your membership.

Soon, harra.org will take you directly to the new site.

Once the domain has finished propagating, an email will be sent to all HARRA members explaining all the changes and what you need to do.

Tuesday, June 05, 2007

Wanna see what I look like when I'm running as hard as I can maintain? Well, here's my race photo from the Heights 5K. I think this may be close to the finish, when I was basically gasping for air. Attractive, right? Ugh.

I joined three of the BAFT coaches tonight for a tempo run in Walter Hall Park. We met at 6:00, which was perfect timing -- I finished my work for the day at 5:30 -- and also horrible timing -- it was hot. Steamy. To be honest, it wasn't that bad compared to what I know the temperatures will be like a month from now, but still. Hot.

A lap around the park is about 1.2 miles, and we were scheduled to do a 40 minute tempo run, so that lined up pretty well -- a lap of warmup, a lap at tempo pace, and a lap of cooldown. The tempo lap was done at 9:37 average pace. I started out faster and slowed down at the end as the heat really started to get to me. I walked for a minute to catch my breath before starting my cooldown lap. I find it very hard to go from fast running immediately to cooldown running -- I always feel like I need to walk, catch my breath, let my heart rate come down a bit, and then start a slow cooldown jog. I don't know if that's ok or not, but it's what I do.

Since the launch is in the evening, I thought about signing up for the Tejas Tri on Sunday but decided not to push things. Instead, I'll stay closer to home and do the BARC Pay-Your-Dues Prediction Run on Sunday morning. I'm looking forward to it. I've never done a prediction run, so it'll be interesting to see how close I get to my expected time without any watches or Garmins to use during the run. And it'll be nice to meet some more BARC folks.

For the first time in two and a half years, I've been thinking of doing another marathon. I entered the lottery for the New York Marathon in November, so there's already a slim possibility that I'll get picked for that one. If not, I'll be looking for an interesting race in the January/February time frame. I could do Houston again, of course. I already registered for the Houston Half Marathon, and I could just switch to the full if I decide to go for it. But I can't shake the feeling that if I'm going to do another 26.2, I should do it somewhere new.

We'll see.

Saturday, June 02, 2007

Heights 5K Race Report

I ran the Heights 5K in 29:45. That's my fastest 5K since December 2003, and less than 30 seconds off my PR. My splits were 8:57, 9:41, 10:07 and 1:01 according to Garmin, but Garmin measured slightly long at 3.13 miles so the actual splits were a bit different. Mile 3 was slower, and the last tenth was faster. I started fast and spent the last mile just trying to hang on. My average heart rate was 196. I had to walk for a handful of 20-second bits in the last mile to catch my breath. It was all I could do to keep going. But I made it.

It was all thanks to June. I would not have run sub-30 without June. Heck, I wouldn't even have shown up to the race in the first place if it weren't for June. That's why it really really, really sucks that June didn't make sub-30 due to injury. But she's the reason I made it. Couldn't have done it without her.

Thanks Junebug.

Saturday, May 26, 2007

Combat Sprint Triathlon Race Report

I've gotten stuck in the rain on my bike a handful of times over the years, and it's never really fun. It's wet (obviously) and it's hard to see. The road gets super slippery and the rain feels like tiny pebbles bombarding your entire body. Yeah, it pretty much sucks -- at first.

But after a while you stop thinking about how much it sucks to be riding your bike in the rain. You stop paying attention to the water dripping off your nose and chin, running in rivulets down your legs, and pooling in your shoes. You realize how incredibly absurd the entire situation is. You're outside. In the rain. Riding your bike.

And then, if you're me, you suddenly find everything very funny. You laugh out loud. And you just keep pedaling.

I was standing by the side of the (indoor) pool this morning at 7:05, waiting for my turn to jump in and start the Combat Sprint Triathlon, when I looked out the windows and saw that it had started to rain. "This is going to be an interesting race," I said to the girl next to me.

I'd gotten there about an hour before and set up my transition area just like last week at Silverlake. That system worked very well for me so I repeated it exactly. I wandered around before the race, picked up my chip, and talked to a bunch of friends and coworkers also racing. Bib numbers were given out in order of predicted 300 yard swim time, and my predicted time of 5:30 made me #106 out of about 350 participants. With each swimmer starting at 10-second intervals, I knew I had 15+ minutes after the race start before I'd be in the water.

The pool at College of the Mainland, where the event was held, is pretty small. Six lanes wide, 25 yards long, so the swim involved going down and back in each lane, passing under the ropes, and on to the next lane, etc. (One woman told me after the race that she saw swimmers cutting the course by passing under the lane ropes at both ends of the pool, effectively cutting the swim distance in half. Ugh.)

My turn finally arrived and I hopped in the pool in the wake of the girl who left in front of me. I ducked my head under water and popped up. "5...4...3...2...1..." came the call behind me. "Go!" I pushed off the wall and my race had begun!

I'm not really a big fan of pool swims. It's nice to be in clean, clear water but the fact that you have to predict your time in order for the race organizers to properly seed the swim means that you are dependent on the people around you to list an accurate time. A lot of people fail to do this. Within two laps, I'd caught the girl in front of me. She, in turn, had caught the woman in front of her. After a bit of breaststroking and waiting for the opportune moment, I passed them both. Each of them slightly overestimated their time; with them out of my way, the water in front of me was clear of swimmers for at least 15 yards. I swam the second half in peace and exited with a swim time of 5:29.

Transition was a short jog from the pool, but leaving the swim meant heading into the rain. It had calmed to a drizzle at this point, but everything outside was soaked. I pulled my sopping wet socks onto my feet with a bit of difficulty and latched my bike shoes. With helmet firmly on head, I ran out to start the bike. The rainy, rainy bike. T1 time was 1:23.

As I headed out, I immediately felt cold in my wet, tight tri clothes. I warmed up after a mile or so though, and soon I found myself heading north on the I-45 feeder. My speedometer read 20+ mph and I felt like I was cruising. I couldn't figure out what was going on, because the trees didn't seem to be moving appreciably in any kind of wind. What's going on?

I found out soon enough that there was indeed plenty of wind, even if the trees were impervious on this particular morning. As we crossed the highway and headed back south on the opposite feeder, a strong breeze hit me full in the face. For a moment I faltered -- ugh, how can I ride in this wind? Then I thought of the Half Ironman. And the 20 mph headwind. That I rode through for 28 miles. Out loud, I admonished myself. "I rode through worse than this for 28 miles. This is cake." And it was. Even when the drizzle turned into steady rain and my legs felt like they were being pummeled with gravel, it was cake.

The final few miles were heading back north and I was able to enjoy the tailwind once again. As I pulled back into transition, I was smiling, both at the absurdity of the rain and at the knowledge that I'd put in a solid bike leg despite the conditions. 15 miles in 49:00, or more than an 18 mph average. Heck yeah!

As I ran into T2, the rain had finally stopped but my stuff was even wetter than before. I changed shoes and started jogging out and woah -- each shoe felt like it weighed 10 pounds. They were water-logged like never before. I managed to work out some of the excess liquid in the first half mile -- either that or I just got used to having heavy feet, because I didn't notice it so much as the run went on. T2 time was 1:07.

Lately I've decided that it doesn't make much sense for me to hold back on the bike -- because I've realized that backing off on the bike doesn't really make my slow running pace any faster. Why hold back on the bike in the name of saving my legs if I'm going to run at basically the same pace either way? I'd rather push harder and save 3-5 minutes on the bike than hold back to save a minute on the run.

The only problem with this strategy is that it leaves me starting the run with legs that are deader than usual (obviously). I'm really proud of myself last week at Silverlake and today at Combat because I was able to keep my mental strength high enough to keep myself running for the entire 3 miles. Today I stopped only for water, and though my legs were hurting, I was able to push myself to keep running. Mile 1 was rough, but mile 2 and 3 were easier. I was even able to pick up the pace ever so slightly at the end. Run time for 3 miles was 32:43. Under 11:00 pace is good enough for me!

My total finish time was 1:29:43 -- heck yeah, I squeaked in just under an hour and a half! And I beat my three coworkers that were racing (they all had faster run times, but I had faster swim and bike times). The girl who won the Athena category last weekend didn't race today, so I won 1st place Athena! The prize was a big ol' plaque. I'm going to have to clear more space for my hardware. ;)

When I first started entering myself in the Athena category, I felt a little guilty. Is it really fair for me to win an award when, if you put me in my age group, I'd be well down in the standings? I always felt a little embarassed to win an Athena award.

This year I've totally changed my mind. I'm eligible for the category, and I'm going to enter it. Let's face it -- I can't keep up with another 29-year-old who weighs 70 pounds less than I do. Simply not possible. And I ain't gonna be losing 70 pounds anytime soon either (nor do I want to.)

Nope, instead, I've realized that the Athena category has been really good for my racing over the past couple years. Because I know that I'm competitive, I train a little harder. I push a little harder. I'm a little more motivated to be the best that I can be.

And that is about the best thing that I could ask for.

All in all it was a great, awesome, rainy day.

Monday, May 21, 2007

The Silverlake Triathlon was one of the best I've ever done. The weather was awesome. The course was fun. And I had one of my best races ever.

It was actually chilly enough as I left my apartment that I grabbed my biking windbreaker. Though they had announced that the water temperature was 76 degrees, meaning wetsuits would be legal, I decided it wasn't worth it to deal with the wetsuit for such a short swim. But it was chilly enough in the dark that I worried not about being cold in the water, but being cold when I started the bike all wet! The air temperature was in the 60s when I left for the race.

As it turned out, I question where they measured the water temperature because that lake felt warmer than the 80-degree pool at the Rec Center -- in other words, the water was fine, and when the sun came out it warmed up enough that a windbreaker wasn't necessary.

I arrived about 10 minutes before 6:00 and rode my bike from the parking lot to the race site. Since the race was in a subdivision, we had to park a mile away. The transition area was set up on a semi-circle driveway, with extra racks set up on the grass median in the middle. With my luck I ended up having to rack my bike in the grass, but that didn't turn out to be too bad. It just meant that my stuff was already wet with dew before I even got out of the water.

I made some changes to my transition process that all involved cutting out equipment that I didn't need, so I set up my area in a very minimalist way. Towel on the ground to wipe my feet on after the swim. Bike shoes, with socks halfway inside-out (to make putting them on easier) sitting on top of shoes. Helmet on the bike seat. Sunglasses stuck through the handlebars so I didn't have to mess with them until I was already riding. Garmin strapped loosely around the handlebars so again, I didn't have to mess with it until I was already riding. Running shoes with elastic laces placed behind the bike shoes. And, for the first time, I didn't change any article of clothing in transition -- I wore the same outfit of tri shorts, swim bra top, and swim/bike sleeveless jersey for the entire race. It was tight and showed all my flab, but I decided I didn't care.

After setting up my transition I stood in the very long line to get my chips. I'm not sure why the line was so long, but it was. This was the only poorly organized part of the entire race -- everything else was great. I still had tons of time to kill, since transition closed at 6:30 and my wave (the last one) didn't start until 7:27, so I wandered around the site. I ran into Carson and chatted with him until it was time for his wave to start, then I found Cathy and Joy from the BAFT group and hung out with them.

Finally, it was time for my wave to get in the water. Now, most triathlons start the men first and women second, meaning my wave is always one of the last, if not the last. I've accepted this, even though I can swim just as fast as a lot of the men. Fine, let them go first, let them kick and grab at each other in the water (though girls can be just a vicious), let them get out on the bike course and get going, whatever. But yesterday, my wave consisted of the Athenas, women 40-44, and all of the relay teams -- meaning there were about a half-dozen men in my wave of about 40 people total. As we were lining up to get into the water, they called those 7 men to the front and had them line up first. They purposefully lined up 7 men in front of 35 women. Did they really think that all 7 of them would be faster than any of the women in my wave?

For the record, my swim time was faster than 5 of those 7 men. And the girl who won the Athena category had a faster swim than all 7 of them. I'm just saying.

The swim went well. The lake was a man-made thing in the middle of the neighborhood. It was cloudy so visibility was bad, but it was much cleaner than some of the other neighborhood lakes I've been in around here. I did a good job of hugging the buoys (essential if you want to swim the actual distance and not end up swimming farther than you have to) and only got tripped up by other swimmers a couple times. My swim time was 8:25; I'd been hoping to go under 8:00 but oh well. That time is still above average for the race. The volunteers at the edge of the lake were awesome -- one person grabbed each of my hands and whooshed me out of the water so hard that I thought I'd fly into the air.

It was a very short jog from the edge of the water to transition. Still dripping but standing, I pulled on my socks and shoes and headed out. Streamlining my transition process really helped here. T1 was 1:33, which is at least 30-60 seconds faster than I would've been if I'd changed shirts, sat down, etc. Every little bit helps. Both of my transitions in this race were faster than the race average, which is new for me. I ran to the bike exit where there were 3 other girls also mounting their bikes. I got on in record time and passed all three on the way out.

The bike course was a short 9.7 miles but it was technical -- lots of turns through the neighborhood streets. I guess that probably made everyone just a bit slower than usual, but the effect was pretty negligible, and all the turns actually made the course pretty fun. It did make for a couple bottlenecks when multiple riders would get stacked up around the corners (and the problem was compounded by the fact that we were confined to one lane), trying to pass each other while trying to stay within the no-drafting three-bike-lengths must-complete-your-pass-within-15-seconds crazy triathlon rules. I finished the bike in 31:21 for an average of 18.5 mph -- by far my best bike leg of any tri I've done. Very cool. Very exciting.

I went through T2 in 1:07. All I had to do was change shoes. I probably would have been even quicker except that a volunteer almost pointed me in the wrong direction for the run start. Fortunately I caught myself quickly and headed out on the run. After my fast bike I was unsure of how well I'd handle the run, but the cooler weather really helped. I didn't walk at all (also a first for me in a triathlon) and kept a steady pace to finish the 3.08 mile run in 32:48, an average of about 10:40 per mile. I was very happy with that run.

Interestingly, this is the only race I've ever done where my bike time was faster than my run time. This is also the shortest bike I've done, but it still made me laugh.

My overall finish time was 1:15:11, good enough for 2nd place among the 7 Athenas (that's the category for women who weigh more than 150 pounds). I got a cool medal for my effort and some more hardware to add to my collection. I place so rarely that I have to enjoy every one! There aren't many women who race as Athenas in this area, so it gives me an opportunity to take home some hardware every once in a while. The girl who won 1st place in the group was ahead of me by more than 5 minutes, so it wasn't even close. She wasn't overweight at all; she was just tall, probably 6 feet, and really muscular.

All in all it was a great race and I'll definitely do it again next year.

Sunday, May 13, 2007

The Summer Kickoff 5K has chip timing, but I can't figure out where the chip times are actually displayed (which makes me wonder why they have chip timing if they don't appear to use it). Anyway, if you look up my result from yesterday you'll see a time about 20 seconds slower than I actually was. This is important, because my actual time was 30:57 -- I squeaked in just under 31 minutes for the second week in a row!

After last week's great run at the Village Fair 5K, I felt a lot of (totally self-induced) pressure to repeat the performance this week. I really hope to be able to keep running strong throughout the summer. "Strong" is relative, of course, because who can really run their best during a Houston summer with all that heat and humidity -- but I hope to suffer through the heat enough to make me come out reasonably well in the fall.

Anyway, I was hoping to repeat or slightly improve my 30:39 from last week, but I had some doubts about my ability to do that. The temperature yesterday morning wasn't much worse -- hovering in the upper 70s with moderate humidity -- but last week's race was almost 100% shaded. The Summer Kickoff Run? 100% under the sun. It's hot. And bright. And hot.

After chatting with friends and coworkers before the start, I decided that it'd be worse to take it easy and wonder if I could've run well than it would be to just start out fast and see if I could maintain. So I started at a brisk pace, following Lucie and her friend. Around the half mile point, my Gilruth trail buddy David pulled up beside me to chat. I told him I wouldn't be able to talk much today because I was gonna push pretty hard! He ran with me through the first mile and then went on ahead (he's faster). I passed mile 1 in 9:43 and wondered how much longer I could maintain it. It was hot.

The turnaround point on South Shore Boulevard seemed to never arrive, and when I'd finally made the turn to head back to the high school, I knew I wouldn't be able to maintain the pace. I took one 30-second walk break -- it wasn't so much of a choice as it was the fact that my legs just slowed to a walk on their own. I passed mile 2 in 9:58.

I walked three more times in the last mile. Looking at the data after the race (ah, I love my Garmin), I noticed that my walk breaks corresponded to the times my heart rate got close to 200. My average for the race was 190 -- which doesn't worry me; my heart rate is always high, and even on easy runs I average in the 170s. But if you look at the graph of my heart rate from yesterday, each time it rose to 198 or 199, I'd walk. I didn't do that intentionally -- in fact, I barely looked at my watch during the race. Seems like 200 is that magic "ok, now you're really working harder than I can keep up with" number for me. The only time my heart rate finally did rise above 200 was in the last tenth of a mile during my sprint to the finish -- and I spent the first minute after crossing the line gasping for air.

Interesting. I passed mile 3, including my little walk breaks, in 10:24, and the last tenth in 54 seconds. I was slower than last week, but I'm still very happy to be under 31 minutes since the course was more exposed.

After the race I hung out and chatted for a while. I was on my way back to my car, but then Sam walked up with a group of On The Run guys; they'd just finished their cooldown. I decided to walk back over with Sam and listen to the awards. I was 6th in my age group, but Sam was 2nd in his so he got a medal. He ran faster than last week, despite the heat -- under 18 minutes, or some crazy fast time.

All in all it was a fun race. Hot. But fun. It's getting to be the time of year where every race I run leaves me feeling overheated for the rest of the day. I also usually end up with a delayed-onset headache that I think is related to the heat as well. By noon I needed some Advil. At 2:00 my face still felt flushed. I hate the heat; why do I live in Houston again??

Up next weekend: Silverlake Sprint Triathlon - 400 yard swim, 10 mile bike, 3 mile run.

Thursday, May 10, 2007

Beach to Bay was not meant to be this year. By the time I finally had a committed team of 6, it was May 4. I went to register us only to find out that registration closed on May 1. So maybe I'll do the Silverlake Tri after all, now that I won't be in Corpus that weekend.

I was dreading last night's brick workout, as I was still feeling wiped from Tuesday's speed workout. I thought about not going, then told myself that as long as I went, it'd be ok if I did only 10 miles on the bike and a 1 mile run. Once I got out there and got moving I felt better, and ended up doing the full 15/2 bike/run. The bike took me about 51 minutes, and the run took under 22. Not bad. I haven't been imaginging it; I really have gotten a little faster over the past 6 months.

Two nights of hard workouts have wiped me out though. Waking up this morning was hard, and I've been annoyed all day as a result.

Saturday, May 05, 2007

I knew that the $100 cash prize offered by the Village Fair 5K in League City this morning had done its job when I showed up and saw Gabe Rodriguez and Junior Mitchell in the crowd, joining the regular Clear Lake speedsters like Rudy Rocha, Chris Bittinger, and Sam Rodriguez. Gabe won, Junior took 2nd and Rudy took 3rd. Chris took the masters title. That is one seriously fast group of guys.

As for me, I wasn't expecting much with the humidity and my past few weeks of slacking off. It's always the days when I don't plan to try that I end up doing the best. Funny. I ended up turning in my best 5K in months -- 30:39! Sub-10:00 miles, heck yeah! That's only 1:20 off my PR, so I was very excited. I felt good, and was working hard. My average heart rate was 188, and I did take three 30-second walk breaks between 1.5 and 2.75 miles.

Afterwards I hung around for awards, because I was planning on following the race with a 20+ mile bike ride with the Bay Area Fit folks. I chatted with Buzz, Amy, Ron, and Leah -- Buzz and Amy had even ridden their bikes to the race and were going to ride home to get their tri training in.

They started awards. Ron took 3rd among 20-29 males, and Buzz and Amy took 1st and 2nd in the 30-39 females. Leah took 2nd overall and 1st in the 20-29 females (she was the overall female winner at my Yuri's Night 5K), and then -- they called my name! Despite finishing a full 10 minutes after Leah, I finished 2nd in my age group. I got a trophy and everything. Heck yeah! It was very cool that all 5 of us got trophies.

Normally I'd feel a little silly that I ended up with an age group award, since it means that my age group was pretty darn empty. But I was already so happy with my run that I picked up my trophy with a loud whoop. :)

Around 9:45 I hit the road with the Bay Area Fit folks for what ended up being a 22.5 mile bike ride. We stayed pretty close to the park where our cars were, and just did two out-and-backs on Highway 96. The sun came out and it got pretty warm, and the wind was pretty strong as well. I took it easy after the hard run, and finished in 1:33, an average of 14.something miles per hour.

One woman I talked to has one of Trek's women specific design bikes, so I checked it out (though didn't ride it). I've been thinking of trying one and seeing if I like it better than my current ride. On Monday I even sent in my entry for a contest they were having called "Women Who Ride" -- they're picking 5 women to whom they'll give bikes and equipment, and have them filmed and active online. I'm crossing my fingers that they pick me...

Anyway, it was a good morning for workouts!
5K run - 30:39
22.5 mile bike - 1:33:04

Wednesday, May 02, 2007

Last night as I drove home from class, I was feeling tired, achey, bored, and generally down. I knew I should go running, but I didn't want to. Because I was tired. Because I felt bummed out. Because I didn't have my clothes with me to go to Gilruth, which meant I'd have to run laps of my apartment complex.

The BAFT schedule called for a 40 minute fartlek, and never having done a true fartlek before was just enough to get me out the door. The first ten minutes were crappy. But then everything fell into place. Just like it almost always does. Just like I always forget that it does.

I did my fartlek, running slow, then fast, then slow, then sorta fast, all depending on what I felt like. I'd run fast to the next telephone pole, then slow down to recover. From one fire hydrant to another. Recover. In the end I ran for 40 minutes and covered about 3.7 miles. Not bad.

It's been so hot in my office this week that I think I'll burn extra calories just from sweating.

This week my very casual Beach to Bay relay team has gone from non-existant to definitely going to maybe to "my cousin changed his mind" to who knows what. I currently have 5 runners. Not enough.

Friday, April 27, 2007

Last night I swam intervals for the first time ever. I didn't know how fast to do them, so I pretty much swam all-out. The 100s called for 1:00 rest between each set, and the 200s called for 2:00 rest. I needed all of those minutes to recover, but my splits times were consistent so I don't think I was going too hard to maintain.

8x100 - 1:38, 1:38, 1:40, 1:40, 1:40, 1:39, 1:42, 1:41
2x200 - 3:43, 3:39

I asked the question "how fast should my intervals be" on the BAFT message boards and they told me that if I was very winded at the end of each 100, but was able to recover enough in the 1:00 to do another without slowing down, then I was doing it right. So apparently more or less sprinting is what I needed to do. During each rest period I had to take some deep breaths to get recovered, but I was able to maintain the same pace for each set. My form started to get pretty sloppy at the end though. Next time I'll concentrate on that more.

That's the hardest I've worked in a pool since, well, probably since I was on swim team as a teenager. While preparing for all my triathlons over the years, I never tried to swim particularly fast -- I just tried to swim long. For the Half Ironman, I was much more concerned with distance than with speed, so I swam easy and long.

I wonder if swim intervals make you faster like run intervals do? I guess I'll find out.

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Last night I soldered all the components for the pre-amp onto my aircraft radio receiver. It was very fun. I like soldering. :)

Saturday, April 14, 2007

Katie, David, me, Joel, and Jennifer pre-race! Temperature was in the mid-50s at the start.

Jennifer, Katie, and Joel from behind. Mom had issues figuring out how to work my camera. ;)

David and me around mile 10...

David just beating me to the finish line!

Katie, David and me with our medals. (Yes, I know Katie and I look like twins.) If only we'd gotten Brian to come down from DC -- the sibling sweep would've been complete!

Carter got a few more photos that I'll post when I get them.

Saturday, April 14, 2007

Charlotte Racefest Half Marathon Recap

The weather was great this morning for racing -- sunny and relatively cool. We headed to the race site around 6:45, with a stop at David's apartment to pick him up. David is less of a morning person than anyone I know. "This is stupid," he grumbled as he laced up his shoes. "But it will feel so good when you finish!" I said cheerfully. I was in a very good mood.

This was my slowest half marathon ever, but it was also probably the most fun. I love running in Charlotte, especially at this time of year when the trees are all blooming and everything smells fresh and clean and green. I was also very excited to be running with my family -- my sister, brother, and brother-in-law. Though Katie and Joel (and Katie's friend Jennifer) took off at the start and I never saw them again until the finish, David and I ran together the whole way. That was pretty much how I expected things to go.

Katie, Joel, David and Jennifer were all making their half marathon debuts. (This was my 7th overall, and 4th of 2007.) Katie and Joel's training went well, and fast. Katie and Jennifer finished in just under 2:06, with Joel finishing just ahead of that in 2:04. Wow! What a great half marathon for them!

David's training didn't go quite as well as he'd hoped. This was his first road race ever and first time doing a long distance, but he's been running 3-4 miles a few times a week for years. (Last year he ran 500 miles.) He had some problems with leg pain on his long runs, and said he was horrible at pacing himself. He did a 10-miler, but said he had to walk a lot of the second half. So our goal was to run steady for as long as we could, with me helping him control his pace, and then just do whatever was necessary to finish. His secondary goal was to average 12:00 miles or less (finish under 2:37).

We ran very well and very consistently through the halfway point. As soon as we hit the first hill and I saw how hard I was huffing and puffing to get up the stupid thing, I knew there was no chance of me PRing anyway! :) We walked through the water stations. The biggest and longest hill came right after the mile 7 marker, and though we ran up half of it, we ended up walking up the second half. Just after we'd started running again, we saw Mom and Carter waiting to cheer for us.

David started to get tired towards the end, but he did far better than I did at the end of my Half Ironman! For the last 4 miles we walked up the hills and ran the flats and downhills. Heck, I was pretty darn tired too -- the rolling hills are so totally different from anything I run on anywhere in Houston.

We'd just finished walking up the last big hill and had just over half a mile to go when I glanced at my watch and saw 2:24. "Come on David," I said. "If we run the rest of the way, we can finish under 2:30!" We started running again, and sped up as we got closer to the finish line. David beat me by a few steps in the final sprint. We crossed in 2:30:01 by my watch -- if it weren't for the upward slope of the final tenth of a mile, we'd have totally saved that lousy extra second.

Katie and Joel and Jennifer, along with Mom and Carter, met us at the finish line and we got a good photo of everyone with their medals. I'm happy to report that everyone had fun and had a good race. Four newly minted half marathoners! Hooray!

Mile 1 - 10:43
Mile 2 - 10:43
Mile 3 - 11:16 (water stop)
Mile 4 - 10:33
Mile 5 - 10:39
Mile 6 - 11:17 (water stop)
Mile 7 - 10:47
Mile 8 - 11:53 (biggest hill)
Mile 9 - 10:53
Mile 10 - 12:40
Mile 11 - 12:39
Mile 12 - 12:38
Mile 13 - 12:20
Final 0.1 - 0:59

Pictures to come later today if I can figure out how to get them off the flash card via the printer. Otherwise they'll have to wait until I get back to Houston and my card reader.

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

The LP Run has a little bit of a strange race. Instead of running a set distance, you run a set time -- everyone runs around the track for 33 1/3 minutes (like a record -- LP -- get it?) and then you add up how many laps you did, plus your last partial lap. Whoever goes the farthest wins! Neat concept, but I wasn't sure how much I'd enjoy the race, since it's just running around in 400 meter ellipses for more than half an hour.

It was really, really fun!

The laps weren't boring, because I was running hard, there was music piped over the loudspeakers, and I passed the stands every couple minutes to a chorus of "Go Sarah!" Sign me up for next year, I'm sold.

My enjoyment was helped immensely by the fact that I kicked my own butt. OH YEAH. I did 3.44 miles in 33:20. That's an average pace of 9:43. OH YEAH. I'm super pumped. That's approaching 5K PR pace.

Jose came along to enjoy the fantastic evening weather (getting a little warm for running, but still nice) and ended up being my lap counter. He wrote down each lap time on a race-provided sheet of paper, which turned out to be a very necessary role. I figured I'd just count my own laps, not realizing that the scoring system was more advanced -- or that after 5 laps I'd totally lose track of how many laps I'd done. He also took photos of the women's race since I couldn't do it myself. They'll be on the HARRA website soon.

We arrived about 15 minutes before the open men finished, so I got to see Joe and Vic finish. The women followed, and it was fun to see the backs of Anna and Lisa and Pony as they lapped me multiple times. ;) Jessica and Erin were both in the stands, as were Steeeve and Steve S and many other Striders and HARRA members.

We left for home just as the master's men were finishing their race, but not before I picked up my medal for 2nd place in the Reuben division (their name for the fat girls division I so fondly race in when available). My 3.44 miles were topped in that category by Veronica's 3.7? miles. I cry foul, since she just had a baby like a month ago and is unfairly using her baby weight (baby weight that is quickly disappearing, I might add) to run in my category for a bit. ;) Ah well. Being pregnant slowed her down to my pace; she'll be flying past me again soon.

On a funny note, I should mention that when I asked to be in the Reuben division, I had to step on a scale. "What's the limit?" I asked. "145 pounds." I laughed. "Do I look like I weigh less than 145 pounds?" I said jokingly as I stepped on the scale. Seriously, I think that the last time I weighed 145 pounds was probably when I was about 14. Ah well. C'est la vie.

All in all it was a really fun evening.

Splits -- and fairly consistent splits at that!
2:17 (2:17)
2:23 (4:40)
2:24 (7:04)
2:23 (9:27)
2:27 (11:54)
2:29 (14:23)
2:30 (16:53)
2:27 (19:20)
2:30 (21:50)
2:26 (24:16)
2:27 (26:43)
2:24 (29:07)
2:23 (31:30)
Final 1086 feet - 1:50 (33:20)

400 meters * 13 laps + 1086 feet = 3.436 miles

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Unfortunately I can't participate because I'll be in Charlotte doing the Charlotte Half Marathon, but if you're interested in virtually running part of the Boston Marathon with astronaut Suni Williams (who qualified in 2006 and will be running on the space station treadmill), check out this announcement from the current station flight director:

If you didn't see it the news has hit the presses about Suni's attempt at the Bostom Marathon. It also sounds like the Boston Marathon will do some sort of recognition of our efforts to support Suni (not sure what yet). And the number of people participating has grown - both here and in Huntsville! In addition, I have actually gotten a local store to sponsor us with some stuff to keep us alive during the grueling run! With the numbers we have we can each do a couple of laps or try teams (probably just laps best unless we have a bunch of aggressive types).

Also, some folks have told me they have a schedule constraint so they need to run early/late or other have said they are thinking of trying to run longer (including maybe the same amount Suni is) - if so please let me know so we can order the laps, otherwise it will be random.

Since I missed it in one of the later emails, I wanted to remind folks of the details:
Saturday April 14, 08:30 am Clear Lake High School on Bay Area
Rain date: Sunday April 15 time TBD

Dang! I'd be there for sure if I was in town! Maybe some of you guys will want to go though.

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I ran 3.75 miles last night. More accurately, I ran for 40 minutes and happened to cover 3.75 miles. Either way you slice it, I got really sweaty because the weekend's freak cold snap has definitely ended and the humidity is back. I must have been smoking something yesterday when I said my goal for tonight's LP Run is to do 10:00 miles. Yeah right. I forgot that it's warming up. My new goal is 10:30 miles. Because the race is a set 33 1/3 minutes, that should put me right around 3.2 miles (while the fastest runners will probably cover close to twice that).

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I designed a Yuri's Night race t-shirt last night. I always wait till the last minute. Anyway, here's a preview for those who read this blog...

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Well, they've decided not to switch external tanks, but the repairs won't be ready in time to launch STS-117 in May. Instead, we'll be aiming for June 8, which totally sucks because Chris and Lisa's wedding is on June 9 and now I might not be able to go. GRR. Stupid hail storm that delayed the mission.

Monday, April 09, 2007

This happened right after the marathon. I lost all motivation for working out.

Same thing is happening now. I ran twice last week, one workout and one race. Didn't bike, didn't swim.

Don't really know what my next goal is. Half marathon in Charlotte on Saturday, though the plan to run with my sister and brother and brother-in-law is probably out the window since it turns out that even in their first distance event, they're still all faster than me.

Think I'm gonna hit the pool tonight.

I'm tired.

The Yuri's Night race is on the verge of having to be cancelled for lack of runners. D-Day is Thursday, so if you were planning on signing up, please do so before then. We're about halfway to our minimum. I just do a worse and worse job of handling this race every year. I don't get the word out, I don't have any help, and I just have too many balls in the air.

Sigh.

Saturday, April 07, 2007

The Resurrection Run this morning was cloudy and cold -- about 48 degrees. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that it was the coldest run they've ever had, since it's always the Saturday before Easter and by this time of year, chill like this is usually long gone.

It would have been a great day to go for a 5K PR, and I'd be lying to say that I didn't think a lot about it. I'd been planning to give it a shot earlier in the week. I wasn't sure if I could do it a mere 6 days removed from the Half Ironman, but I figured I could try.

Then when I mentioned the race, Jose said he wanted to run it! It was totally unexpected, and of course I couldn't turn it down. I considered running it alone and jogging back to find him for the last couple tenths of a mile, but that's no fun. It's much more fun to run with someone!

So an attempt at a PR for myself can wait. I ran with a cute boy instead, and that cute boy set a new PR himself! That's three races for him and three PRs.

Astros Race - May 06 - 35:18
Reindeer Run - Dec 06 - 35:00
Resurrection Run - Apr 07 - 34:24

He hasn't been running since, well, basically his last 5K in December. We took off too fast for Jose, probably a factor of me wanting to just go go go. The first mile passed in about 10:40. I thought he might want to take a quick walk break, but he didn't! We continued running, finishing mile 2 in about 11:15. We did walk briefly through the water stop, but then we started running again. I could hear Jose breathing hard, and he was coughing a bit from the cold air on his throat (the same thing happens to me when I run hard in cold weather), but I told him that if we kept up this pace, he'd set a new PR.

That was enough to keep him going, and we crossed the finish line in 34:24 for my 5th straight Resurrection Run finish. Afterwards, Jose did not feel very good, but half an hour later he was better. Just after crossing the finish line, I stopped to talk to some of my friends and apparently that was not good for Jose, who felt like the sudden stop was worse than the running!

It was great to see a bunch of my friends, including Sean and Amy, Jon and Waverly, Joe, Sam, and Veronica. This is one of my favorite races in Houston because I like the course so much. If I find myself with an extra few hundred thousand dollars lying around, I'd buy a house there.

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From the race, it was home for a shower and off to Jen's baby shower. We had reserved a pavilion on Taylor Lake, and everything would have been awesome if the shower had been yesterday during the gorgeous sunny mid-60s weather. But at shower time, it was in the mid-40s, gusty, and drizzling. We basically ate food, watched Jen open presents, and then all fled for warmer locales. Oh well. It was as fun as it could be in the conditions!

Tuesday, April 03, 2007

Lone Star Half Ironman Race Report - The Run

(Read about the swim here and the bike here.)

As I started on the run, I took a moment to reflect on what I'd already done. My neck was aching and my back was sore, but I was so, so happy to be off the bike. My legs were feeling as good as could be reasonably expected -- they were tired, but not too rubbery. I'd been on the course for more than 4.5 hours and I'd already travelled 57.2 of my 70.3 miles. I felt good, and excited, and though it was getting hot now that the sun had finally broken through the clouds, I knew I could finish the run even if I had to crawl. It was a good feeling.

I could tell the story of the run by simply posting my splits: 8 miles of good, steady running a 5/1 run/walk pattern as I planned, followed by 4.5+ miles of suddenly dead legs. I say 12.5+ because my Garmin measured 12.65 miles. However, the Google Pedometer map that the race director emailed me last week did indeed measure 13.1 miles. So what gives? After some close inspection by the anal-retentive engineer in me, I discovered that we did indeed run about 12.6 miles instead of 13.1. Why? Between miles 5 and 6 (and then again between miles 11 and 12), we were misdirected. It's actually pretty understandable, considering the number of twists and turns that course took. Seems the Boy Scouts manning the intersection were just confused. Over two loops, that cut about a half mile off the course.

We were supposed to run the course marked in red. We were coming from the top of this map, so it should have been a right to start around the loop, and then a right to head out to the turn-around. Then a left to go back around the loop in reverse. What actually happened after the turnaround is what I marked in yellow. We weren't directed to reverse our course around the loop. Instead, we were directed to the right. So we only went around that part of the course once instead of twice, turning the 6.5 mile loop into a 6.25 mile loop, and the total run from 13.1 miles to 12.6.

Anyway, back to the good stuff!

Mile 1 - 10:49
Mile 2 - 11:39
Mile 3 - 11:56

The first three miles covered the winding paths and back alleys of Moody Gardens. I enjoyed seeing Vera, Jay, and Kevin at the BARC aid station around mile 1, and told them I'd see them again in an hour and a half or less. I settled into my 5/1 run/walk pattern pretty easily and when I had some thoughts early on about how I didn't really want to have to run this loop again, I was able to drown them out with thoughts of "holy crap, I'm actually doing this!"

Before mile 3 there was a girl with a trash can full of wet sponges. Oh man, those were awesome! I used it to wipe my face and neck, which felt amazing. It wiped off my sunscreen so I ended up a little burned, but oh well. It was worth it. I took another gu (vanilla flavored) from the aid station just past mile 3 and gulped that down with some water.

Mile 4 - 11:27
Mile 5 - 12:11
Mile 6 - 10:44

The first loop passed without incident, and I wound back past the transition and finish area to begin my second loop. It was a little disheartening to pass the finish line and not get to stop, but I knew I'd be back soon enough. After cheers from Jose, Nick, Heather, Melissa and Laurie, I headed out for the second loop. Jose even yelled out "you're right on time!" as I passed, which made me laugh. That boy knows how absurdly obsessed I am with times. I knew right where I was; I always do. I'm an engineer, and I can't help it.

Mile 7 - 11:18
Mile 8 - 11:55

I again saw Vera, Jay, Kevin and BARC crew at their aid station and got some more water. Shortly after that, I had to stop at a Port-a-potty to pee. I decided that was a good sign that I wasn't completely dehydrated, but it also turned out to be the beginning of my downfall. I don't know if it was the fact that I stopped for a minute, or the fact that everything just caught up to me, but the wheels started to fall off.

Mile 9 - 13:43
Mile 10 - 13:27

I passed the sponge girl again and thanked her profusely for the nice cold sponge of goodness. I got another vanilla gu from the same aid station as before. I gulped water and Gatorade and even some de-fizzed coke, but nothing helped. My legs were just about dead. At that point, I focused on finishing!

Mile 11 - 13:31
Mile 12 - 14:17
Mile 12.65 - 7:50

I crossed the finish line running. I had been walking about a quarter mile away, but when I rounded transition and came into view of the crowd, I started running again. I may have had to walk a good portion of the last 4.5 miles, but I was going to cross that finish line running, dang it! :) As I crossed the bridge with less than a tenth of a mile to go, I saw Jose, Nick, Heather and Melissa. They all started going crazy, yelling my name and cheering. I couldn't help but smile, and as I turned the corner and saw the finish line that smile got even bigger.

I crossed under the arch as the announcer called my name and for a moment, I didn't know what to do with myself. A volunteer handed me a water bottle full of ice cold water (so good) and a wet towel (also so good). As I let another volunteer unwrap my chip from the band around my ankle, I heard Mark and Todd from Bay Area Fit Tri yelling at me from the sidelines as well. Somewhere along the way, another volunteer hung my finisher's medal around my neck.

Everyone met me as I walked out of the finish area, still grinning from ear to ear. Jose tried to hug me and I pushed him away. "I am totally gross right now!" I said, somehow aware enough to realize that I was wet, sticky, sweaty, and stinky. My number one fan said he didn't care and hugged me anyway. It was the best hug ever.

I think I was in a bit of a daze for the next 15-20 minutes. I remember standing and talking to the BAFT guys, and to Jose and friends. I needed to walk, so they trailed me to the food tent where I ate a mini-pizza that at that moment was the best thing I had ever tasted. I walked some more. We looked at my official results.

Before the race, I'd looked at the participant list and there were only 4 Athenas listed, so I thought I might have a off-chance at a group award. Not so! Yesterday there were actually 8 Athenas and the top three all finished under 6 hours, with the winner posting a 5:18. Yeah....so I had no chance in hell. I was number 7 of 8, with the 7th best bike, 7th best run, but 5th best swim! Boo yeah! I was also the only one of the 8 that was from the Houston area. The other 7 were all from Dallas and Austin, so I claim the title of Houston area champion. :)

Official results:

7:08:16
1.2 mile swim - 42:42 - 2:13/100m
Transition 1 - 06:59
56 mile bike - 3:40:44 - 15.2mph
Transition 2 - 03:02
13.1 mile run - 2:34:47 - 11:49/mile

Since the run course was short, I mentally added 6 minutes to my time, which still puts me well under my goal. I thought I could do sub-7:30, and I shattered it.

Will I ever do an Ironman? NO.
Will I do another Half Ironman? Maybe.
Will I remember April 1, 2007 for the rest of my life? HECK YEAH.

I'm a Half Ironwoman!

Monday, April 02, 2007

Lone Star Half Ironman Race Report - The Bike

(Read about the swim here.)

I watched the NWS forecast for Galveston all weekend. They've got a cool graphical forecast that predicts things like temperature, chance of precipitation, wind, and wind direction. I checked it a dozen times on Saturday, and once more at 6 a.m. Sunday morning. Each time it showed the same thing: winds of 8-9 mph from the east shifting to the southeast. (For reference, winds from the southeast are the norm.)

I'm never trusting a pre-race forecast again, because what actually happened was completely different.

Weather Underground lists the average wind yesterday as 11 mph, with a max of 21, and max gusts of 26. I stole the graph above from them. I was on the course from about 8:45 until about 12:30, or during winds of 10-18.5 mph coming straight out of the southwest. That would be straight down Galveston Island and thus straight down the road we had to ride on. The only positive was that we had to face the direct headwind on the way out, so the ride back to Moody Gardens was, literally, a breeze.

I was in high spirits as I left the transition area to begin my 56-mile biking odyssey. My hands did get a little tingly at various points due to my missing biking gloves, but I was ok. The course took us from Moody Gardens across to the ocean side of the island, and then 13 miles southwest down the island. We hit the turnaround and retraced our path back to Moody Gardens, where we then turned and did the out-and-back one more time.

On the first leg out, I never looked at my distance, not even once. The wind was, well, just plain sucky, and I didn't want to think about how much farther I had to go. I decided to just let the turnaround catch me "by surprise" -- even though I was waiting for it anxiously. Around mile 10 I passed the entrance to Galveston Island State Park, where there was a bottle pass-up. I'd read about this pre-race but didn't really know what it was. Turns out they were handing out full bottles of water and/or Gatorade! I didn't partake because I had my two water bottles, and had nowhere to put another bottle.

I hit the turnaround with glee. Time to fly! I quickly accelerated to 20 mph without even trying. Even at that speed, a handful of guys still flew past me over the next miles. Even at 20 mph, they made me look like I was standing still.

One area with room for improvement if I ever do a Half Ironman again is nutrition. I think I just plain didn't eat enough, and suffered for it at the end. In T1 I'd stuffed three gu packets on my body -- two underneath the spandex on my thighs and one in the bike bag. I also had two full bottles of water. I planned to drink one bottle per loop and take a gu at 15 miles, 30 miles, and 45 miles.

After suffering through the headwind on the way out, I'd just taken the turnaround when it was time for gu #1. I pulled it out from under my shorts, lifted it to my mouth, and...dropped it. Whoosh! I'd already hit the turnaround and thus had the wind at my back. I was going 20 mph, and the gu was gone long before I had a chance to catch it. I briefly considered stopping, but didn't. I decided to wait until mile 20, and took one there. I held it much more carefully that time!

It had taken me 1:10 to get out to the turnaround, but it took me less than 45 minutes to get back! By the time I got back to the pyramids of Moody Gardens I'd almost forgotten about the crappy wind. Almost.

Take a look at the Garmin-produced graph of my speed. Pretty drastic, eh?

I saw Jose again as I got within a half mile of the swing back past the transition area. I almost missed him, but spotted his striped shirt. "Jose!" I yelled. He looked a little surprised -- I caught him off guard. "Sarah!" he yelled, with his hands in the air. They had another hand-up near the transition area, and I was able to grab a gu to replace the one I'd dropped. A few minutes later I passed Jose again as I started my second out-and-back. I had enough time to comment to him about the wind and how it totally sucked. Ah, that's me, complaining in the middle of the race.

My first bike loop had passed with an average of exactly 15 mph, just as I'd hoped for. With that knowledge, I again headed into the wind. It was worse the second time. I'd averaged something like 12-12.5 on the first time out; this time I could only manage 11.5. This time I did look at my mileage. "I can make it 10 more miles in this," I'd tell myself. Then I'd yell at the wind. "I can make it 8 more miles in this," I'd tell myself as my feet spun and spun. I'd curse out loud at the wind. Whatever made me feel better! Instead of despairing, I got angry and I kept going.

When I passed the bottle hand-up again, I decided to take advantage of the full bottle of Gatorade. I grabbed a bottle and threw one of my green MS150 bottles to the side of the road -- a sacrificial lamb to the gods of the Half Ironman. Boy did that Gatorade taste good. So did the knowledge that the turnaround was less than 5 miles away.

Finally -- finally! -- I saw it. There in the distance, like a mirage, were the flashing lights of the police car stationed at the turnaround. As I got closer, I could see the orange cones marking the end of the out leg. I've never been so happy to take a turn as I was to take that one. Though I still had 14 miles to go, I felt like I'd finished. The ride back to Moody Gardens was fast and pleasant enough, or at least as pleasant as it could be after already riding 42 miles. My neck and back were really complaining, but it was good to know that I'd be off the bike soon.

Jose was standing along the very end of the bike course, mere feet from the dismount line. I almost cried when I saw him. I was so happy to see him, and so happy to be done with the bike. I gingerly dismounted and walked into transition. Three minutes later, I'd ditched the helmet and biking shoes and added a hat and running shoes. Off I went to do...

the run.

Monday, April 02, 2007

Lone Star Half Ironman Race Report - The Swim

I slept restlessly on Saturday night, and after waking up at 4:30 a.m. to go to the bathroom, I never really fell back asleep. When the alarm went off at 5:30, I was already awake. I rolled out of bed and the butterflies began immediately. I haven't been that nervous about something in a long, long time. I'm not sure I was that nervous even before the marathon! I ate two bowls of cereal and a bite of a bagel. I knew I needed food but I was so nervous that I couldn't stomach much.

I did a final check to make sure I had all my equipment and that was when I realized. "Oh NO," I said. My cycling gloves were not in my biking shoes, like I'd thought. I immediately knew where they were -- at home, in the dryer, after being washed on Thursday.

For the first of many times that morning, Jose calmed me down. And he was right -- of all the things to forget, cycling gloves was probably the best item. I can't bike without, say, a helmet...but I can bike without gloves. Crisis averted.

Just before 6:30, Jose and I left the hotel room and headed to the race site at Moody Gardens, about a half mile walk away. It was still dark, but the transition area was bustling. After getting body marked (#334 baby!), I set up my transition area between some very, um, spread out people on either side of me. Triathletes are generally pretty polite, but there is definitely a tendency to take up too much space in transition!

From there, it was time to grab my cap, goggles, and wetsuit and head to the start.

The nerves hit hard once I got to the little man-made beach where we'd be entering the water. I would sit quietly, and then Jose would ask how I felt. That would make me start to tear up, and then he'd get to calm me down by telling me how awesome I was going to do. Could I ask for a better guy? After the race, he told me that he'd been really nervous too, but at the time I didn't see it at all. He was great. I was so, so glad that he was there.

Just as I'd teared up again, I looked down the beach and saw Gavin walking towards me. I was very confused for a minute, and I didn't even know what to do besides tug on Jose arm and point. "There's Gavin," I said, as he walked up with his camera. I didn't know that he was coming, and even though I couldn't really react, it was nice to see him and know I had another fan.

Being happy to see my "fans" was a theme that would reoccur throughout the day. Triathlon is a hard sport for spectators to watch, since the course covers so much area. I never expect people to come because I realize that for most of the day they won't have anything to do. But when I see people I know, even for just a moment, it really, really gives me a lift. Big thanks to Jose, Gavin, Becca, Melissa, Laurie, Heather, and Nick for making the trek to Galveston just to give me a boost.

I was in the fourth wave, starting at 7:55. As the wave before us started, we headed into the water. My wave was all women under 40, highlighted by our fluorescent pink swim caps. I swear the race directors had picked up the rocks or something -- there were absolutely no rocks, despite the fact that I was walking into the water in the same place as the practice swim last weekend when I sliced my foot on multiple rocks. The water was chilly at first, but I knew it'd be fine once we got going.

It was a deep water start, so I walked out as far as I could and then slowly swam the rest of the way to the end of the dock where we had a couple minutes to go before the start. I looked over and saw that Gavin and Jose had moved to the end of the dock. I was sure that they wouldn't be able to pick me out in the water, but I popped up and waved and Jose immediately waved back. He said he could see my bobbing head the whole time until we actually started swimming.

I floated in my wetsuit, trying to get my thoughts in order. My nerves had finally calmed down once I got in the water, and I floated in my wetsuit trying to get my goggles cleared. They were weirdly cloudy, and I worried that the anti-fog stuff I'd put on them the night before wasn't going to work. I'd been in an area where I had a little space, but suddenly I found myself in a gaggle of other girls. I tried to get some more space, but failed.

And then, we were off!

Triathlon starts are always a mess of thrashing arms and legs, and this one was no different. It took me a while to get into a rhythm. When I did, things went pretty well. The swim course was trapezoidal -- out away from the beach, then a long leg parallel to the shore, then straight back in to the big paddlewheel. I passed the first buoy, however, and thought that was where we were turning. It wasn't! I still had a long way to go on the first leg.

I swam and swam for what felt like ages. My goggles cleared up once I got going -- the anti-fog worked after all, like a charm. On the long leg parallel to shore, the water was usually fairly calm, but every so often a series of small swells would come along. This was a new experience; all the open water swims I've done before have been in small lakes. No swells there. Finally I reached the final buoy and made the turn back to the paddlewheel. I was relieved that I finally had a big target to go for again, and the yellow flags marking the bottom of the ramp out of the water were very visible.

It was in the middle of this last leg that I finally looked at my watch. It read 36:00. I was shocked -- it really felt like I had been in the water for hours, not because of time but simply because it felt like I'd covered so much distance. I was certain that my swim was going to come in closer to an hour, instead of my targeted 40-45 minutes. I was pumped! I swam the rest of the way with a smile on my face.

I hit the ramp and mentally thanked the race organizers for not making us walk over rocks and oysters on the way out. As I moved up the ramp, one volunteer unzipped my wetsuit for me and I continued along the carpet to transition. At the end of the path was the most fun part -- wetsuit stripping! Jose, Gavin and Becca all cheered and laughed from behind the fence as I pulled my wetsuit below my butt, sat on the ground, and ZOOM -- the volunteers grabbed the suit and WHOOSH -- pulled it off my legs in one swoop. Before I knew what was happening, the wetsuit had been shoved back in my face and I was on my way into transition.

My final swim time was 42:42 -- right on schedule! As it turned out, I was right on schedule all day. I'd written down all my estimated arrival times (swim, bike loops, and run loops) for Jose, and he said he could have set his watch by my predicted times. I was always at the start of my predicted window.

I took my time in transition, careful to get myself dried off, socks on comfortably, shoes, shirt, helmet, sunglasses, sunscreen. My shirt got stuck as I put it on, the fabric all rolled up inside itself since I was still wet. I had to laugh as I got myself unstuck. Finally ready, I walked out of transition to begin...

the bike!

Sunday, April 01, 2007

I did it. I finished the Half Ironman.

My time was 7:08:16. 42:42 swim, 3:40:44 bike, 2:34:37 run, with another 10 minutes split between the transitions.

The wind was fierce and I'm never trusting a forecast again. Straight headwind on the bike out leg slowed me to a steady 11.5 mph; straight tailwind back in had me flying at 21+ mph. The bike was 14 miles of hell, 14 miles of heaven, then another 14 miles of hell, 14 miles of heaven.

The run went well until the wheels fell off my proverbial bus around mile 8.5 and I walked a good bit of the last 5 miles (and Garmin read the course about a half mile short).

But I finished!

OHHHHH YYYYEEEEAAAAHHHH.

Friday, March 30, 2007

After qualifying in Houston in 2006, Sunni Williams is running the 2007 Boston Marathon on the space station treadmill! Very cool.

Jon quoted me in his Run Houston blog -- I was talking about my reasons for running the Half/Half at Seabrook a couple weeks ago. Thanks for asking, Jon. :)

I have been obsessed (and I mean OBSESSED) with the weather this week. Won't you join me? Currently looking pretty good for Sunday, and pretty bad for tomorrow. Glad I'm not racing the sprint.

You guys should really consider doing the Resurrection Run down here in Clear Lake next weekend (April 7). I'll be there, which is reason enough in itself. It's also a nice course and well-organized race. And -- if I'm feeling up to it, which is a big IF at this point -- I may try for a 5K PR. But there, I said it.

Well, I'm heading down to Galveston tonight; I decided to make a whole weekend of things. I'm going to get up early tomorrow to watch the sprint tri and cheer for two of my coworkers who are doing it, then I'll probably take a nice nap in the afternoon. I've never really spent a lot of time in Galveston, so here's a question: can anyone recommend a couple good restaurants down there? Something unique to Galveston, whether it's a good seafood place or Italian or Mexican -- just something down there that's good and not a chain.

T minus 2 days...

Thursday, March 29, 2007

Last night I did my first workout with Bay Area Fit Tri and had a great time -- they already seem like a really fun bunch of people. I did a short brick, my last before the race, that included 1.75 miles on the bike in 41 minutes followed by a 1-mile run in 10:05. No, I don't know where that came from.

Jose got to do short field and soft field takeoffs and landings last night at his flying lesson. I wish I'd gone to watch -- I think he may have actually been more excited after last night's lesson than he was after soloing! He really loves flying. It makes him happy, which makes me happy. Life is good.

And my officemates can't stop talking about golf.

I'm tired. I'm doing one more swim tonight, then it'll be time to shut down, do a lot of sleeping, a lot of water drinking, and a lot of taking it easy.

T minus 3 days...

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

A Handy Dictionary For Bikers:

Wind: The air moving around you.
No Wind: Pretty darn nice.
Tailwind: Manna from heaven.
Headwind: Spawn of the devil himself.

I had a nice bike ride in the evening sun yesterday, during which I repeatedly chanted "the wind is my friend" in a last-ditch effort to make peace with any and all wind conditions that I might face on Sunday. Someone posted the forecast on the Bar Area Fit Tri forum, and now I can't stop checking when I should really be working on becoming one with the wind. I must be zen in my approach. The course is out-and-back, so if I am slowed in one direction by a headwind, I will be helped on the opposite leg by a tailwind. It is impossible for the wind to blow in two directions at once (though many times I have felt otherwise).

The wind is my friend.

My ride last night was good, actually. I did 22 miles in 1:22, comfortably above the 15 mph average I hope to beat or at least maintain on Sunday. (The "drop dead" speed I need to average to ensure that I won't miss the cut-off is about 12.5 mph.) My neck and back started hurting early, but I'm going to chalk that up to lack of any significant amount of food yesterday, since I was stuck in the control center.

One of the guys at work found out this morning during a crazy sim that I'm doing a Half Ironman this weekend. He just stared at me for a moment with bugged out eyes and a dropped jaw. Pretty funny.

T minus 4 days to the Half Ironman...

Saturday, March 24, 2007

I headed down to Galveston this morning for an open water swim clinic put on by the Galveston Beach Patrol. They got permission from Moody Gardens to open the beach area where the triathlon swim will actually be, which was a great opportunity for me to both test out my wetsuit in some "real" water and see what the course will look like. It's always nice to know what to expect on race day.

Observation #1: Offats Bayou. As I suspected, it is not really a bayou. It's more like an inlet. And it's BIG. Not huge, but certainly bigger than most other bodies of water in this area that are labelled as bayous. From the beach at Moody Gardens straight across to the other side is about 3/4 of a mile. Quite a difference from the mental picture I had in my head, which was based on the fact that the 15 foot wide drainage ditch behind my apartment is also called a bayou.

(Approximate half iron swim course in red)

Observation #2: Marine Life. I hadn't thought about sharks, sting rays, or jellyfish at all...until the lifeguard giving the clinic starting talking about shark bites, shuffling your feet so as not to step directly onto a sting ray, and how cabbage head jellyfish are solid enough that if you bump into one it feels like a body. Yes, a body. Direct quote. Oh, and then he continued to say that cabbage head jellyfish and stinging nettles stings aren't too painful(like an ant bite or a bee sting), but that if you get stung by a man-o-war, well...he won't lie to you, it hurts a lot. Thank you, Mr. Lifeguard Dude, for making me think about something I was perfectly happy not thinking about.

Observation #3: Course Distance. They said the course they laid out today (supposedly close to what the 0.3-mile sprint tri course will be) was about 450 meters. I sincerely hope they underestimated, because I did two loops and it took me 27 minutes. (I wanted to do another loop, but the lifeguards were already pulling up the buoys; I guess they'd only intended people to do 1-2 loops.) Now, I was taking it easy, but not that easy. Sure, I was practicing my spotting (looking up every 10-15 strokes to make sure I'm not swimming off course), but that doesn't slow a person down that significantly. In a pool, 900 meters would take me about 18 minutes and the full 1.2 mile race swim takes 45 minutes, tops. Yet today was indicating that the 1.2 mile race swim would take me more than an hour??

Thankfully, Google Pedometer saved me: a quick check shows that the loop was in the neighborhood of 0.4 miles, so that makes my 2 loops total 0.8 miles, or equal to 2/3 of the Half Ironman swim. 27 minutes is much more reasonable in that case!

Observation #4: Chafing. I didn't have any in the pool, but today the back of my neck and inside of my arm are both rubbed a little raw from the wetsuit and salt water. Guess I'll follow that bodyglide recommendation now.

Observation #5: Fog. My goggles fogged like nobody's business. They've been getting worse in the pool as well. Time for either a good anti-fog treatment or a new pair!

Observation #6: Temperature. The water was 70 degrees, and with the wetsuit was really not cold at all. In fact, it was just about perfect once I got going.

Observation #7: Rocks. I've heard that the triathlon will have carpets and ramps in place to get swimmers into and out of the water to avoid rocks and oyster beds. I really hope this turns out to be the case. My right foot got sliced a couple times by some particularly nasty rocks; when I got out, I found that my toe was bleeding from one gash. This was the only real disappointment from this morning swim, since I need the cuts to heal by next weekend. A couple of them are right on the arch, so while they're not big, they're in a bad place.

Anyway, it was a good morning and a good practice swim, even if I didn’t get to go as long as I’d hoped.

Thursday, March 22, 2007

Time for a summary of recent workouts. On Monday I decided I deserved a day off after my two half marathon weekend, so I did nothing. On Tuesday, I got out of class an hour and half early and was thus consumed with indecision: should I run? bike? swim? In the end I went home and rode for an hour on the trainer. As I glanced out the window, I realized that I actually could have done the ride outside; it's staying light late enough now. It was dim at the end of my ride, but I could have done it.

(Mental note to get one of those flashing red lights for the back of my bike in case I do ever end up out on the roads at twilight.)

Last night, I had driven all the way home before I remembered that I was supposed to be going to the pool. No worries, as the pool is only a mile away. I stopped by the apartment complex office to pick up my $9-wait-I-mean-$49 scanner (more on that in a minute) and then headed over to the rec center where I did 1550 yards in 29:31. I also discovered that I cannot for the life of me use my Garmin correctly. Last night I was only using it as a watch sitting on the pool deck and even then, at the end of each set of 100, I started hitting the stop/start button instead of lap. Idiot.

Anyway, this is the first workout that I actually have splits from, so here you go:

500 yards - 5:40, which is actually more like 9:40, because I hit stop/start instead of lap

Then I started hitting the correct button and did 100 yard sets (no stopping between) in:
1:52 - 1:55 - 1:53 - 1:58 - 1:57 - 2:52 (ok that was 150 yards) - 1:54 - 1:52 - 1:56 - 1:54

I was consistent, so I was happy. From those times, I can confirm that the wetsuit takes 10 seconds off my 100 yard time, since I averaged 1:46/100 yards with the wetsuit. Pretty cool.

Onward...

I mentioned my $9-I-mean-$49 scanner that I bought off Amazon. It's the same one Laurie posted about; I went to look at what she'd gotten, the Epson V100, and Amazon listed it as $89 with an $80 rebate. I double-checked. $89, with an $80 rebate offer. Well I couldn't turn down a $9 scanner, especially since it can scan film and my current scanner cannot since it's ancient. (Really, I think I got it in 1998. Ancient in computer terms.)

So I bought it, and Amazon shipped it, and then I got an email saying that they'd made a mistake, and the rebate was only $40. So I'm trying to decide what to do with it, since it now cost me $49 in addition to the fact that I already have a scanner.

Oh who am I kidding. Of course I'm going to keep it. It's new, and I want the film-scanning capability. So, anybody want a 10-year-old HP scanner? Yes, it does work.

Onward...

Last night Jose and I had dinner at Thai Cottage. I love that place. Especially their soft springs rolls, which we order solely for the peanut sauce. Seriously, their peanut sauce is awesome. I got pad thai last night, a departure from my normal. It was ok, but next time I'll get curry again. Their curries are great, but their pad thai isn't as good as Pei Wei's.

Afterwards, we stopped by Lowe's because I needed to get a key made. Did you know that you can get fancy keys now? You can get a Texas A&M key, or a tye-dyed key, or an Astros key, or any number of other designs. I chose a brightly colored striped key. Designer keys. Crazy. I also impulse-bought a mini-greenhouse of flowers -- 6 tiny pots in a plastic container with seeds included. We'll see if they sprout.

They also had a mini-greenhouse of cactus, which I almost bought for old times sake and to amuse Becca. But I decided that killing not one but two cactii during the 2000-2001 academic year was enough for this decade.

Monday, March 19, 2007

Official times for the Seabrook Half Marathons

Saturday:
Loop 1 - 1:10:04
Loop 2 - 1:10:55
Total - 2:20:59 (10:47/mile)

Sunday:
Loop 1 - 1:17:12
Loop 2 - 1:11:47
Total - 2:28:59 (11:25/mile)

I could be wrong, but I'm almost positive that both loops were the same length, despite loop 1 being a slightly different course at the start. Maybe Keith can confirm.

Very cool to see that I negative split Sunday's race by almost 6 minutes! And that my second loop on Sunday was within two minutes of both my loop times from Saturday.

Sunday, March 18, 2007

I finished Seabrook Half Marathon #2 this morning in a VERY unofficial 2:29. I say "very unofficial" because I suck at using my Garmin and at mile 1, I accidentally pressed stop instead of lap. I realized it before mile 2 and restarted things, but for the rest of the run I remembered to press the lap button, oh, maybe half the time. My splits are so funky that I won't even bother posting them, but until official results are available I can say that as far as I can tell from an reconstructed route/time in SportTracks, I finished just under 2:30. That's an average of just under 11:30/mile -- only 45 seconds per mile slower than yesterday despite more than twice as much walking.

I'm thrilled with that, and I finally feel like I can say: I'm ready. Yes, I'm ready for the Half Ironman!

I ran almost the entire first loop with Christy and some of her Houston Fit friends. We started out in a 5/1 run/walk pattern and stuck to it -- in fact, I stuck to it even after I decided to pick up the pace a bit. When I hit 6 miles and was still feeling surprisingly energetic, I started running a little faster. My last few miles were at sub-11:00 pace...the last miles. How awesome is that?!

No major problems. I slathered bodyglide all over my feet to prevent the slight blister I got yesterday from growing, and that worked well. My shins actually hurt more yesterday than today. And the lower back pain of yesterday didn't reappear. Overall, my body didn't feel any worse than yesterday -- I just didn't feel quite as energetic. I was just tired, not sore.

(Photo from Joe)

Oh! And I think the course may have indeed been long. Garmin measured 13.3 yesterday and my reconstruction today in SportTracks read 13.27. (Interestingly, Garmin appeared to do better yesterday in the cloudless sky; today there were a few more spots where the track erroneously branched out.) I talked to a couple other people with Garmins and everyone's consistently measured a similarly long distance. So -- I'm thinking the course may have been slightly long. But not too awful.

Overall I'm really happy that I decided to run both days. It was certainly an experience I won't forget -- even if I may not want to run on the Seabrook trails again for a while... ;)

Saturday, March 17, 2007

I did Seabrook Half Marathon #1 this morning in 2:20:52, for an average of 10:45 per mile. Garmin read 10:35 per mile for 13.3 miles, but it was a certified course, so I'm gonna trust that it was 13.1.

That time looks a little fast, and honestly it probably is. But I felt so good that I just couldn't slow down! I walked through each of the 9 water stations, and my average heart rate was 179 (just on the low side for me). The first 10 miles were a breeze, and the last 3 were tougher. I haven't run farther than 8 in a while, and my legs vaguely remembered that by tightening up. My lower back hurt just a bit -- something I've never experienced before -- but not too bad. But the aches and pains were pretty minor. Overall my biggest problem, really, was just that I got really hungry! My stomach started growling at the beginning of the second loop, and by mile 10 I was ready to be done just so I could eat something -- anything!

My splits were pretty uneven, reflecting the fact that I'd speed up, then force myself to slow down. They're based on the Garmin's 13.3 miles (tomorrow I'll turn off the auto-lap), so the last split represents 0.3 miles, at least according to GPS: 10:21, 11:02, 10:48, 10:22, 10:36, 10:52, 10:28, 10:36, 10:09 (!), 10:56, 10:48, 10:40, 10:19, and 3:02. Take 'em with a grain of salt, since the race was actually 13.1.

Despite all the rain we had this week, the trails were surprisingly dry! Just a few wet spots, but nothing anywhere close to the shoe-soaking run I did there a month ago, when my feet were starting to prune after 4 miles.

It was nice to finally meet Christy in person, meet her friend Karen (?), and see them, as well as JD and Jaclyn, on the course. The fact that you can greet your friends a few times makes up for the fact that the course is an out-and-back. I didn't stick around long enough to socialized after the race, but plan to stay a little longer tomorrow. I also saw Keith taking photos. And then at the beginning of the second loop, Joe was in fine form (along with the rest of the BARC bunch) in his neon green afro wig.

All in all a great race -- and great race weather!

The plan for tomorrow is simple: FINISH. I'm planning to run tomorrow's half in a 5/1 run/walk pattern. It'll be interesting to see how sore I am when I start out.

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Wetsuits. Are. AWESOME.

I took my new Zoot Suit Riot (that's what I'm calling it since the manufacturer is a company called Zoot Sports; I know I'm a dork) to the pool last night. I was certain that I'd be given some strange looks and maybe even a giggle or two, but I got nothing. In fact, as I was laughing to Jen that the suit made me bob like a cork, the girl in the lane next to me looked over and said "first time in a wetsuit?" The conversation continued from there, and it was shortly revealed that not only is she doing the Aquabike that's part of the same triathlon festival as my Half Ironman (where you do the swim and bike but not the run), but she's also one month away from doing Ironman Arizona on April 15. It will be her second Ironman in a year.

THAT, my friends, is HARD CORE.

So, duly intimidated by the girl in the lane next to me, I began my swim. With me in my wetsuit and her without, I was much faster -- ha, ego restored. ;)

Anyway, back to the beginning. Wetsuits are awesome. After enjoying the sensation of floating without even trying as soon as I jumped in the pool, I took off for my first 100 yards. Time? 1:38. Yes, 1:38! That is crazy! That is a full 15-20 seconds faster than my usual average!

I swam the full Half Ironman distance last night...at least I think I did, since I completely lost count of my laps on more than one occasion, and it was difficult to back out the number of laps based on time since I was faster in the wetsuit. I stopped a couple times to do some suit adjustment -- the neck is still pretty tight, even though it doesn't affect my ability to breathe -- but mostly I just swam. I stopped my watch when I wasn't swimming. Total time for 2100 yards (or maybe 2200?) was 37:25, or an average of about 1:47/100 yards. Any way you slice it, I did the Half Ironman distance at least 5 minutes faster than I would have without the Zoot Suit Riot.

That is awesome. Or, as the Ironwoman in the lane next to me said, "wetsuits are God's gift to triathletes."

Sunday, March 11, 2007

Last Saturday at the Gator Ride, I sunburned my face pretty good (sunglasses outline and all) but managed to avoid any other redness because it was chilly and I was covered from head to toe. Today during my practice Quarter Ironman, the weather was lovely and I wore shorts and a jersey. Apparently I decided that again, sunscreen was just too much of hassle, and now I've got a sunburned face, two sunburned arms, and two sunburned knees.

Did I mention that I'm a COMPLETE IDIOT?

So, yeah. That practice 1/4 Ironman I'd planned for today. It went....surprisingly well! Even the biking! I am feeling much better about the race in three weeks. I know I can do it.

I tried using the multisport setting on my Garmin, but I messed up and hit the stop button after swimming instead of the lap button. And then started it again when I realized, but by that time I was on the bike. So it's all messed up. Here's the summary as best as I can figure:

Swimming:
I swam in the lap pool here at my apartment complex since I wasn't sure if the rec center was open in the morning, and I figured I could use my apartment as my transition area. The pool here is heated, and the water was like bathwater. Seriously, it was so, so warm. Horrible to swim in. I was roasting after 5 minutes and looked forward to each stroke just so my arm could come out of the water, and thus be exposed to the cool air. I don't know if it was the water temperature or the pool itself (which may be slightly longer than the rec center pool), but I was extremely sluggish for my swim. I did 1050 yards, which is about 6 yards shy of 0.6 miles, in between 23-24 minutes. I'm not sure exactly what the time was with the watch snafu, but either way, it took longer than the 2:00/100 yard pace that I have been swimming at the rec center. C'est la vie. It was only a couple extra minutes.

Transition 1:
I took my time changing clothes, since Melissa and her fiancee had happened to come to the pool while I was finishing up. I chatted with them while I put on my socks and shoes and jersey and Matt said that the 1/2 Ironman sounded crazy. Well, yes. I rode my bike back to my apartment for just long enough to drop off my towel and goggles. Total transition time is a guess, since I hit the stop button instead of lap, but I think it was less than 10 minutes overall. Long, but I'm not worried -- I plan to take my time in transition during the race. I don't plan to dawdle, but I do plan to be deliberate in my actions.

Biking:
I headed out for a 28.8 mile grand tour of Clear Lake -- weave my way over to Bay Area, then down Port Rd to Todville, over the Kemah bridge and down to 96, then west on 96 all the way to Highway 3, then north to Medical Center and home. The wind wasn't awful, but the first 10 miles of my ride had an on-and-off headwind that was worst out on Port Rd. I managed to keep steady at 13-14 mph through that section, but when I got to Todville things got much better. It was still windy over the bridge -- I only got up to 26 mph going down -- but turning onto 96 and heading west was the most awesome thing in the world. I cruised through the last 10 miles of the ride averaging more like 18-19 mph without even trying hard. Love the wind at my back! Total time was under 2 hours, though I'm not sure exactly what. The bike says I averaged 16.1 mph for a time of something like 1:48, but the bike timer stopped whenever I was stopped at a traffic light. The Garmin, when I finagle the numbers, tells me something like 1:58 (under 15 mph average). And I'd say it was 1:55 based on the fact that I left the apartment at 11:05 and got back at 1:00 on the nose. Any way I slice it, I was happy; I won't be having to stop for lights at the race, I don't think.

Transition 2:
Not much to say here. I took my time and spent 8:30 changing shoes, shirt, guzzling some water, eating a granola bar, taking a bathroom break, and telling Jose (my support crew) about my bike ride.

Running:
I felt surprisingly good after the bike. I know, I know, it was only half the distance I'll be doing in three weeks, but feeling that good was encouraging. I set out on my run and stuck to a 5/1 run/walk schedule throughout. Splits were 10:50, 11:31, 11:38, 11:25, 11:25, 11:21, and 5:40 for a total time of 1:13:54 for 6.5 miles. That first split is a little misleading because it only includes 1 minute of walking; the others include two. I have to say -- my legs felt pretty good. And as I got farther into the run, I actually started to have more energy. Not in the sense that I felt like I could run faster, but everything started to feel more smooth.

So all in all, my practice 1/4 Ironman went very well. Total time including my leisurely transitions was somewhere around 3:50. While all the distances will double in three weeks, I don't believe my transition times will, so this makes me feel good, and confident that I can do a 7:30-8:30 Half Ironman.

The running especially makes me feel good. The time cutoff for getting in from the bike is 5:30 after race start, which leaves 3 hours for the half marathon run. Basically, this tells me that as long as I finish the bike leg in time (which I think I can), I will finish the Half Ironman. Because I can shuffle my way through a half marathon in 3 hours.

Yay!

Friday, March 09, 2007

My friend Jen, a fellow runner who enjoys much nicer running weather since she lives in Seattle, emailed me yesterday with the following:

I find the times you post for your running really interesting. I do most of my training at about 10 min / mile – no faster than 9 min / mile – and you do yours, even up to 10 mi or so – between 10 and 11 minutes / mile.

When I race a 5K, I typically run between 7 and 8 minutes / mile, yet I know your PRs are closer to 10 minutes per mile. Based on your training, I’d expect you to be able to run a 5K under 9 minutes per mile.

Basically, what I’m saying is I wouldn’t be surprised based on your training if you couldn’t knock a good chunk of time off your 5K PR, especially if you did a little speedwork (a couple fartlek runs or something).

I know that’s not your goal, but still. ;)

She's got a point. My 5K PR is 29:18, set in either December 2003 or 2004 (I honestly can't remember and don't have my log at the moment). I don't know why I haven't set a faster PR. First and foremost is probably that I just haven't tried. My goals have been getting ready for a half marathon, or having fun, or doing a Half Ironman -- not setting a new 5K PR. It's probably mental as well; I'm willing to push myself, but only to a point.

Still, all my recent training has put me in pretty good shape. A month ago, I ran 4 miles at under 10:00/mile average which is more miles at a faster pace that ever before. I've been wanting to try for a 5K PR, with help from a pacer (because I'm not very good at pacing myself), but I hesitated to try prior to the Half Ironman. And post-HI, the weather may start heating up enough that a PR will move just out of reach.

I was thinking about all of this last night when I left work to go running before softball. I obviously wasn't thinking straight when I thought that I'd have enough time between 8 and 9 to run 5 miles. By the time I left work, it was already 8:05. By the time I walked out to the parking lot and got to Gilruth, it was 8:20. And by the time I changed clothes and got the new gate code, it was 8:30. I may be getting faster, but I can't do 5 miles in 30 minutes.

So I thought maybe I'd do 2.5, and get to softball right on time. And then after the first mile, I thought I'd do 3. And then after 2 miles I thought I'd do a 5K and see if I couldn't just set my own unofficial PR right then.

So I did.

I ran 3.1 miles in 29:04, for an unofficial 5K PR by 14 seconds. Splits of 9:45, 9:19, 9:08, 0:53. Average heart rate of 183, max of 198.

And then I went right to the softball fields and was late to the game by half an inning. I played catcher and as soon as I walked out there, Russ (the umpire) was forced to ask why I was dripping in sweat on a relatively cool evening.

The weird thing is that I don't even feel that bad today. My legs are a little stiff, but not horrible.

Makes me wonder if I should try to make it official sometime soon.

Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Last night I turned my handwriting into a font. It was really easy (provided you have the software) and really fun. I'm very excited. I want to turn everyone's handwriting into fonts now!

If you just adore my handwriting and want to use it yourself, you can! I made it available as a TrueType font that you can download.

-----

I did an hour on the bike trainer last night after class. I was supposed to swim, but didn't think ahead enough to realize that the pool would be closed after class, and I didn't want to swim at the apartment pool. So I biked. Bike bike bike. Spin spin spin.

On another note, I was thinking of heading to Twin Lakes this weekend for a big open water swim session. But the water is freezing right now (55 degrees) which means I'd need a good thick wetsuit and maybe even booties and gloves. And the Houston Racing Triathlon Club forums freaked me out by talking about how you pass the sunken school bus (the lake is also heavily used by scuba divers) and a big patch of vegetation and that it's freaky. I don't want it to be freaky!

What do I do?

I shouldn't have delved into the HRTC forums at all, really, because they have seriously started to scare me about water temperatures, wetsuit issues, wind, and other assorted issues. Oh, and everyone there sounds like they're really fast and intimidating.

Sarah = not fast and easily intimidated by fast people.

So I have 3 weekends left before the race. That's 6 days of "big" training in addition to the weekly stuff. Current schedule looks like this:

March 10 - 2500 yard swim...in open water?? with a wetsuit??
March 11 - 0.6 mile swim, 28 mile bike, 6.5 mile run (practice Quarter Iron)

March 17 - Seabrook Half Marathon #1
March 18 - Seabrook Half Marathon #2

March 24 - 60 mile bike ride somewhere, thinking about heading to the race course in Galveston
March 25 - open water swim with HRTC & Galveston Beach Patrol (?)

APRIL 1 - LONE STAR HALF IRONMAN

All sorts of questions bounce around my head. Is that schedule good enough? Do I need to skip one of the half marathons in favor of another long bike ride? Will another long bike ride even do me any good at this point, or will it just depress me?

And no, I'm not really tapering and I don't plan to. My "taper" will be the week before the race. My goal is just to finish.

It's official -- I'm freaking out about an event. I didn't even do this before the marathon. Geez.

Monday, March 05, 2007

It was a banner weekend for working out, and I am exhausted because of it.

On Friday night I was treated to home-cooked lasagna (not cooked by Jose; if he could cook like that, our eating out problems would be over), which was a good carbo-loading technique for Saturday morning's 63.25 mile Gator Ride that took Joe, me, and a thousand other riders all over the countryside just east of Houston.

I got up bright and early to drive over to Baytown, and after parking, I got all my gear together. Biking requires a ton of gear; I'm always terrified that I'll forget something. I took my bike off the rack, checked the tires, put the water bottles in their cages, put my cell phone in the bike bag. Put on my arm warmers and jacket to ward of the chill, put on my bandanna, put on my helmet, put on two pairs of gloves because my cycling gloves are fingerless. Turn on the Garmin, wait for it to acquire satellites, and then the final step -- separate apartment keys from car keys, because there's only enough room in the bike bag for one set. Leave apartment keys in car, and take car keys with me.

We started in Baytown and went up and over the Hartman Bridge within the first five miles. I'm just glad the bridge was at the beginning of the ride. From there we rode right past the San Jacinto Monument and Battleship Texas, neither of which I have ever visited. I've been meaning to for years, but haven't. At least I've seen them now. The first rest stop was at the Lynchburg Ferry, which was pretty cool since I'd never ridden it before. I was picturing something like the Bolivar Ferry down in Galveston, but Lynchburg was much smaller. And filled with bikers.

The rest of the ride carried us through the countryside, which is actually very pretty in a Texas sort of way. I saw some kind of llama, and some South African goats. Texans are strange. As Joe said, everything seems a little more MORE on a bike. Roads are smoother or bumpier. Traffic is more of an issue. And the wind, well, the wind is so much windier.

Saturday morning was breezy, we'll put it that way. The worst parts were miles 20-35 and 60-62, when we faced near headwinds, and in some cases, dead-on headwind. It's never fun to see your speedometer reading 10 mph when it feels like you're working harder than ever. But when the wind was at our backs, things were glorious. I am never quite as manic depressive as I am on the bike -- I'm either happy or miserable. There is rarely an in-between feeling. When I'm heading into the wind, I want to be anywhere but on the bike.

We finished the ride in just over 4 hours, for an average of either 15.2 or 15.3 mph depending on whether you trust my speedometer or my Garmin. That time doesn't include the couple minutes we spent at each rest stop; I didn't have any goos to bring along, so I needed to stop for a bite of food each time. Nutrition is one thing I still need to figure out for the race in three weeks. After finishing, I ate lunch, said goodbye to Joe, and cruised back to my car. Remember earlier how I said that I separated my apartment keys from my car keys and put the car keys in my bike bag and the apartment keys in the car?

Reverse that.

I opened my bike bag and pulled out...my apartment keys. Yes, for the first time ever, I locked my keys in the car.

Crashing on railroad tracks? Flat tires? Locking the keys in the car? I think the gods are trying to tell me that biking is not my thing.

As I sat in the sun waiting for Jose to rescue me with a spare key, I started having some second thoughts about the Half Ironman. I know that I have the potential to do it, and I know that I can do it, but the bike worries me greatly. The bike has the largest potential to royally suck. The bike has the potential to take a lot out of me. If I have a bad day, it will be because of the bike. The bike has the potential to slow me down enough that I don't finish within the time limit.

I was having enough second thoughts that I looked online to see if they allow transfers from the Half Ironman down to the Quarter Ironman (which I know I can do). They don't. No exchanges, no transfers, no refunds, no exceptions.

Jose asked if not finishing in time would ruin the entire experience. It wouldn't in the long run, but it would on that day. I am very hard (too hard) on myself; if I don't finish, I'll be pretty upset. I'll get over it with time, and realize that no matter what happens in the race, I am better off for doing the training. Jose recommended that I stop thinking about it for another week, at least until I've done the practice Quarter Ironman I have scheduled for next weekend (0.6 mile swim, 28 mile bike, 6.5 mile run).

Jose is pretty smart.

-----

After Saturday's activities, I didn't feel like running yesterday. But I did: 8 miles on the Seabrook trails in the sun and wind in 1:27:46. Splits were 10:11, 10:49, 11:18, 10:54, 10:54, 11:17, 11:06, 11:17. As you can see, I started off way too fast and things went downhill from there. After 6 miles, I felt like the walking dead. My legs had no energy, but I pushed through to the end with the thought that it'd be good to know that I could run even when I felt like falling over. That might come in useful on April 1.

I wiped my face when I finished and the sleeve came back with a dusting of salt. I was obviously still dehydrated from the biking the day before. Ugh. But I did it.

-----

The rest of the weekend was a blur. On Saturday night I saw The Astronaut Farmer. It was cheesy and formulaic, yet it did have some quirks and was entertaining enough.

Yesterday after my run I did a bunch of errands that culminated in buying a breadmaker. Yummy. I made my first loaf last night, an Express Bake recipe for Oatmeal-Date bread. Only I left out the dates, so it was really just oatmeal bread. The Express Bake setting meant that it only took an hour, instead of three. The bread looked a little strange when I took it out, but it tastes good! I even made a sandwich with it today for lunch. Mmm.

There are a bunch of other settings and recipes that I now want to try. Normal white bread. Wheat bread. Banana bread. Pumpkin bread. French bread. It even has a setting to make jam! Carbs, here I come.

Wednesday, February 28, 2007

I went to Walmart with Becca after work to pick up her foosball table (she needed a bigger car to transport it back to her house). It took longer than expected when the store seemed utterly confused by the fact that she had ordered online, but had it shipped to the store. Meaning she had therefore already paid for it.

I just got home, already 8:00, still planning to get in my bike ride with a short run-off of 2-3 laps around my apartment complex.

FLAT TIRE.

The rear tire. Same one that went flat after the West U Warmup. Seems like something more than coincidence, which makes me wonder why I didn't find anything in the tire the last time, and how I made it through one trainer ride and one 40+ mile road ride until it went flat again.

I thought maybe it was a slow enough leak that I could ride for 40 minutes, so I pumped the tire up. It's a slow leak, but not slow enough -- it's losing about 8-10 psi per minute, which means the tire is completely flat a mere 12-15 minutes after pumping it up.

I do not deal well with stuff like this. Long day at work. Tired all day. Frustration at Walmart. Already late in the evening. And flat tire?

It was the last straw. No workout for me today.

Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Colorado already seems like a million years ago. In three days back, I've done two sims, one rather crappy bike ride, gone to class, done some homework, and had my first shuttle mission delayed because of afore-mentioned freak hail storm. The delay doesn't truly affect my schedule that much, but it means that the next two weeks at work are suddenly much more open, especially for me. There's a lot of work that my position does in the couple weeks before launch and suddenly -- poof! -- I have been released from that obligation until April.

I ran last night for the first time in...10?...days. I ran the Friday before leaving for Colorado. And I ran last night. Yep, that's 10 days in between. It turns out that skiing wasn't a bad way to shake things up while maintaining my fitness. I could tell that I'd had a break, and through the first mile my legs felt pretty dead, but I attribute half of the dead-ness to Sunday's bike ride.

I did 5 miles in 52:20 -- not too shabby, right? I was pretty happy with it. I don't have the exact numbers handy, but the splits were something like 10:20, 10:35, 10:15, 10:35, 10:15. My heart rate averaged 182, which is probably more indicative that the temperature is rising than anything else. It wasn't hot, but it was warmer than anything I've run in for a while. I worked up a good sweat before I even hit the first mile.

Though my mid-distance running is still looking good, I'm a little concerned about getting in a couple longer distances. I did 10 miles four weeks ago, but haven't done anything farther than 5 since, after having to pull out of Surfside due to that nasty bug I caught. I was already signed up for the Seabrook Half Marathon on the 18th, but now that the shuttle's been delayed, I decided to sign up for the Half on the 17th as well. I know -- crazy. Two half marathons in two days. But JD's doing it, and Christy's doing it, and I must admit that it will be cool to get that third medal for running both days! So I'm in. Both runs will be treated as training runs through and through, and as such, I fully expect to turn in my two worst half marathon times ever.

Anyway, last night I wore the second of my three new running skirts (since they were 45% off with the "Convert to Skirt" program, I took full advantage). It did ok. I mentioned it before, but if you've forgotten: I bought three. They are all the same size, but one fits just right while two are what I call "comfortably tight," meaning that they're totally comfortable to wear, but look a little tight across my booty. I wore the pink one, the one that fits just right, for a 5-miler on the treadmill before I left for Colorado. It felt great for the first 4 miles, but I had some minor chafing on my thigh in the last mile.

Last night I wore the brown one, one of the comfortably tight skirts. The first couple miles were disappointing -- the slightly tighter fit meant that the undershorts rode up like crazy. Not cool. But once I started to sweat, things improved. I had no chafing issues this time, which I think may be due to the fact that the slightly tighter shorts just sit higher on my legs.

Worst case is just that I have to use Bodyglide with the skirts -- not a big deal, since I do that with most shorts already. I'm not sure if I'd wear one for a full half marathon yet, since they don't seem to work quite as well for me and my body type as they do for June, but I do like the feeling of running in a cute little colorful skirt.

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

This is a temporary blog entry to remind myself to write about the 5-miler I did last Friday (the day before leaving for Colorado) and my impressions of my new running skirt. Short verdict: comfy for the first 4 miles, with some slight chafing in the last mile. Hmm.

Also, tonight we had dinner at a Nepalese restaurant and our waiter turned out to be a guy named Pem Dorjee Sherpa. He's only 25, has summited Everest twice -- and on his second summit, he got married to his wife, who also climbed up with him! He runs a guiding business and told us we should come to Nepal and he would take us trekking. It's not every day you meet someone who's been to the top of the world!!

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Happy Valentine's Day! Last year Jose and I had just started dating; this year it's been, well, more than a year. Even though I'm not single anymore, I must admit that Valentine's Day still doesn't really do anything for me. Bini asked me what our plans were for tonight, and I answered "I dunno. Dinner?"

Last year we went to a Vietnamese noodle place; very very casual. This year we may actually go there again -- which is funny because I've only found one dish on the menu that I like. And their spring rolls (and peanut sauce) aren't as good as the ones at Thai Cottage. But we'll probably go there again, for "tradition" if not because it'll be one of the few restaurants that isn't packed with people who made reservations ages ago. Anyway. I don't really care what we do as long as we do it together. Awwwwwww.

Anyway, time for the recent workout summary.

On Monday I swam 1500 yards at the rec center pool. My schedule called for 1250 with the bulk of the workout being a straight 800 yards, but I felt good so I turned that into a round 1000 yards and then added an extra 50 to my bilateral breathing practice (aka my cooldown). I did all that in about 31 minutes. I'm either just plain faster and in better shape, or the pool is short. I don't remember being able to swim 50 meters in 1:00 consistently before, and certainly not while maintaining a relatively calm breathing rhythm of every 4 strokes. So I dunno what's going on.

Yesterday I ran after class -- on the treadmill, because at 7:00 it was still freaking windy and therefore pretty chilly outside, not to mention dark. (But I could see hints of the sunset still. Can't wait for daylight savings time!) I was pretty worried about this run, actually, since it had been a full 9 days since my last run. Sure, 3 of those days involved biking and 2 involved swimming -- but 4 in a row involved sitting on my butt being sick. Thankfully the schedule only called for 3 miles. I'm sure that low number was included with the thought that I would have run a half marathon three days before, but psssh. 3 miles it was.

I got on the treadmill and decided to start off at my standard treadmill warmup pace -- 5 miles per hour, or 12:00 miles. I felt good. I had a couple twinges in my left knee, the body part that suffered the most bruising as a result of Sunday's bike crash, but everything else felt pretty smooth. After a mile, I upped the treadmill to 5.2 mph (11:32 pace). Not much of a difference. Still felt good. After one more mile, I upped the 'mill to 5.5 mph or 10:54 pace and to my surprise, I still felt pretty comfortable! I even added an extra half mile to the end of the run -- total of 3.5 miles in a couple seconds under 40:00. I was very happy to find that my running fitness didn't lose anything from my unplanned break.

I got new running skirts in the mail on Monday, the ones I ordered in exchange for sending them three old pairs of running shorts. The "Convert to Skirt" program gives you 45% off if you send in shorts, and I figured I'd take advantage of that sizeable discount and order the maximum number allowed -- three. The black ones were not eligible, so I got a brown skirt, blue skirt, and pink skirt.

Here's the weird part -- they are all the same skirt style (GymGirl) and same size (XL), but the pink one is definitely bigger than the other two. Actually, the pink one is the one that fits best; the other two are perfectly comfortable to wear, but when I look in the mirror it looks a little tight because the stretchy fabric pulls a bit. Jose said he could see what I'm talking about but wouldn't normally notice it, so I'm probably being way too self-critical. But isn't it weird that one fits differently?

I took the pink one to the gym last night, but at the last minute I got all self-conscious about how pink it is (very pink) and wore my dull black shorts instead. I know, I'm dumb sometimes.

Sunday, February 11, 2007

After missing Surfside yesterday and feeling fully recovered except for a slight cough and some leftover congestion, I decided to head out to the West U Warm-Up this morning. It's one of the MS150 warmup rides -- one of the few that's actually a reasonable drive for me, at Beltway 8 and 288.

I left my apartment at 7:00 and just before I got onto the highway, I realized that despite all my preparations last night (packing a bag, laying out all my clothes, filling water bottles, etc), the one thing I did not have with me was my helmet. Yes, I'd left it sitting in my garage. No helmet = no riding. I was still on the feeder so I quickly turned into Chik-Fil-A and was able to cut across the parking lot and back to Bay Area. I grabbed my helmet and headed back towards the race. I only lost 10 minutes, but it stressed me out.

In retrospect, forgetting my helmet was probably a sign that today wasn't going to be my best day.

I got to the park and got everything ready to go with minutes to spare. Just as we headed out, it started to drizzle. Great. I'd been thinking of doing the 50-miler, but it was already cold enough that I'd given myself permission to back off to the 30-miler if I didn't warm up. The rain was not going to help that. The split between the 30 and 50 mile courses was right at mile 10, so I knew I could decide after I'd been riding for 40 minutes or so.

The drizzle continued for the first five miles. Just as it began to tail off, a new kind of drizzle started. From my nose.

Yes, the cold and wind jump-started my runny nose all over again. I couldn't stop it; the best I could do was wipe it on my leggings. I quickly started to feel like I was getting covered in a layer of snot. I know that's gross, but I'm just being honest. I cruised past the first rest stop knowing that I needed to make a decision -- 30 miles or 50 miles. Then, right before the split, I almost choked on my own snot.

That made the decision easier. Today was going to be a 30-miler, and I'd just have to be ok with that. I wasn't really getting any warmer, the sun wasn't making any appearances, and 30 miles would have to be enough.

Once I turned to follow the 30 mile route, things improved for a few miles...but then we turned into the wind, and things started to go downhill. It was windy, so I slowed down. We passed over a particularly bad section of road that left all my bones vibrating long after the road had smoothed out again. We hit a section of shoulder that was layered in watery orange mud that got all over my shoes, tights, and water bottles.

With about 5 miles to go, I saw some railroad tracks up ahead, and a volunteer warning that they were slippery. I slowed down and prepared to cross them perpendicularly (though they crossed the pavement at an angle). Apparently my preparations weren't good enough.

CRASH.

Down I went, my tires sliding out from under me as I crossed the slippery rails. I landed hard on my left thigh, and somehow managed to get a raspberry on my left elbow despite not ripping any clothes. I must have hit my left knee as well, because there are two tender red bumps on my knee cap.

Fortunately I didn't hurt anything seriously, and popped back up to get to the side of the road. I looked back to see the volunteer that had been warning of the tracks sprinting towards me, so I quickly called out that I was ok. There was only one other cyclist behind me at the moment, so at least my embarassment was limited.

I gave my bike a once-over, and had to pop the chain back on. The handlebars felt weird too, but I can't place exactly what changed -- I think the whole handlebar may have rotated. I was planning on going to Bike Barn this afternoon anyway, so I'll have them take a look at it.

Needless to say, by that point I was quite ready to get back to my car. The 30 miles took me just under 2 hours, an average speed of 15.5 mph. At the end, I was cold, wet, and covered in a layer of sweat under a layer of snot under a layer of mud. A shower rarely feels as good as it did today.

Overall, I have mixed feeling about the ride. I'm glad I did it, and I know I made the right decision to drop down to 30 miles instead of trying for 50. But I'm discouraged by my overall speed and attitude. Biking isn't my favorite of the triathlon sports -- in fact it's probably my least favorite of the three -- and as such, I am much quicker to mentally check out of the sport. As soon as I have to ride into a headwind, I start thinking about how much it sucks, and how much it's slowing me down. As soon as my butt or neck starts to hurt, I start thinking about how I can't wait to be done.

So. Mixed feelings about the ride, but I'm happy that I got it done.

Friday, February 02, 2007

As I drove away from the office, I decided that I would run on the treadmill, despite the fact that I had cold weather clothes with me (capris, long sleeve shirt, gloves). My office is never warm, and I was tired of feeling cold all week. Treadmill it would be.

But then I got to Gilruth, and as I walked in the door headed for the locker room to change, I passed a girl that I've seen and talked to before. I don't know her name, but we started chatting a few weeks ago on the treadmills on a particularly rainy day. I mentioned that I was training for a Half Ironman, and she said she'd been training for Ironstar last fall, but then was out of town the weekend of the race (how sucky). Tonight, I passed her on my way in, and she was dressed for running and headed across the parking lot to the gate and the trail beyond.

"That's it," I thought. "The weather has just been too crappy lately for me to not take advantage of the fact that it's finally clear, even if it's cold." Off I went, and immediately remembered that yeah, 40 degrees is my ideal temperature. Somehow I always forget that.

Since I won't be at tomorrow morning's Buffalo Wallow 6K, I decided to run "Sarah's Buffalo Wallow Replacement 4-Miler" tonight after work. It was the same as the 6K, plus another quarter mile, minus the mud and hills, and plus the asphalt of the Johnson Space Center running trail. Not a great comparison, but you get the idea.

Sarah's Buffalo Wallow Replacement 4-Miler, as I defined it, would be composed of me running 4 miles at something close to race pace -- not all out, but definitely good and hard. I was cold at first, and ran quickly to warm up. I finished the first mile and checked my watch. "Not too shabby," I thought. "Not shabby at all!" And I didn't even feel like I'd been running that hard.

I got excited. I was looking into the sunset and thinking about how pretty Houston can be sometimes, and suddenly mile 2 passed even quicker. "Ooh," I thought, "I'm kicking some butt tonight."

I finally started to feel a bit winded in the third mile, but it was a comfortable winded. Now, I know that might sound like an oxymoron, but runners will know what I'm talking about. It started to feel hard, but comfortably hard.

By the time I began my final mile, the sun had set and I was racing through the dark. I've run on this trail so many times that I could probably do it in my sleep; I know all the twists and turns and where each quarter mile falls, even when I can barely see the marker in the dusk. I finished strong and spent a half mile walking to cool down, and basking in my "victory."

The verdict?

37:57 !!! with splits of 9:56, 9:31, 9:18, 9:12

I ran 4 sub-10:00 miles. I don't have anything else to say but WOW. I surprised myself tonight.

Monday, January 29, 2007

Here's one for my triathlon-saavy readers like Jill, Johnny, and Bunnygirl...

I've got a sizeable tax refund coming this year, a bit unexpectedly, which would allow me to upgrade from my current road bike (a 2003 Specialized Sequoia) to either 1) a nicer road bike or 2) a triathlon bike. I've been thinking about both options lately. Of course there is a third option, which is to simply keep the bike I have right now and have been riding for 4 years.

Biggest question: what, really, are the advantages of a tri bike? You always have to ride in the aero position, right? I've never done that before, which makes me wary. I have issues with back and neck soreness already, and it seems like being forced into the aero position all the time would be worse. Then again -- maybe the aero position is better, ergonomically, and my back and neck wouldn't get as sore! I don't know.

Sub-question: If I do keep my current bike, there are some upgrades I'd like to make -- new tires, add some aerobars so I at least have the option of getting into aero position, and upgrade the components from bottom-of-the-line Shimano to a nicer, smoother, higher-quality set. Each of those will cost me some cash, especially upgrading components, which makes me wonder if I might not be better off just upgrading the whole bike.

Having done a bit of reading on my own, I believe that what I really want to do is upgrade to a nicer road bike. I'm not fast enough to be competitive and probably never will be, so my desire for comfort usually outweights a desire for maximum speed. For me, I'd rather be comfortable during the ride than gain an extra mile per hour. Unless someone can convince me that there are clear advantages to a tri bike that go beyond just the racing (since I ride for fitness as well), I'm leaning towards upgrading to a new road bike. I'd like to check out some of the women-specific designs, in particular the Specialized Vita Multi-Sport looks appealing.

Thoughts?

Sunday, January 28, 2007

My bike trainer can't come soon enough (it arrives on Tuesday). This morning I planned to do a nice long bike ride, but I woke up to the weather station a half mile away from my apartment reading 44 degrees, with a wind chill of 31. I definitely ain't got the cycling wear to battle a wind chill of 31 -- and more when you consider that I'd be riding. And the stupid Gilruth gym is closed on Sundays. And my apartment complex doesn't have a stationary bike. ARGH.

If you asked me what my biggest training hurdle would be, I would have guessed motivation. My motivation has a bad habit of coming and going with my mental state (tired, hungry, bored, etc). But here I am mere weeks into training and the weather keeps thwarting my plans! Rain, wind, cold, pool hours. With my life as busy as it is, I really need to be able to do my workouts when I plan to -- I needed to do my bike this morning. It's nicer outside now, and warmer, but I no longer have the time or the daylight!

I didn't feel much like running after my 10-miler yesterday, so I substituted a good long swim instead. I did 2000 yards total: 500 warmup, 200 kick, 100 warmup, 500 free, 5x100 free, and 200 cooldown. I did that in about 42 minutes, which is right at my goal time for the Half Ironman -- I hope to do the 1.2 miles (2112 yards) in 45-50 minutes. Take away the pushing-off-the-wall benefit of the pool but add the wetsuit benefit of the HI swim, and I think that's reasonable.

Anyway, this week's schedule is going to need some re-working -- no bike today, and I'm busy until 10 p.m. on Tuesday. On top of that, I may be going to Corpus next weekend. Here's my tentative rescheduling of this week:

Mon - 20-25 mile bike
Tues - 4-mile run in the a.m. if time allows
Wed - brick with 10 mile bike, 2 mile run
Thu - 5 mile run
Fri - rest -- OR 4-mile run if I can't make the 6K on Saturday
Sat - Buffalo Wallow 6K -- OR rest if I can't make it
Sun - 30-40 miles bike on trainer (after dark) hopefully ?!? if I get back to Houston in time...

Saturday, January 27, 2007

The daily training update: I ran 10.15 miles on the very, very wet Seabrook trails. Apparently running over there after more than two weeks of rain with only two clear days, including more rain this morning, was not the best idea I've ever had. (I didn't even think about it -- I was so excited to just be outside!) Within the first mile, I'd decided to just enjoy it, and made little effort to avoid the puddles from then on. In the end, it wasn't a big deal.

Like I said, I was excited to be outside, but I wasn't really excited to be running. I just wasn't feeling it today, and my post-run condition agrees -- I'm just as stiff and sore as I was two weeks ago after the Half, and I ran 3 miles less today! Ah well. I did my 11/1 run/walk thing and covered the distance in 1:52:16, or just over an 11:00/mile pace. I did have one freak mile (#7) that I did in 10:46, even with a minute of walking.

The silver lining is that if I can do 11:00 pace on a day when I'm feeling pretty apathetic about running, I feel pretty confident that I can do 13:45 pace on April 1 when I'm tired from swimming and biking, but excited to be on the last leg of my Half Ironman. That pace is equivalent to a 3-hour half marathon, which is my goal for that day.

Sunday, January 21, 2007

Weekend workout recap:

On Saturday, I swam 1000 yards in 20 minutes. Either I've just gotten faster somehow, or the pool is short. I dunno. Breakdown was 300 yards warmup, 10x50 with 10 seconds recovery, and 200 yards cooldown. Lap swim hours on the weekend are limited -- 5:00 - 6:00 -- but I was the only one there at 5. One other woman came in halfway through my swim. They have open swim hours earlier in the afternoon; I'll have to check it out and see if lap swimming is doable during those hours.

I drove home, changed, and immediately jumped on the treadmill for 4 miles in 48:00. Must've looked like I was extremely sweaty, since my hair was all wet! I wore the running skirt I got at Luke's Locker last weekend before the half marathon; it was my first run with the skirt. I had some doubts about how well it would work, since the shorts underneath were not very long and, as previously mentioned, I don't have particularly skinny thighs. I even took a pair of shorts just in case I needed to change mid-run, but I'm happy to report that the skirt felt surprisingly good! Not sure I'd do a long run in it, but for shorter runs, sure. So the biggest problem in the run turned out to be not the skirt, but the sketchy treadmill in my apartment complex gym. I can't explain it, but it just felt weird.

Today I was supposed to bike 30 miles, and I had plenty of time to do that -- but only before 11 a.m. since I had committments from then until after dark. Alas, the weather was still bleak, cold, and wet and I couldn't bike! Argh! Of course the weather was finally looking good (sun, oh glorious sun!) at 5:30 when I got home -- with not enough time before dark to do a bike ride. So at the suggestion of Steeeve, I substituted a 6-mile run with a pickup towards the end. I wasn't particularly looking forward to the sketchy treadmill, so I did 12+ mind-numbing laps of my apartment complex. (When I buy a house, I am SO making sure that it has access to at least a 3-mile route.) Anyway, one lap of my apartment is ever-so-close to a half mile -- it's 0.49 miles. So what I really did is 6 x 0.98 miles, plus a little bit at the end to make it an even 6 miles. Splits for the 0.98 mile repeats were 10:33, 10:41, 10:43, 10:22, 9:32, and 10:17, with 1:10 for an additional 0.12 at the very end. Good run, and the laps actually weren't quite as annoying as I thought they'd be.

Weekend non-workout recap coming later...

Friday, January 19, 2007

When I see the temperature around 40 degrees, the thought of running outside always makes me shiver. Then I get out there, and remember that 40 degrees is freaking ideal for running. Case in point: last night. I think it's the first truly "cold" weather run that I've done all year.

4.01 miles - 40:07 - 10:00/mile
Splits: 10:20, 10:13, 10:01, 9:33

I started out not paying attention to pace, and just running comfortably. As I passed through mile 1, I realized that I was moving along at a pretty good clip and not feeling very tired. I chalked it up to going faster because I needed to warm up! (I wore my hat and gloves and long sleeve shirt; it was a little too much clothing, but I kept it all on anyway.) So I kept going. I passed through mile 2 pretty comfortably as well, breathing hard but not so hard that I couldn't have had a short conversation. By the time I'd reached mile 3, the average pace reading on my Garmin, which had started out around 10:20, had fallen to 10:10. When I noticed at 3.5 that it was 10:08, I thought "heck with it, let's see if I can average an even 10!" So I took off for the last half mile, and made it.

It felt good. I hadn't planned to run fast, and the odd part is that the 10:00 average didn't feel completely horrible -- only the last half mile when I was closer to 9:00 pace! I was in a good mood for the rest of the night. And I'm still in a good mood today, because it's my day off! No running, no swimming, no biking, just Friday night and dinner and fun.

In response to my little running pace math problem yesterday, both Nick and Jose both solved it independently for me. Nick even left work late because he spent 20 minutes writing a Matlab script! It comes down to the fact that minutes per mile = 60 / mph. It's not a linear relationship. I probably could have figured that out myself, but it was way more fun to have someone else obsess about it. :)

Thursday, January 18, 2007

Everyone who ran the marathon should read this article on the Runner's World website: Kristin Armstrong writing about Tour de France king Lance's real reaction to his first marathon last November in New York.

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

It was way too freaking cold outside last night, so I ran on the treadmill. Gilruth is nicer (read: less crowded) around 7:00, as it turns out. I headed over after my first day of class and set the treadmill for 36 minutes at 5 miles per hour. That's 12:00 miles, equals 3 miles total. Yippee. Monday's swim was a good way to work out the last bits of post-half marathon soreness, but I wanted a nice, easy run to get my legs working again. I could've gone faster, but didn't.

About 10 minutes before I was done, my friend Michelle came in and got on a treadmill next to me. We chatted for the last bit of my run (I was at conversational pace, which was nice). I saw her on Sunday right around mile 12, cheering for all the runners -- and I was surprised to see her, because I'd assumed that she'd be running herself, knowing that she's a very active member of Bay Area Fit.

"Oh, I ran Disney this year," she said, "so I was just out to cheer." I asked her how the Disney race went, and whether she'd done the full or the half.

"Oh," she sort of smirked, "actually I did the Goofy."

I almost fell off the treadmill! She did the Goofy Challenge (that's a half marathon on Saturday, full marathon on Sunday), and even more -- she PRed the marathon! She beat her Houston time from last year by 5 minutes!

Michelle, you are officially awesome. And crazy. And awesome.

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Here I am running on Sunday! Thanks to Nick for the photo. :)

Monday, January 15, 2007

I haven't been worried about where I would do my swim training for the Half Ironman, because my apartment complex has a heated pool. That plan, however, went out the window when the much-talked-about cold front finally came through and the temperature dropped to 35 degrees. Did I mention that the heated pool is NOT inside?

This wouldn't have stopped me -- I actually did go by the pool to verify that the heat was on, and was validated as I watched the steam rising through the dark cold air -- except for two things. First, I didn't want anyone to glance out their window, see me swimming laps in 35 degree weather, and call the cops thinking I was a crazy person. Second, Jose already thought I was a crazy person for even considering it.

This left me with the options of either not swimming, or finding an indoor pool. My first thought was that I had to swim somewhere today. Skipping my first HI (as I'm going to start appreviating Half Ironman) workout sounded like a really bad way to start things off, and so I next investigated Williams Indoor Pool, where I have swum once before.

Their website says they're open for lap swim from 5:30 - 10 am and from 4-8 pm. I called around 11 to make sure they were open (since it was a government and school holiday) and got an answering machine. Jose and I headed off to Galveston for the day, and I called again at 4:00 hoping to catch someone. Answering machine again. Ate an early dinner along the cold, gray seawall. Called again. Answering machine again.

We got back to Clear Lake around 6:45, which would have been plenty of time if the pool was open, but at this point I was highly doubting it. It was at this point that I checked the heat in my apartment pool, but I made the mistake of taking Jose with me. He made me promise that I would NOT swim in the outdoor pool, telling me that it'd be hard to do a HI if I was recovering from pneumonia.

Ok, Plan B. I knew that Jen, Becca and Buzz used to occasionally swim at the Clear Lake Rec Center, so I called Jen to see if she knew their hours. She didn't, but the place was close enough that I decided to head over anyway. If it was closed, at least I could say that I gave it a shot.

I arrived and -- score! -- it was open. I peered through the foggy windows to see that there were a couple people in the pool, so I waltzed right in. Three old ladies were in the shallow end doing some kind of water exercises. They spotted me immediately.

"Can I help you?" said one. "I was hoping to swim some laps," I said. "I've never been here before -- are you still open?"

"Oh," the lady said, "well, lap swimming time ended at 7:00. We close at 8:00, and 7:00-8:00 is class time." My shoulders sagged, but before I could think anything else, the lady piped up again -- "But we're the only ones here, and we don't care if you swim laps. Go ahead! Just introduce yourself to Johnny down there." She pointed to a bored-looking teenager sitting in the shadows at the other end of the pool. The lifeguard.

Score!

I talked to Johnny, who said he didn't care if I swam laps as long as the old ladies didn't care, so I jumped right in and swam. Of course after all the confusion and uncertainty, I'd completely forgotten what my workout was supposed to be, save for the fact that it was 1000 yards total. So I set out to swim that distance at no particular pace, and by the time I was halfway through I had completely lost track of how many laps I'd done thus far. SIGH.

In the end, I'm pretty sure I did either 1000 or 1100 yards. I forgot my watch as well, but judging from the wall clock I swam for ~23 minutes. I was averaging 2 laps in just under 2:00, and took a few quick breathers, so it was probably a round 1000 yards total. I'm assuming that 2 laps (i.e. down and back twice) is 100 yards, although sub-2:00 for that distance seemed a little fast for me. (The rec center's website says the pool is "Olympic size" but I think they misunderstand the term, because it is most definitely not a 50 meter pool.)

Anyway, first swim workout -- DONE. Afterwards, I went and found the staff member on duty, who gave me a pool membership form. It's $95 for a yearly membership, or $5 per visit. Since a membership would pay for itself after only 19 visits, I'm just going to sign up for the whole year. No more worrying about the weather affecting my swims.

Now I just need to figure out how I'm going to fit in a bike workout in possible freezing rain on Wednesday...

Sunday, January 14, 2007

2:18:46!

It's official. That's a 10:35/mile average; I only ran 1 mile slower than 11:00. It's also a mere 13 seconds slower than last year. It's the slowest of my 4 half marathons, but I'm still pretty dang happy. My official splits were:

10k - 1:05:34 - 10:33/mile to that point
9 Mile - 1:34:48 - 10:32/mile to that point
Finish - 2:18:46 - 10:35/mile total average

I have found that in long races, even including my one marathon to an extent, I am nothing if not consistent. Today my splits were a bit wonky (I'd speed up, then force myself to slow down knowing I couldn't maintain it to the end, then unconsciously speed up again) but my overall average was very, very steady. From mile 1 to the end, the Garmin never read anything beyond 10:28 - 10:35 average pace.

The race really started last night, when Jose and I went over to Liz's new place for dinner with her, James, Chrissy, and Bing. We ate a lot of spaghetti, chatted, and played a couple games before it got "late" (by late I mean about 9:00) and I started thinking about bed. It was great to see all of them (including Liz and Bing, who live in Houston, so you'd think I'd see more often, but no). Chrissy, by the way, rocked her marathon debut today in 4:05. Congrats Chrissy!

The list of all the people I saw and cheered for, and the people who cheered for me, is long and I'm sure I'll forget someone. Yesterday while Jose and I were browsing a Rice Village music store (we took advantage of "being in town" to do some shopping), Barbara called with the news that she was staying at the same hotel. Perfect -- I had someone to walk over to GRB with this morning! When we got there, we immediately saw Jessica. I looked for June and Vic at Jessica's tip that they were "over by that column" but I never found them. After dropping off my bag, I didn't have anything to do until the race start so I just started wandering around. I saw Joe near the club tents and a coworker near the USA running club area. Dalton came up to me to say hi and chat about the help he's given me with the HARRA website run-o-matic. Finally I came across Ron and Buzz, and joined with them to walk to the start line.

The cannon sounded and we were off! Last year's gorgeous sunrise was not to be repeated -- the skies were gray, gray and more gray. The first half of the race was pretty uneventful. I saw some friends at various stages along the course as they passed me -- Keith, Cassie, Barbara, Dalton -- and enjoyed just being with the masses of runners. I had my Shuffle, but never even put the headphones in my ears. I always just end up listening to everyone else.

I was afraid that I had started out too fast, and tried to slow myself down at various points. By the turnaround, I was starting to get pretty tired, but noticing that the 15K and 10-mile markers were reversed got me fired up again (come ON, how hard is it to get that right? The number was painted in orange spray paint on the street! When I pointed this out to the girl who was saying "this mile 10 marker is short" she seemed oblivious to the huge "15K" painted at her feet). That got me fuming a little -- mile 10 was actually 9.3, and 15K was actually 10. Fortunately I had noticed this during mile 8 as I went the other direction, so I knew where to hit my watch.

As a side note, I have to say that I'm unimpressed with the Half this year -- whether it's Aramco or the organizing committee, I'm not sure. But both the t-shirt and the medal were the exact same as last year, just with "2007" instead of "2006." Oh, and the shirt was white, not gray. Is it too much to ask that they be a little more creative with the schwag? The finisher's shirt was nicer this year though, and fits better, so I'll give them that.

Somewhere past mile 8, I saw Nick standing on the other side of the road. "Wait there, I'll be right back!" I called, and I reached him about 5 minutes later after hitting the turnaround. I walked with him for a minute or so to chat and thank him for coming out to cheer for me -- he was all alone, which is pretty unusual for Nick. Thanks for supporting me Nick!

As I turned onto Allen Parkway at mile 11, I couldn't decide whether it was good or bad that you couldn't see downtown through all the fog and mist. I was tired enough that it was probably good -- if I'd seen the buildings, they would have looked too far away!

The eventual marathon winner passed me a bit before I hit 12 miles; he swooshed past on the other side of the road and made all of us half marathoners look like were we standing still. He had a huge lead on the next guy too. Amazing.

At mile 12 I picked up the pace because I knew that I was nearing the end, but really more because I knew that Jose would be just up ahead! I spotted him easily, since he was wearing my bright blue raincoat. I walked with him for a minute and after getting a good luck smooch, I was off for the finish.

I looked at my watch at this point and realized that if I really hoofed it, I might be able to beat last year's time of 2:18:33. I picked up the pace a bit more, but made sure not to go all out since I know from experience that the finish line -- which looks oh-so-close when you make the final turn onto Rusk -- is still more than a half mile away. By mile 13, I knew I'd be close (my watch said 2:18 and I couldn't see the seconds) so I took off as fast as I could for the last tenth of a mile. As I said, I missed last year's time by 13 seconds -- oh well, I'll live!

After the race I met Jose, walked back to the hotel, and took a much-needed shower. After a stop at Starbucks, we made it back out to the course around 25.5 miles to cheer for the 5:00+ marathoners. I saw Jill, Jon and Waverly (running her dad in), and finally the person I was really back out there for -- July! I mean, June! ;) She looked awesome, and I was so happy to see her and know that she was going to finish her first marathon. We waited until after 1:00, when the policemen came by to start reopening the course, hoping to see Vic. I had signed up to track him but never got a 30K update; I worried that something had happened to him. We had to leave because Jose was scheduled to go flying at 3 (which didn't happen due to the weather), and I didn't find out until later that Vic DID finish his first marathon. So, big congrats to both June and Vic.

Mile 1 - 10:47
Mile 2 - 10:39
Mile 3 - 10:15
Mile 4 - 10:41 (yelled hi to Erin at the mile marker; she was calling times)
Mile 5 - 10:17
Mile 6 - 10:29
Mile 7 - 10:41
Mile 8 - 10:14
Mile 9 - 10:41
Mile 10 - 11:11 (walked a bit with Nick)
Mile 11 - 10:46
Mile 12 - 10:48
Mile 13 - 10:16 (walked a bit with Jose)
Last 0.1 - 0:54

This year's performance once again begs the question -- what would happen if I started quality training in September! This year, just like last year, my training was pretty half-assed until I realized that I had to crack down or pull out of the race. If I can pull off a 2:19 with only 6 weeks of hard-core training, I know I could do much better with more consistent ramp-up. Yep, I'm an idiot sometimes. :)

There's no rest for me though -- next stop: Half Ironman! On April 1st I hope to be posting about how I am a Half Ironman. Training starts tomorrow (yes, tomorrow) with a swim workout.

Saturday, January 13, 2007

I know I'm "only" running the Half Marathon, but I totally still need carbs, right? :) To get a good start, I headed downtown last night to have dinner at the Spaghetti Warehouse with this fine bunch:

I had told Jose that he wouldn't be the only non-runner, and I really thought he wouldn't! But some people couldn't make it at the last minute, so he had to sit through dinner listening to all of us talk about every aspect of running. I kid -- he was a good sport. He said after walking around the expo with me for little while, he formed a good image in his head of what a typical runner looks like. He said he could pick out the ones that were running and the ones that were just significant others. That made me laugh.

I know I'm "only" running the half marathon, but I totally had a race-anxiety dream last night. Considering the fact that I really don't feel worried about this race, I'll chalk it up to anxiety on behalf of others who are running the full! Anyway, I dreamed I was running a half marathon in Kansas City (random), except they started the race in groups of about 50 people. I was the slowest in my group, and after 5 minutes I was running alone. And then I reached the first checkpoint (the race had checkpoints of some kind) and couldn't figure out the clue that I needed to move on. So I started following someone else (the fast people from the 2nd wave had caught up to me), but then I ended up off course. And I went to mile 1, 2, 3, and then 10, 11, and 12. And I was all upset because I was almost to the finish line, but I had missed half of the course! The course wasn't well marked and I couldn't follow it!

Anyway.

I'll be heading downtown later to check into my hotel, have dinner with James and Chrissy and Liz, and hang out. James and Chrissy are in town for her to run the marathon; I'd forgotten they were coming until she emailed earlier this week. It's always fun to see college friends.

The ever-changing weather forecasts are converging and it looks like it's gonna be cold in the morning after all, with the biiiiig cold front arriving after all. I'm hoping for no rain, but doubting that we'll make it through the entire morning without a drop.

Good luck to all who are running tomorrow!

Thursday, January 11, 2007

If you are so inclined, you can once again track me as I run the Half Marathon on Sunday morning. If the setup is the same as in previous years, the cell phone update works pretty well, and you get my splits at -- I think -- the 5K, 10K, 9-mile, and finish.

I did a 5-miler last night pretty comfortably. I started out slow but sped up at the end.

5.07 miles - 55:17 - 10:54 average pace

Mile 1-2.9 - 11:26, 11:02, 9:53 (the Gilruth trail is 2.9 miles long)
Mile 3.9-5.07 - 10:54, 10:17, 1:42

The splits are confusing, I know. I had the Garmin set on auto-lap, but I also wanted to record my time for one full 2.9-mile lap on the trail. So I hit "lap" at 2.9 miles assuming that auto-lap would still catch the split at 3 miles. Not so. After that, it reset its mileage counter such that it took a split at 3.9 and 4.9.

Obviously I still have some more to learn about the Garmin. That dang thing is smarter than me! :)

In other news, I packed a lunch today for the first time in months. I am absurdly proud of this.

Sunday, January 07, 2007

On days like these, I wonder what it feels like to be fast. I know that fast runners work just as hard as I do, if not harder, and that they push themselves to their limits just like I push myself (sometimes) to mine. But the fact remains that while fast might not be easy, it's still fast. I wonder what it feels like to be Steve, or Edwin, or Sam. They can look at their schedules and think "hmm, 8 miles, that should take me about an hour." I look at my schedule and think "hmm, 8 miles, I'll be doing well if I can finish that in an hour and a half."

One of the big reasons I haven't decided to train for another marathon yet is that I remember fall 2004 all too well, and the feeling of doing nothing but work, eat, sleep, and run. And I wonder what it feels like to be fast. See, for a slow runner like me, I remember my long runs taking one hours...two hours...three hours...my longest run, a 22-miler, took 4+ hours.

I'm not complaining, really I'm not. It's just that I had grand plans to clean my apartment today. But after getting up, eating some lunch, waiting to let the food settle, running, cooling down, showering, and eating again, it's almost 6:00 and my apartment is just as messy as it was when I got up this morning. Being slow sucks for getting anything else done. :)

8.3 miles
1:29:50
10:49 min/mile (even with 11/1s ?!)

I ran my 8-miler on the Seabrook trails this afternoon, and passed dozens of people also out enjoying the beautiful weather. I was amazed by the 10:49 pace, enough that I checked my whole route via the Gmap pedometer. That turned up 8.2 miles, with me not following the route super-closely just to save some clicking.

The Garmin did well (yes I got one, see post below) and I liked having it. I haven't read the owners manual yet, so I just left it on the default screen that showed total time, instantaneous pace, and total distance. The instantaneous pace calculation seemed a little flaky -- it jumped around quite a bit, especially under tree cover. But overall I'm impressed. I love gadgets!

Sunday, January 07, 2007

Ok. I admit it. I am weak! I couldn't resist its siren call:

Testing it out momentarily...

Saturday, January 06, 2007

Got my confirmation card yesterday and will be picking up my packet on Saturday. Jose was just asking what my race goal is, so I guess I'll share with everyone. First of all: finish. (My main goal in any race is always to finish.) If I finish under 2:25, I'll be happy. If I finish under 2:20, I'll be very happy. I believe 2:25 is doable; 2:20 will be harder, but not impossible if things go well (good weather, etc).

This will be my 4th half marathon and third in Houston. My times thus far have been 2:15:01 (Houston 2004), 2:16:35 (Austion 2004), and 2:18:33 (Houston 2006). As you can see, I've slacked off more and more with each race, and my times show it. ;) But I still love to get out there and run on race day.

This will also be my 4th year of running through downtown on the Sunday before MLK day. In 2005, of course, I did the full 26.2 miles. I sort of like this little tradition, and hope to continue.

I did 3 miles today in 32:30. Tomorrow I'll do 8. Next Sunday is the big day!

Friday, January 05, 2007

The upside of taking an unintentional four-day break from running is that I felt pretty good last night when I got back out there. Steeeve suggested 4 miles -- 1 warmup, 2 at 11:00 pace, and 1 cooldown. I tried to comply, but ended up going faster because I felt pretty darn good. I did the 4 miles in 42:56.

Mile 1 - 10:55
Mile 2 - 10:43 (into the wind, some light drizzle)
Mile 3 - 10:07 (wind at my back, drizzle stopped)
Mile 4 - 11:11

Even in the 3rd mile, I felt fairly comfortable. Last night, 10:10 pace is something I felt like I could have maintained over at least a 5K distance, assuming I did a good warmup.

I updated my sidebar with a list of upcoming races that I'm planning to do, and only then did I realize how packed my spring is:

January 14 - Houston Half Marathon
February 10 - Surfside Half Marathon
March 4 - Little Rock Half Marathon (BIG maybe)
March 17 - Seabrook Lucky Trails Half Marathon
April 1 - Lone Star Half Ironman Triathlon
April 14 - Charlotte (NC) Racefest Half Marathon with my sister

Buzz asked if I wanted to do Austin; I can't because I'll be skiing. Gavin has thrown out the idea of doing Little Rock on March 4 (his sister lives there and he says the course is really nice), but we don't have solid plans yet.

I won't be racing all of these all-out; some are just a way of me getting in a fun training run, since I need to maintain/improve my 13.1-mile level of fitness until the Half Ironman comes and goes. And obviously I won't be focusing entirely on running after January 14. My priorities are 1) finishing Houston in style, 2) finishing the Half Ironman, period (under their 8.5 hour time limit), and 3) having fun in Charlotte running with my sister as she does her first half marathon.

My presense at Seabrook is up in the air, since STS-117 is currently scheduled to launch that day, but I'm hoping to do it.

And then I think "heck, if I actually do all of those races, I'll have done 5 half marathons in 4 months...might as well keep going and do Love the Half!" (Although I'm not quite sure what the advantage to signing up for that program is; seems like you're paying a fairly high registration fee just to get a finisher's prize and your name on a website.)

We'll see. That schedule is/will/would be far more ambitious than anything I've done before, and yet it's happened almost by accident. We'll just see...

Saturday, December 30, 2006

I ran my one and only marathon (thus far, anyway) in January 2005. I haven't run farther than 13.1 miles since. So today's scheduled 14-miler was going to be quite an accomplishment...and I'm proud to say that I did it!

14 miles - 2:36:44 - 11:15 min/mile average pace

I broke the run down into 3 laps -- what measured out to be a 7-miler, a 4.6-miler, and an 2.4-miler.

7 miles - 1:18:11 - 11:10 pace
4.6 miles - 51:13 - 11:08 pace
2.4 miles - 27:20 - 11:23 pace

It was nice to be doing progressively shorter laps, and the two breaks allowed me to duck into the house for some water and goo. (I did not include my two ~3:00 water breaks in my total time.) I did my 11/1 run/walk pattern almost the whole way, until the last lap when I walked a bit more on a couple of the more brutal hills. The hills did a number on my knees and they're pretty sore tonight, but overall I'm very happy with the run.

The best part was two hours later though, when I picked Jose up from the airport and welcomed him to my hometown. :)

Wednesday, December 27, 2006

After Christmas shopping with Mom

After Christmas shopping with Mom is one of my favorite things to do while I'm home. Today we hit the mall (which, for the record, is totally different than it was 10 years ago when I worked there; I can't even find half the stores anymore, and there's a zillion new and expensive shops in their place). I came away with the two items I was hoping for -- a new purse, which I found at Belk's, and black casual shoes, which I found at Clark's. This was after being basically laughed at by the shoe salesman at Belk's when I dared to ask if they had a certain pair in a size 11. Damn department stores and their prejudice against bigfoots like me!

This morning I did the speedwork that I was supposed to do yesterday -- 4x800 at 4:20 with 400 recovery. Believe it or not, today was the first time I've ever run on an actual track -- today's track being the one at A.G. Middle School here in Charlotte. Now, never having run on a track before, I assumed that the innermost lane was the one that was 400 meters, and that all the outer lanes were progressively more. It wasn't until my cooldown (at which point I suspected that the inner lap may have been slightly short, due to my times) that I finally took a closer look at all the different markings on the track and finally decided that on this particular track, lane two is 400 meters. Which means my lane was a bit short. So, let's call the workout 4x790 meters, with 395 recovery. :)

My "warmup" mile clocked in at 10:41. I really didn't think I'd done it quite that fast, which was the beginning of my suspicions about the track. Anyway, I began my repeats and immediately felt like crap. I've been battling some sniffles ever since I got home (probably just the change in weather), and felt like I couldn't get a good breathing rhythm going. My legs felt heavy too. And every time I passed the far end of the track, a cold breeze blew in my face. I just was not feeling it.

However, somehow the workout came together in the end. I can't say I ever felt warmed up or particularly comfortable, but I got it done. I walked all the recovery 400s just to give myself a mental break. Splits were:

4:04, 4:14 (800 running, 400 walking)
4:10, 4:20
4:14, 4:19
4:14, 4:20

Interesting to note that at that repeat speed, I was running exactly twice as fast as my "brisk walk" pace. Cooldown mile was 11:07.

So I felt like poo, yet pulled off the workout just as called for. Hmm. I can only chalk that up to the weather, which was ideal -- very sunny, in the upper 40s.

Thursday, December 21, 2006

Did I run last night?

Did I run last night? Of course I did. I am running like a madwoman, because I am going to be ready for the half marathon.

I did 5 miles in 55:59 for an 11:12/mile pace. My splits tell the story more accurately: 11:39, 11:42, 10:56, 10:56, 10:46. It took two miles to really get going, and to work out the pain/tightness in my (as I have now learned it's called) soleus muscle. It hurt, but not horribly, and by mile 3 things had stopped whining. The rest of the run was gravy after that, though I got going a bit too fast in the last mile and slowed myself down in the last quarter mile.

I'm not running tonight; I'm going out to dinner instead. I know, I know, I probably could've tried harder to fit in my 4-miler, but I'll survive. Cheeky chorus can now chime in below. ;) I won't be running tomorrow either, as it's my scheduled rest day and I'll be working, watching a shuttle landing (hopefully), and flying home to Charlotte. The two days of rest, however, should leave me fresh for another 10-miler on Saturday! I can't wait for my week and a half of running in Charlotte; there are so many good routes, and trees, and hills, and cool weather.

So yeah, we're having dinner tonight, but we couldn't wait any longer to do presents. We opened them last night! I gave J an iPod, and he promptly disappeared into his room for the rest of the evening to play with his new toy (and sync all his music) while I worked on the never-ending photomosaic puzzle. Hmm...I think he liked his present. ;) He gave me earrings, a necklace, and a jewelry box. Hmm...I think I like my presents too.

It's been a good year.

Sunday, December 17, 2006

What's with the return to

What's with the return to warm weather? Ugh.

Yesterday I ran my 3 miles with J. We both struggled in the 1:00 heat. The warmth would have been nice weather in August, but it's hot for December. We took it nice and easy, covering 3.15 miles in 37:33, about a 12:00 mile.

Today was another run I dreaded -- I always seem to dread my upcoming long runs. It makes me wonder if maybe long distance running just ain't for me, except I do feel good once the run is in the books. It's just the initial hurdle of getting out there that's tough. If only I could convince J that he wanted to take up distance running, so I could have a running partner! But that's highly doubtful.

Anyway, today I was scheduled to run 10 miles, and I did. It was slow going at first, fine in the middle, and tiring at the end. I ran two slightly abbreviated out-and-backs on the Seabrook trails for a total of 10.15 miles in 1:53:40. That's ~11:15/mile. I did the whole run as a series of 11/1 running/walking; otherwise I think I'd have been much more miserable. My brain is always more motivated when I have a little walk break to look forward to.

I hope to stay on track for the rest of the week, with the exception of Thursday. I'm leaving town on Friday night, so Thursday night is date night! I promised I wouldn't run that night. :)

Thursday, December 14, 2006

Tempo run tonight, 4 miles.

Tempo run tonight, 4 miles. When I got out there in the fog, I couldn't remember whether I was supposed to run all 4 miles at tempo pace, or do a warmup and cooldown mile with 2 tempo miles in the middle. So I did a combo -- one warmup mile followed by tempo miles for the rest: 11:25, 10:54, 10:23, 10:42. I walked a half mile at the end as cooldown.

I think my legs are feeling the effects of the increased running I've done this week (and will continue to do through the half marathon). They're sore. They were sore throughout my 4 miles. I'm looking forward to tomorrow's rest day.

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

I'm not sure where to

I'm not sure where to start with this one. If I say my speed workout went well, I have the sneaking suspicion that I'll be setting myself up for even tougher workouts in the future (eeps). If I say it went poorly, then I'd be lying.

It went very well. Extremely well. To be honest, it went better than I ever could have expected, especially because this workout scared the CRAP out of me. It called for 2x1600 at 8:50 and 8:40, with only 400 recovery. I think my heart rate was at about 130 before I even started running.

I ran on this 800m trail at the Gilruth. This is not the Gilruth trail I normally run on, since it's short, rather curvy and not ideal for speedwork. But it's marked every 100m and it picks up some light from the nearby football field so I can see where I'm going, so there I was. After my workout, I had some serious doubts that it was truly 800 m, but Google maps agrees with the Gilruth Center. 800 m it is.

1600 m warmup - 11:58
1600 m speed - 8:58 (!)
400 m walking recovery - 4:24
1600 m speed - 8:40 (!!!)
100 m walking recovery - 1:13
1600 m cooldown - 12:03

I am shocked.
I am amazed.
I truly did not think that I could do that.
Ok, correction: I didn't think I could do that and not vomit afterwards.

I sped up a bit over the course of each repeat. For the first, my half mile splits were 4:37 and 4:21; for the second, they were 4:23 and 4:17. The first mile felt, well, hard. But not crazy hard, which was the surprise. The 400 m walking recovery was much-needed -- I probably was supposed to jog, but I walked. When I started the second mile, I started to feel tired more quickly. I hit my watch after my first 800 m loop but it was too dark and I couldn't see the split! "Just keep running," I panted out loud. I really thought I had to have been going slower, because it felt so much harder. By the end, I wasn't going all-out, but I was close.

So, saying I'm happy would be an understatement. I'm freaking thrilled!

Tomorrow night is the Striders Christmas Lights Run. Hoping to see some of you there!

Sunday, December 10, 2006

I thought I'd do my

I thought I'd do my 8 miles today on the Seabrook trails, since I figured I'd be at work all afternoon. But hey, we launched yesterday! Hooray! So instead, I headed downtown for the Jingle Bell Run, which I'd registered for a few weeks ago.

Now, the Jingle Bell Run is 5 miles, so for the first time ever, I ran before and after a race to get in all my miles! I don't think it's a habit I particularly want to get into, but it's not a bad way to get in the miles while still getting to hit the races.

It certainly would've been nice if the weather'd been better though! Chilly, and drizzling. It wouldn't have been as chilly if it hadn't been as wet, but oh well.

Buzz came along and ran with me the whole way, and I must say, it was really nice to have some company. We got to just run and chat, and she kept me going at the end when my legs were starting to tire.

We headed out a bit before the race and got back to the start in 11:15. (I Google mapped it at 1.1 miles.) About 5 minutes later, we started the race itself. Though I hate the "hills" of Allen Parkway, we finished the race in 55:26. After a quick water stop, we headed back out again for what ended up being 23:16, and 2.1 miles.

That 8.2 miles in 1.5 hours, which is right at 11:00/mile. I'm pretty proud of myself for that run.

Saturday, December 09, 2006

I decided that I need

I decided that I need to be held accountable for my running to someone other than myself. As such, I finally asked Steeeve for some help in getting me prepared for the half marathon. He responded within hours with a complete plan for the next six weeks, modified for moi. How can I argue with that kind of attention?

He also said that he will leave cheeky comments on my blog if it appears that I'm not running, and I wouldn't want that, so: today I ran 3 miles. I ran 2 out-and-backs, and post-run I discovered it was actually more like 3.15 miles. It was chilly, so I wore a long sleeve shirt, capri pants, and gloves. I was cold for the first mile, but ok after that. The cold weather always affects my lungs a bit -- not right away, but for the rest of the day. I've been coughing a little since I got back an hour ago. This is pretty normal for me.

I ran at a decent pace, but not hard enough that I wanted to take any walk breaks or anything. I covered the 3.15 miles in 32:58 (10:26/mile). I think I was supposed to be going slower, but I really felt ok. And how's this for splits -- 16:30 for the first out-and-back, 16:28 for the second. It's rare that I'm that consistent. Anyway, Steeeve will chime in below if I need to slow down.

Tomorrow is 8 miles. I'll certainly be going slower then.

Saturday, December 02, 2006

The Reindeer Run this morning

The Reindeer Run this morning was pretty chilly. But fun! And I'm happy to announce that Jose's second-ever 5K resulted in a new PR for him. We did the Astros Race for the Pennant in May in 35:18 and today, in much cooler weather (but with much less preparation on his part), we ran 35:00! I looked at my watch with just under a half mile to go and saw 30:00 pass, so I told him we needed to step things up it a notch to finish under 35. He did it! 35 minutes flat. There were no mile markers, so I didn't take splits even though I know approximately where the miles are.

He had some problems with slippery shoelaces -- they came untied three times, despite double knots! It happened twice in the first mile, and each time he stopped and then had to run a little faster to catch back up to Debbie and me. I think that wore him out more than he expected, and he said the cold air was pretty harsh on his throat (he was coughing a lot post-race). So, I don't think he's really too crazy about this "running thing," but it makes me happy to have him at a race every so often. I wasn't really thinking, or I would've gotten a photo of us in our foam reindeer antlers. Of course we wore our reindeer antlers, what are you thinking? Sadly, most people don't. I think they are fun.

As for me, I felt great the whole time and chatted a lot with Debbie; Jose doesn't really talk when he's running, unlike me. Debbie did a number on her knees at a Thanksgiving race, so she took it easy and ran the whole way with Jose and me. She didn't even say she was going to run with me and then leave me in the dust in the last few tenths of a mile like she normally does. ;) Gavin and Mike (his dad) ran about 27:00, and Mr. Joe Carey...well, I'll let Joe share his race on his own blog! Let's just say he pushed hard and was rewarded for it. It was also nice to see the few BARCers that I know -- Vera at packet pickup, Veronica walking around with her camera (I'm not sure if she ran or not), and Jay behind the timing table.

Wednesday, November 29, 2006

I had a great run

I had a great run last night, despite the warmish weather and the plentiful humidity. (Just wait. By Friday it's gonna be cold.) I did 3 miles on the tried and true Gilruth trail, covering the distance in 31:20. I was working pretty hard at the end, but not all out. I don't have the splits in front of me, but the miles were something like 10:40, 10:50, and 9:50. I'm so inconsistent! Ah well. I do usually run my last mile faster, since I know I'm nearing the end. And I really must update my new iPod Shuffle. When I got it, I just dumped a bunch of music on it without attention to what it was. There are far too many slow and quiet songs, and not enough loud running songs!

If you've read basically any other runner's blog today, you'll have already heard that the Houston Marathon & Half Marathon is now sold out for 2007. I'm surprised it sold out so early (a month and a half out), but it's pretty cool as well. Heck, the MS150 isn't until April and it sold out weeks ago. As long as it doesn't turn into one of those you-must-sign-up-the-day-registration-opens, I'm fine with a registration cap. I think in the end, it probably makes the race experience better for everyone.

A few weeks ago J and I bought a puzzle on impulse at Target. It's 1000 pieces, and the picture is Van Gogh's Starry Night. Here's the catch -- it's one of those photomosaics, so the puzzle is actually 1000 pieces of tiny, tiny images. All the tiny photos are space-related, so that is cool, but dang it if this isn't going to be a challenge. Last night over the course of about 3 hours while watching TV, we managed to get the border done.

Monday, November 20, 2006

I tried for weeks to

I tried for weeks to put together a relay team for yesterday's 25K and 25K Relay. First I had Debbie. Then she backed out. Then Buzz was going to be in Nebraska or Iowa or one of those states in the middle. Then June was thinking about it but decided not to since she ran 15 on Saturday. Finally Erica stepped up, but that left us without a third. We pressed on, and worst case, Erica was prepared to run two laps.

At the last minute, Erin decided that the Achilles injury she's fighting would do ok for 5.15 miles and joined us as our third runner. The three of us met at 6:15 yesterday morning in the chilly air and wind, and as we discussed order, Erin piped up "I'd like to go first or second so I can get over to the HARRA tent." Without really thinking, we handed Erin #2525A. I took the second leg, so that I could take photos of both the start and of a lot of finishers, and Erica took the third.

Now, I'm not sure if there has ever been a relay team quite as mismatched as the three of us. I hoped to run 10:30 miles; Erica planned on 12:00 pace; Erin, who was "taking it easy" because of her Achilles problems, was planning on 7:00 pace.

Yes, 7:00 pace. Erin's a speedy gal.

The gun went off, I took some photos, we met up with June (who was out there after about 3 hours of sleep simply to cheer for everyone -- now that's dedication), Jon and Waverly and headed over to the relay transition area, which was right at the end of the loop (the full 25K was three loops of the same course; the relay was simply three people running one loop each). Within 40 minutes, Erin came speeding down the overpass and into transition area. I took the chip from her and took off like a shot.

It was at that very moment that I realized we may have made a small mistake in letting the very fast person go first! Suddenly I found myself in a very foreign situation -- surrounded by dozens upon dozens of 7:00 milers!

I didn't pass a single person in 5.15 miles. At least 300 people must have passed me, and I'm not exaggerating that number. It may have been more. As those around me slowed ever-so-slightly from the 7:00 milers to the 7:30 milers to the 8:00 milers to the 8:30 milers, I had to laugh. Occasionally a runner would think that I was really struggling, and would offer words of support. "Nice steady pace, keep it up." I wanted to explain -- no, really, I don't belong here!

But there were benefits. Though I took off wayyyyy too fast and paid for it in the middle miles (my shin splits made a reappearance), running amidst all the faster people made me run faster -- even if I didn't always realize it. Plus, I got to run with people I never even see during races; I ran with Edwin, Steeeve and Joe, each for the ~5 seconds it took them to pass me! ;)

If I ever end up in that pace group again, I figure I'll either set a PR or die. One of the two...

The race went very well for me despite the bummer of never being able to pass anyone. I did my 5.15 miles in 52:48 for an average of 10:15/mile! I'm very excited about that. My legs ached something fierce for the rest of the day though, and soccer last night didn't help (they do feel ok this morning, thank goodness).

My splits are sort of crazy since I started the race at ~5.2 miles and ended at ~10.35 miles but decided to just hit my watch at the 2nd loop mile markers.

~0.8 miles - 7:32
Mile "2" - 10:04
Mile "3" - 10:42
Mile "4" - 10:27
Mile "5" - 10:36
~0.35 miles - 3:27

I ran the first 1.8 miles, but walked twice during mile "3" when I felt like total crap after going out so fast. My shin splints a.k.a. burning sensation subsided about halfway through (finally!) and after that, I took a 1-minute at the 8-mile marker and the 9-mile marker (remember I was running the second loop, so Erin had done the first 5 miles), and then ran the final ~1.35 miles to handoff the baton to Erica. The last bit was nice, since the race into transition was down the overpass that I'd just struggled to run up.

Erica had a great third leg as well, averaging an 11:53 mile which was the fastest average pace she's ever done in a race. She also commented that she never passed a single person -- dang you Erin! ;) -- but I'll hazard a guess that she ran faster too thanks to being among faster people.

All in all, a great day for all three of us!

Before and after the race, I had a great time socializing with all the bloggers (practically everyone was there!), and running the final couple tenths of a mile with Vic. I guess I must be hooked on running and races since I spent 5+ hours at a race and only ran for less than an hour. I'm actually pretty disappointed that I won't be here on Thursday morning for the Uptown Turkey Trot, since other bloggers will be there and it's a race I've run four years straight. However, I suppose I can't be too disappointed since I'll be in Corpus with the boy and his family. His whole family. Must not get too nervous...

The race wiped me out and I spent the rest of the day walking around in a fog until soccer. We played a team that is slightly better than us, and tied 0-0! It felt good to hold them scoreless, even when they started attacking like crazy in the second half. I didn't touch the ball much, which is actually a sign that our team was playing very well. I'm sweeper, the last player before the goalie, and I'm the only defender who, in theory, does not have to mark an opposing player. I pick up the players who sneak through unmarked or get past our defenders. So if I don't touch the ball much, it means that our team is marking extremely well.

Thursday, November 09, 2006

In search of a third

In search of a third person to run the 25K relay (that's 3 x 8.33K) on November 19 with me and Erica. We've got no preference whatsoever on gender, age, or pace. Between the two of us and the weather, we'll run our legs at 10-13 min/mile pace.

Anybody?

Monday, November 06, 2006

Yesterday I set aside an

Yesterday I set aside an hour to watch the New York Marathon highlight show, and it didn't disappoint. Jelena Prokopcuka repeated her victory from last year, Brazilian Marilson Gomes dos Santos pulled an upset and became the first non-African to win the men's race in years, Lance made his sub-3:00 goal with 24 seconds to spare, and Dean finished his 50th marathon and 50th state on the 50th day.

As I was watching, I started to wonder why the women's elite marathon field seems more diverse. Though there are many fast men, the major men's marathons are usually dominated by Kenyans -- or at least Africans. The women, though, are from all over the place. There are Kenyans and other Africans, to be sure, but there are Americans and Europeans and all others. Prokopcuka is Latvian. The second-place woman is Ukrainian. Deena Kastor, an American, was the pre-race favorite (she finished 6th). And the world record at the moment is held by Paula Radcliffe, a Brit, who didn't run yesterday because she's pregnant and due in January.

Why isn't the men's field as diverse? I have no idea.

The NY Times had a particularly interesting article today about rabbits -- runners paid to set the pace for half the race before dropping out and leaving the elites to fend for themselves. Yesterday, the women's rabbit was controversial because she ran away from the elite field; she was running the pace that had been agreed upon the day before, but the women's lead pack chose not to follow her. Was she right to keep the pace she'd agreed to, or should she have fallen back to the lead pack? I tend to think that she did her duty by running the set pace, but then again, I'm not an elite runner so I don't know all the specifics.

Sunday, November 05, 2006

When it comes to running,

When it comes to running, let's just say I don't have the smartest instincts. I don't eat all that well, don't hydrate very well, and don't run consistently enough to really improve my speed. But my very unscientific method is ok for me. It gets me where I need to be and I'm happy with that.

Last weekend I ran the 10K, which was my longest race since the spring. This weekend I planned to do 7-8 miles, and met up with June, Cassie and Erica at Memorial Park early this morning. I knew that June was going 13, but when she told me via email last night that she was going to do 5/1s (that's 5 minutes of running followed by 1 minute of walking, and repeat), I had my first inkling that I might just end up going farther than 7 miles.

I don't really know why I did it, but I ended up sticking with June and Cassie the whole way. I was totally not prepared -- no fuel belt, no gu -- but Cassie had an extra gu, June had an extra bottle of Gatorade, and there were plenty of water fountains. I did take a pit stop at the Doubletree downtown to, ahem, use the facilities, which left me about .5 miles short of those two in the end (I turned around when they caught up to me after having turned around at the convention center).

My foot pod isn't the most accurate thing, and I haven't calibrated it, but Google pedometer says I ran right around 11.1 miles, give or take a tenth. 11 miles! I haven't gone that far since January. Total time (subtracting my bathroom break) was about 2:25, or right around a 13:00/mile average pace.

At that relaxed pace, I felt really good through about 8 miles. During the last 3 miles, I got reacquainted with a feeling I haven't experienced since my one marathon -- the aching, persistent soreness in my joints as they swell with the stress of going farther than they have in a loooong time.

Some Advil when I got back to the car fixed that up though, and I'm now sitting at home not feeling all that bad. I have a feeling I'm going to be agonizingly sore tomorrow, but oh well. It was worth it to enjoy a long run with the ladies. Afterwards, Erica and I had breakfast with Vic, who did 13 this morning.

My running friends are cool.

Sunday, October 29, 2006

Rachel woke up as a

Rachel woke up as a Mrs. this morning. Congratulations to her and John!

The bloggers KICKED BUTT this morning at the Houston Half Marathon. Five PRs, four debuts, and all outstanding runs. All the results are in one place on Jon's blog, of course, so I won't bother to list them all here. But congratulations to everyone who ran, and I'm a little sad I wasn't there to cheer you all on.

I did do a race this weekend, but with everything I've got going on, I decided to do one closer to home that didn't involve driving downtown. I ran the League City Rotary 10K yesterday morning. The race itself, unfortunately, gets a thumbs down for many shortcomings. But the weather was absolutely gorgeous and with Debbie as my unintentional rabbit, I had a great run, covering the ~6.1 miles in 1:04:43. That's 10:37/mile. (The course was not certified and appears to have been slightly short, according to Google pedometer and thoughts from Buzz, Ron, and Vera Balic -- though Vera said Rudy Rocha felt it was accurate. Ron spoke briefly to the race director, who said they'd had a certified course, but had to change it at the last minute after difficulties with the city. Who knows.) There were no mile markers, so I only had splits for each out-and-back -- 32:41 and 32:02.

The race was put on by the "other" running store in Clear Lake. I've never been there -- what can I say, I'm loyal to On The Run. Apparently they only sell Mizuno shoes anyway (strange). I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt and say that many of the race's issues were a result of having to change the course, but the issues were many and I couldn't help but compare it to what OTR would've done with it.

+ Course was short. And boring -- out, back, out, back.
+ No mile markers, anywhere. Not a single one.
+ Chip-timed, but the only timing mat was at the finish. No point to having chips if they don't record your start time, or splits.
+ Bananas, oranges, and donuts. No other post-race food.
+ Awards ceremony wasn't until noon, at the Food & Wine Festival. Race was at 8 a.m. Debbie finished 3rd in our age group (I was 4th) but left because she didn't want to wait another 2 hours for her medal!
+ $30 entry fee when I signed up last Tuesday

The race did have ample water stops, a nice t-shirt, and awesome awards for the overall winners. But there were enough negatives that I'll think twice before doing it again. Still, I had a good run personally, and got in my long run for the weekend. 10K is the farthest I've gone so far this fall; I'll go for 7-8 next weekend as ramp-up for the Half in January starts in earnest.

Thursday, October 19, 2006

Unbelievable! Today I came within

Unbelievable!

Today I came within 19 seconds of a 30:00 5K, and within 1:01 of my PR. Two days ago it took me almost 35 minutes to run 3 miles. Today I ran the Safety Day 5K at work in 30:19.

That is, by far, my fastest 5K in months, maybe even a year.

As soon as I got home, I mapped it, thinking that the course had to have been short, even though I've run there so often that I knew 80% of the trail like the back of my hand. The verdict was 3.07 miles. So ok, fine, you got me, it was barely short. Close enough that it takes nothing away from how awesome I feel! Even at 3.07 miles, that's a sub-10:00/mile average.

Honestly, I don't know where it came from. Of course the weather was absolutely beautiful today after the cold front finally pushed through; sunny and about 70 with no humidity. If this is my reward for running consistently through the heat of the summer while doing that triathlon training program, well, it was totally worth it.

I ran the first 1.75 miles (to the water stop) with Debbie. Mile 1 passed in 9:54, which I chalked up to my good mood about the weather and getting pulled along by Debbie. She pulled me to the water station, and after a quick stop for water (really must learn to drink and run at the same time), my trying to catch up to her got me through mile 2 in 10:10.

Mile 3 was hard; my brain kept telling me to walk, but the rational part of me knew that I didn't need to. My breathing was still under control and my legs felt fine. So I kept going. I knew the trail so well at this point that I knew right where to pick up the pace! I covered the third mile in 9:36, and the last "tenth" (which was actually the 0.07 -- the mile markers were accurate) in 39 seconds.

The most ironic thing has to be that I was just telling Debbie at the beginning of the race that I'd really like to do another sub-30:00 5K, and that maybe I'd train hard this fall to do one in January or February.

Maybe it's closer than I think.

Sunday, October 15, 2006

Geez, what a morning for

Geez, what a morning for a race. Rain, rain, and more rain. When I got home, I had to strip at the doorway; otherwise I'd have left a trail of water across my apartment.

One of the reasons I like the 10-Miler is because it's so close -- it takes me less than 10 minutes to drive there, so I can sleep "late" and still be fine. When my alarm went off at 5:50 though, the first thing I heard was the pitter-patter of raindrops. I groaned. While running in the rain is better, in my opinion, than running in the hot sun, steady rain ain't so great.

Fortunately the rain abated for a bit as I drove to the race site, picked up my packet, and met Debbie. Together, we were Team Crackle, Pop, but Please No Snap -- we each did 5 miles. I also started to see a bunch of my running friends. First up was Vic, who I caught up to and laughingly asked "so did the weatherman predict this?" since I knew he'd been obsessively checking the weather all week. Debbie and I also found Michelle, Kyle and Heidi (the latter were also doing the relay), and I also got to chat with Jessica.

The race started only a couple minutes late. I'd told Debbie yesterday that she could expect one of three time ranges from me depending on what kind of day I was having: good day would be 53-55 minutes, normal day would be 55-58, and bad day would be an hour or more. Since I haven't run 5 miles in a while, my actual goal was 55:00 -- 11:00 miles. I wasn't sure if I could do it, but I thought I had a shot.

Mile 1 passed uneventfully. Some drizzle, and tons of puddles, but ok. I entertained myself by listening to the people around me. I felt like I might've been going ever-so-slightly faster than planned, and that was confirmed when I passed the mile marker in 10:34. I stopped there for a minute-long walk break and just as I started running again, Cassie came up behind me. We ran the second mile together and chatted a little. As we stopped for a drink at the water station just past the mile 2 marker, who should come running up behind us but Jon! The three of us ran together for a bit and then Cassie pulled away, but I stuck with Jon for the rest of my five miles.

Unless you count the marathon (when Jon and I didn't know each other, but he heard people cheering for me the whole way thanks to the sign on my chest), I've never actually run a race with Jon -- he's usually a couple minutes ahead of me. But with him taking it easy today after running Ten for Texas yesterday, I was able to keep up. It was really nice to get to chat with him, and have him pull me along. I didn't tell him, but he helped me overcome my brain telling me I needed walking breaks! I only walked a total of about 2 minutes the entire race, which is something I really needed mentally. The only real complaint I have is that the mile 4 water station had no water. That was definitely not cool, and left me feeling thirsty for the last half of my 5 milers.

Jon also directly helped me have a good day. He tried his best to power ahead of me in mile 5, and I tried my best to let him. But he wouldn't have any of it -- he told me I could finish under 55:00 minutes, and to keep up. So I gritted my teeth and did as told, and....

Mile 1 - 10:34.2
Mile 2 - 11:15.1
Mile 3 - 11:25.9
Mile 4 - 11:12.3
Mile 5 - 10:32.1

Total - 54:59.6!

HECK YEAH. I beat my 55:00 goal by 0.4 seconds, baby! Thanks Jon! The official results show me at 55:25.7 gun time with a differential of 27.1, which puts me at 54:58.6 -- a whole additional second of breathing room under my goal time. ;)

I hopped in Debbie's car (after making a bad decision on what route to take to get there and ending up with my shoes covered in mud) and drove back to the start line to wait for her and cheer on all my friends. At one point, I was talking to Pony, who'd just finished a kick-butt race, and she said "is the sky getting darker or am I about to pass out??" Fortunately, it was the sky! As I looked across the parking lot, I saw just a sheet of water coming our way -- we managed to sneak under the Striders tent just in time to avoid getting completely drenched (as if we weren't drenched already).

I felt sorry for poor Debbie and all the other runners stuck in the downpour, but I was patting myself on the back for choosing the first relay leg. ;) Debbie didn't mind too much, and a few minutes later, with the rain having let up a bit, she came roaring across the finish line like a woman posessed! She did her 5 miles in 50:55.5.

Team Crackle, Pop, but Please No Snap total time: 1:46:21.2 -- good enough for 2nd place in the Female Relay division! Woohoo! (Though that is the gun time. They never took out the 27.1 seconds of chip differential, so our actual time was 1:45:54.) Debbie and I each got a cool wooden plaque with a space station mission patch on it (since it was the Space City 10-Miler sponsored by USA).

This race report is getting long, and I still haven't mentioned how awesome it was to see all the other bloggers come down to my side of town for the race. In addition to the ones I've already mentioned, I got to see June, Joe, Steve, Bill, and Edwin, each of whom had a good race in tough conditions. I also got to meet a couple more Striders that I hadn't met before, so that was nice. I think that's everyone...hope I didn't forget anyone.

All in all, a good race despite the nasty conditions.

Thursday, October 12, 2006

For weeks, I've had allergy

For weeks, I've had allergy symptoms that I've been trying to ignore because I have never had allergies in my entire life. Apparently, after 4+ years of living in Houston and 8+ years of spending at least part of my year here, I have now become allergic to the place. I woke up this morning and could no longer deny it, as my nose was dripping incessantly and I couldn't stray from the kleenex box. I finally took a Benedryl Allergy, which seems to actually be working.

Stupid Houston.

I had dinner last night at Mediterraneo's, and somehow I always end up with so much food there. Last night I had baba ganoush (or however you spell it), lentil soup, greek salad, and a kofta kabab. It was all so yummy, and it was the perfect night to sit outside. They have strings of lights up around their patio that are red, white, and green; the color combination made me feel like it was December, not October.

I saw an ad once -- I can't remember what it was for -- with a headline that went something like "Bad Laundry Weeks are Good Running Weeks." It is so true. I'm always doing laundry.

Confession time: I haven't run farther than a 5K since late August. Sure, there was the day I did both Race for the Cure and the XC Relay (5.1 miles total), but there were 8 hours between the two. But on Sunday I'm running 5 miles in one pop as Debbie and I join forces for the 2x5-mile relay at the USA 10-Miler. (Team name: Crackle, Snap, but Please No Pop! in honor of our knees.)

So last night I decided to tackle 4 miles out at Gilruth. Jose ran with me for the first mile and then I set out on my own. For the first two miles, I just was not feeling it. Mile 1 with J passed in 12:15; we took a walk break of just over a minute then I headed off again. I hit mile 2 with the exact same split -- 12:15. I was discouraged, and took another minute-long walk break, but was determined to just get the distance covered.

Around mile 2.25, I spotted a woman up ahead of me turn around and head back to Gilruth. (My 4-mile route is an out-and-back, so I'd turned around.) I see her out there a lot; she's one of the 5-6 "regulars" on the trail. She was turning around just beyond the 1.5-mile marker, and I had started to feel a bit better so I decided that I'd try to catch her. I didn't think I'd have much of a chance, since she was probably 0.15-0.2 miles ahead of me and running at approximately my pace.

Mile 3 passed in 11:11 (which cheered me up). I had gained a bit on the woman, but stopped for my standard 1-minute walk break. As I started up again, I decided that she was still within reach, and I was determined to catch her in the last mile. And...I did it! I passed her with about a tenth of a mile left to go. My time for the last mile, including walking the first minute? 10:18! Wow!

My overall time for the 4-miler was 45:59, which is sort of crappy, but I was pumped about the last mile. The 10:18 felt hard, but not all-out. It made me start wondering what my time trial mile would be if I made it out to one of the SMART workouts. With help, I think I could be very close to 9:00, maybe even under. I'm sure Steeeve can leave a comment telling me when the next one is...

The other thing I decided is that I think I've developed a mental block. My brain keeps telling me I need a walk break every mile. I didn't in the past. I probably don't now. And yet, if I can do 10:18 miles even with walking breaks, I don't mind them too much...

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Yesterday, I sat at my

Yesterday, I sat at my desk as it got darker and darker and darker. I kept peeking out the window, expecting the bottom to drop out at any moment. It kept getting darker and darker. Just when I thought that somehow the black clouds would pass without releasing a drop, it began to pour. According to the weather station atop the building I work in, the temperature dropped 15 degrees in about 10 minutes, from a heat index of 84 to an actual temperature of 69!

(By the way, those of you obsessively checking the weather for Sunday's 10-miler need look no farther than that that webpage, or this one. The Spaceflight Meteorology Group and Nassau Bay are both about a mile away from the race course.)

With the drop in temperature, last night's run was awesome. Jose and I started out easy with two 12:00 miles; he listened while I ranted about height/weight tables. At mile 2, we walked for 1:10, then started running. I was being a little sneaky, and decided to push things. By 2.5, he could tell we were going faster, but we kept going. We finished mile 3 in a total of 11:05. And that included the 1:10 of walking. Jose was very excited to have maintained sub-11:00 pace for almost a mile. (And I was too!) Total time for the lovely run was 35:something.

Thursday, October 05, 2006

Like last year, I'm toying

Like last year, I'm toying with the idea of doing the Texas Love the Half challenge. It'd be a way of keeping my motivation and my running at the level I'll need for a Half Ironman on April 1. It would involve doing 6 half marathons (or greater) between October and May. There are lots of choices, but already knowing that I won't be in town for the Houston Half at the end of this month, my six would probably be:

Nov 19, 2006 Houston, TX
HMSA 25K

Dec 9, 2006 Huntsville, TX
SunMart 25K (does the 25K exist?)

Jan 14, 2007 Houston, TX
Houston Marathon & Half Marathon

Feb 10, 2007 Surfside, TX
Surfside Half Marathon

Feb 18, 2007 Austin, TX
AT&T Marathon and Half Marathon

Mar 18, 2007 Seabrook, TX
Seabrook Luck Trail Marathon & Half Marathon

Sunday, October 01, 2006

First: I am a bum.

First: I am a bum. I bailed on this morning's planned "long" run (I was going to go 5-6 miles) with BARC, including Joe and Veronica. I was exhausted last night, fell asleep at 10:30, woke up at 6 feeling groggy and congested, and bailed. I am a bum.

Second: Big congrats to Jessica, who finished her first triathlon this morning in 1:23:34! Way to go Jess!

So today I was a bum, but yesterday was good for running. My second race of the day, the HARRA Cross Country Relay, went just as well as the first! (Maybe those crazy two-a-day runners are onto something. Maybe.) I was on a great Open Female team with Cassie, Jessica, and Pony and we finished in ~1:16. Jessica did ~17:00, Cassi ~20:00(?), and Pony ~17:00. I was the slowest and ran the second leg, but I had what was a great run for me, covering the two miles in 21:06.

I went out way too fast, fueled by the adrenaline rush of the baton handoff from Jessica and the crowd cheering as I charged up the first hill. I slowed down a tad, wanting to even out my breathing, but I hit the mile marker and halfway point in 9:51! Nice to know I can run sub-10:00 mile if necessary, but whew it wore me out. Unfortunately the second mile was actually harder than the first with a couple steep hills, and I suffered a major slowdown. I gutted through the second mile in 11:15. I was a little disappointed in the big difference between my two miles, but happy with my overall performance -- I wanted to run my leg in less than 22:00, and I beat that by almost a minute!

It was also fun to have Debbie, Jason, Michelle and Paul come along with me to run the relay as well. They took second place in the Open Mixed division and all got trophies! Ironically, my team actually beat theirs -- Pony finished about 0.5 seconds ahead of Jason. Literally! You can see in the photo below (that I stole from Bill) that Pony is crossing under the banner as Jason is trying to catch her. (He didn't even know that she was the anchor for my team.) But there were so many good Open Female teams that we were well down in the standings.

Debbie, Jason, Paul and Michelle pre-race:

The start:

The bloggers (minus Erin and Jon, who were working the HARRA tent, and Joe, who was off somewhere):

All the rest of my photos are now in the gallery!

Saturday, September 30, 2006

The first race of my

The first race of my two-races-in-one-day Saturday went better than expected this morning! This morning was Race for the Cure, and believe it or not, this was the first time I've ever done this race. With 21,000+ runners, it's got to be the biggest race in Houston. There were so many people that I actually felt a bit claustrophobic when Debbie, Curt, Sara and I first arrived.

We started more or less on time, and it took Debbie and me about 3 minutes to cross the start line. I was determined to take it easy, to save myself for the 2 miles I'll be doing in a few hours at the HARRA Cross Country Relay, and Debbie quickly pulled ahead. I could see her just ahead of me until mile 1, but I stopped for a sip of water and poof, she was gone.

I hit mile 1 in 10:40, and that was after stopping for water. I was a little surprised to see the mile go that quickly, since I'd consciously kept myself at a pace that felt comfortable. I chalked it up to a good first mile and didn't speed up. I knew that we'd be turning around soon and heading back in via Allen Parkway -- right into the sun, and the day was definitely heating up.

(Tomorrow's October! Where's autumn?)

I never saw the mile 2 marker, and by the time my footpod was reading 2.3 miles, I was sure I'd missed it even though the foot pod measures long. I took a second quick walk break up the "hill" and re-started at my good pace. I was breathing hard, but not uncomfortably so. It was getting really hot though, and I was starting to overheat a bit. I told myself to just keep running and not stop!

Suddenly I saw the mile 3 marker. I looked at my watch, which read less than 29:00 -- immediately, I knew the mile 3 marker was not correct, and even commented on it to the runners around me. "Whoa, that's not in the right place!" Despite the misplaced marker (which was located at what was probably ~2.7 miles), the finish line still snuck up on me. It was about a tenth of a mile closer than what the course map had shown. Fortunately, I could see it about a tenth of a mile out and sped up.

I finished in 32:24 for an average of 10:23 per mile. Since most of my runs in the past few weeks have been at 11:00 pace or worse, I was surprised -- and happy! I would worry that I wore myself out for tonight (and maybe I did -- it remains to be seen), but I really never felt like I was pushing too hard.

So, a very good race for me. Here's hoping I do as well in the cross country relay tonight! I'm shooting for anything under 22:00 for the two miles.

Astros lost to the Braves, Cardinals won against the Brewers. Magic Glow Skull is tired -- he was flickering fiercely during the end of the game as the Astros bought the tying run to the plate, yes, flickering with the effort of helping the Astros win. Alas, after six days of success, he needed a rest. Hopefully he will be back and raring to go today!

Thursday, September 28, 2006

I got back out and

I got back out and ran 3 miles last night, and they were some of my worst miles in months. Everything just felt off. My shins hurt. Stupid shins. There seems to be some correlation between pace and pain -- if I'm over 12:00 miles, they're fine; under 12:00 miles and they hurt.

I tried out the footpod that goes with my new Polar RS200sd. It was surprisingly accurate through 0.5 miles with no calibration, but then it suddenly went a little crazy. By the time I finished my 3 miles, the footpod read 3.27. I did take a few walking breaks, and I wonder if that had something to do with it. If so, then I'm afraid I may wish I'd splurged and gotten a Garmin. If the footpod only works when I run a very consistent pace, then it's not oging to work very well for me.

We shall see. No running tonight, since we have a softball double-header. Planning to do 3 miles tomorrow, both Race for the Cure (5K) and the HARRA Relay (2 miles) on Saturday, and 6-7 on Sunday. Vic and June, I've decided to join BARC in Seabrook for my run on Sunday morning -- I'd love to run with you guys, but Seabrook is just so much closer!

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

OK -- I need a

OK -- I need a schedule. I need someone to make me a running schedule that will get me prepared for the half marathon. I need someone to make me a schedule and then check in with me about how I'm doing. In short, I guess I need a coach!

I did so well this summer with my triathlon training. Now I've fallen off the horse again. At most, I've run 2-3 times per week in 3-4 mile chunks since Labor Day. It seems that I really benefit from having a plan laid out for me. If I've laid out the plan myself, I always find a way to change things around or talk myself out of it.

I've started thinking about investing in a local or online coaching service, since I'm pretty serious about wanting to do the Lone Star Half Ironman on April 1 but have some doubts as to whether I can get there on my own.

Part of the problem, of course, is my crazy life schedule. Most of the half ironman training programs out there are 6-7 days per week. I am really hoping to come up with a 5 days/week schedule that would be manageable for me and would also prevent burnout, which I'm susceptible too. From now through January, I need a schedule that concentrates mainly on building my running mileage while maintaining my current swim and bike fitness. After the half marathon, I need a schedule that will build my biking fitness, build a little more running, and maintain my swimming.

Suggestions, anyone?

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Who else is loving this

Who else is loving this weather? Everybody raise your hands! I cannot wait for fall to arrive. The past couple days have just been a small taste of the goodness to come.

I went for a run last night, the first in almost a week thanks to my stupid crazy schedule and being out of town. I ran outside on the Gilruth trail, 3 miles, with my new heart rate monitor. The watch works fine; today I'm going to attempt to calibrate the footpod. I know I said I'm going to worry less about time and speed, and I am. But that doesn't mean I don't still like to measure it. What can I say -- I like data. So I'm looking at the data, but worrying about it less. Yep, that's possible.

Last night's run was especially interesting. I was so excited to get outside into the nice evening weather that I took off far too fast -- a 10:15 first mile! Whew. When I got into the second mile, the pace started to bite me and my legs started doing that annoying shin split/burning feeling that I'm far too familiar with. I had hoped to avoid that this fall, since I ran consistently throughout the summer, but apparently the shin splints are somehow linked to time of year instead of to anything that would actually make sense. (Can you hear my sarcasm?)

Anyway, mile 2 passed in a much slower 11:48 as I took a couple quick walk breaks trying to stretch out my lower legs. This is hard to do. There's not much in the way of muscle on the front of my lower leg, which is where the burning sensation radiates from. So there's nothing to massage or stretch. I just have to wait for it to go away.

The annoying discomfort had subsided by mile 3, which I covered in 10:30 as I pushed to the "finish line" in a total of 32:30. I had a good time, despite the extremely inconsistent pace. I'll need to work on evening that out a bit, I think! Tonight I'm running with Jose, so he'll keep me at a more steady clip.

Monday, September 18, 2006

By the way, I'm jumping

By the way, I'm jumping on the boat with Jill:

2007 will be the year I do a Half Ironman.

Perhaps the Lone Star Tri on April 1 in Galveston? (No, not an April Fools joke.)

Monday, September 11, 2006

I have been reading IronWil's

I have been reading IronWil's blog for quite a few months now as she trained for Ironman Wisconsin. The race was yesterday. The weather was nasty. She made it through the swim, bike, and 19 miles of the run before succumbing to the weather and the pain.

I am so incredibly impressed.

Tuesday, September 05, 2006

This morning was lovely! Why

This morning was lovely! Why am I not a morning runner??

(That question is rhetorial. I'm not a morning runner because I'm not a morning person, period.)

Last night I was sitting on the couch reading the latest issue of Runner's World when a thought popped into my head, out of nowhere: "Maybe I should do another marathon."

I swear, I don't know where that came from. I'm not really excited about the idea of those loooooooong lonely training runs. But the idea is now there -- crap. What am I thinking? I've missed the beginning of all the training programs anyway. Maybe I'm searching for a new motivator. There aren't any more nearby triathlons this fall except for Try Andy's, which has already filled up. There's the 10-Miler on October 15. I need a training plan for it but don't know where to start. Ugh.

One of the things I realized in doing my tri training is that it helps me to have a schedule. I need to have a routine.

My Labor Day weekend was both busy and relaxing. A lot of eating out, a movie (all the funniest lines from Talledega Nights are in the trailers, as I suspected), a 30th birthday party (not mine), a farewell party (also not mine), a quick trip to Lake Jackson, a triathlon. I read a bit and watched TV; Jose played his new flight simulator game for hours. The thrill is gone. ;)

Sunday, September 03, 2006

Summertime Blues Sprint Triathlon, Freeport, TX

Quick recap:

500-meter swim - 10:55
Transition 1 - 2:13
15-mile bike - 53:01 (17 mph)
Transition 2 - 1:48
3-mile run - 33:45 (11:15/mile)

Total Time - 1:41:42
1st place, Athena Category (1st of 4)

Forgot my goggles but a lovely lady loaned me her extra pair.
Salt water swim was new for me, and icky, but not as bad as the weeds and crap at Cinco Ranch!
No one told me about the big bridge over the Intercoastal Waterway that we had to ride over twice! Hills suck. Road was a little too pothole-ridden and gravel-y for my tastes.
Run course was really nice and scenic.

Slower swim than last week, not sure why. :(
Slower bike as well, but I expected that since the course was along the coast and therefore breezy. The entire back half was into a small but persistent headwind.
Faster run than last week. :)
More hardware. :)

Thursday, August 31, 2006

Congrats Erin and the entire

Congrats Erin and the entire Houston, We Have a Problem relay team, featured in an article in the Chronicle today. They finished 51st out of more than 1000 teams at last weekend's Hood-to-Coast Relay in Oregon.

Sunday, August 27, 2006

This morning was the Cinco

This morning was the Cinco Ranch Triathlon, the goal race of the 10-week training program I've been doing all summer. It was an up-and-down race, but in the end I earned my first official piece of hardware! Read on for all the details...

I'll start with the bad: my run was absolutely horrible. It turns out that any benefit I might have gotten from spending the past week in the thin air of 8,000-10,000 feet altitude were completely outweighed by the negative impact of not staying adjusted to heat and humidity. As if that weren't enough, I started in the last group, so we got to deal with the most sun. I walked as much, or more, than I ran. I got a cramp in my side. I felt tingly. In short, I overheated! I struggled to a 35:58 time for the 3-mile run. That's 11:59/mile. OUCH. The only silver lining is that since I wasn't wearing a watch, I actually thought I might've done worse. I was thankful just to see that it was under 12:00/mile.

But on to the good: I had my best bike leg ever. I'll chalk up part of it to my legal blood doping (the altitude thing), and another part to having finally cleaned my bike yesterday (so the chain and cog were finally degreased and re-lubed and shiny), and a final part to my training program. I covered the 12 miles in 39:34, or an average of 18.2 mph! I was very happy with my ride, and felt good the whole way. Sadly the training I've done doesn't seem to have improved my running much, but it has definitely improved my biking.

The swimming also went well, despite the fact that the lake was downright nasty. Tons of grass and weeds (I think I may have been dragging an additional 10 pounds of lake plant crap through the water), and because I was in the last group to start, the water had gotten so churned up by that point that I couldn't see a darn thing underwater. There was so much dirt floating around in there that while standing there before the start, with my hands under water, I couldn't see them until I brought them to within an inch of the surface. I covered the 500 yards in 9:44, which is about what I expected. (Just under 2:00 per 100 yards is always a good estimate for me.) I probably could've finished closer to 9:00 but I was forced to do quite a bit of pulling up at various points due to people that couldn't swim straight and were therefore either smacking my legs or kicking me in the head. It was one of the more violent swims I've done.

I expected to finish faster than the Tejas Tri in June (where I did 1:28:48) and even told someone yesterday that I hope for better than 1:20, but in retrospect I was obviously misestimating. The swim was 300 yards shorter than Tejas, but I'd forgotten that the bike was 1.5 miles longer -- and those two almost cancel each other out; -5:45 for the shorter swim, but +5:00 for the longer bike, so I'm saving less than a minute. My bike was faster, but my transitions were much slower (explanation in a minute) and my run was about 2:30 slower. All that added up such that I finished 3 minutes slower than Tejas. The breakdown:

Swim (500 yards) - 9:44
Transition 1 - 3:40
Bike (12 miles) - 39:34
Transition 2 - 2:52
Run (3 miles) - 35:58

Total Time - 1:31:46

And now the best part: I earned my first official piece of race hardware! Like in June, I chose to forego my age group and entered the "Annie Oakley" category, for women who weigh more than 150 pounds, and lo and behold, I finished 3rd in that category! 3rd out of 17! I got a cool plaque and the satisfaction of a legitimate hardware result. Cooler still is that after checking the results, I see that I beat one of the girls who finished ahead of me in June (where I was 5th in the weight category). I'm still bummed about my crappy run, but the two women ahead of me were there by more than 6 minutes, so a good run for me still wouldn't have gotten me higher on the "podium." But a worse run would have dropped me quickly -- 4th and 5th place each finished within 1:30 of me.

This was my first time at this event (this was its 14th year) and while overall I think it was well-organized, I did have one fairly major complaint -- the transition area. Here's a quick graphic I drew to show you what I mean. Number 1 was racked right next to the bike in/out, while number 1000 was racked at the far end. My number was 866, so I had to rack my bike on the 5th rack from the end of the transition area.

Do you see the problem? People with low numbers come out of the water, enter transition, and pass their bike on the way to the bike out. People with high numbers (aka me) come out of the water, enter transitions, have to run all the way down to the far end, get their bike, and run all the way back to the other end before they can finally get on their bike and get going (you cannot mount your bike until you're outside transition). And of course while with your bike, you're running in clunky clicky bike shoes (i.e. not easy). When you return from the bike it's the same thing -- run the entire length of the transition area to re-rack your bike, then run halfway back to finally start the run course.

To the race's credit, they do put each age group or weight category together, so that everyone in my category had the same disadvantage. Still, the result is that each of my transitions were a minute or more slower than they would've been had I had a low number. In June at Tejas, my transition times were 2:48 and 1:35, and that was before I had my tri shorts and quick laces and therefore was doing additional clothes-changing and shoe-tying. Today? 3:40 and 2:52. I think the impact is obvious.

The funniest part is that I think the issue could be quickly fixed by simply shifting the transition area down the street (it was in the middle of a completely blocked-off street) such that the swim in and run out gates are at the far end of the area. Then everyone has to run the length of transition exactly twice while getting their stuff for the next leg of the race. I may send the organizers an email suggesting just that. Not sure what their reasons are for the way it's currently done.

But ANYWAY: a great bike, a horrible run, and my first real piece of race hardware. Not bad. Not bad at all.

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

These past two days of

These past two days of running have been maybe the two most difficult runs of my life. Is there such a thing as altitude-induced asthma? Today when I walked back into the condo, I don't think I was audibly wheezing, but it felt like it. Deep breaths made me cough a bit. I realized that while I was breathing hard, my breathing was also very shallow.

I feel better now, after a shower and a sit. I ran what I estimate, via Google Pedometer and its not-so-good map and satellite imagery of Keystone, to be about 5 miles. It took me 57 minutes, which actually isn't that bad! That's about 11:30/mile pace. At 9,300 feet! Amazing. I could be overestimating slightly, but I really think 5 miles is pretty close. Maybe 4.8-4.9. Damn Google Pedometer -- why don't they have higher res imagery? :) No matter how you slice it, I definitely went a little faster than yesterday, so that's good.

Keystone slopes down from end to end. I'm at the higher end, which is at 9,300 feet. I started out running down the valley in a 10/1 run/walk pattern until my watch read 27 minutes. (That'd be 25 minutes of running and 2 minutes of walking so far.) I wanted to run for an hour total, so at that point I decided to turn around, figuring it would take me quite a bit longer to run back uphill. I think I lost about 150 feet of elevation in total before heading back uphill, which sucked. Still, I made it back to the condo quicker than I expected -- 30 minutes! (Or, 27 minutes of running and 3 minutes of walking.)

I may not run tomorrow, since Rich and I are planning to go mountain biking. You can take a bike to the top via the chair lift, and ride down. Should be really fun.

Saturday, August 12, 2006

Despite the long drive, I

Despite the long drive, I had a great time at Run The Woodlands this morning, where the Houston Running Bloggers challenged the Seven Hills Running Club to a friendly competition. We bloggers were defeated before the race even began due to participation points -- SHRC got 40+ members out there, while HRB doesn't even have 40 members total -- but everyone still had a great time and Run The Woodlands set a new participant record of ~170 runners! Not bad at all for a race that costs only $1.

Houston Running Bloggers at Run The Woodlands!

I ran a pretty good race -- I forgot to stop my watch until a bit after the finish line, but I think I was right at about 32:30, same as Maribelle's last week. I ran the first mile with Cassie and Donna and we covered it in about 10:20. Donna and I stopped for a quick walk break before running some more. I got ahead of Donna but couldn't catch up to Cassie, and passed the mile 2 marker in 20:50. I think I pushed a bit too hard in that second mile, because I had to take three quick walk breaks in the third mile as the heat got to me. ("Acclimated" as I may get to the heat, it still gets to me. Last night I ran 4 miles in an overall average of 10:50 on the treadmill and had gas left in the tank at the end. Today I had no gas left when I huffed across the finish line.)

So, it was a good race for me and I had a great time seeing all my "internet friends." I also saw Gavin's dad and -- very randomly -- Amy Cupitt (I play softball with her husband Sean). Amy couldn't believe that she actually saw someone she know at Run The Woodlands (she was up to hang out with a friend) and I thought it was pretty unbelievable as well! I had to tell her that it was a special occasion, and that I'm not actually crazy enough to drive an hour both ways to do RTW regularly.

After the race I made it back to Clear Lake in time for lunch with Jose, Becca and Cari who'd all gone flying this morning. Becca's trying to talk Jose into taking flying lessons (he's interested enough that she may actually be able to do it) so she can have another pilot friend. :)

Sunday, August 06, 2006

I'm not dead; I've just

I'm not dead; I've just gone three days without a blog entry. Strange, I know. I've been busy. I am getting tired of hearing those words come out of my mouth. "I've been busy." Yuck. It's starting to sound like an excuse. I'm just not sure exactly what to do to calm things down.

I emailed yesterday to say that I cannot volunteer for the Ballunar Festival this year after all. Something had to give, and that's the first thing I chose. It was so much fun last year to help launch the balloons, but I just don't have time this year. The festival starts on Friday the 25th; I'll be getting back from the AIAA Conference in Colorado Thursday night. I was already going to have to miss Sunday morning's flight because it is the day of my triathlon. I was trying to squeeze in something that I don't have time to do. I'm glad I realized it two weeks ahead of time and could gracefully back out. Now I'll be able to go to the festival and take some photos once, instead of having to work five balloon launches. There is always next year to volunteer.

I ran a 32:30 at Maribelle's 5K on the Bay last Saturday morning. I was hoping for better but had no watch (my HRM is still broken), so I had no idea how I was doing until the finish. I thought that might be a good thing; who knows. Still, 32:30 certainly ain't bad for August and I wasn't upset about it. I am, however, hoping to improve on that a bit at Run the Woodlands this weekend.

I rode 23 miles this morning on the bike, starting at 7 am. I had a surprisingly nice time at the early hour. It was cooler and cloudy, there was less traffic, and I saw a lot of other bikers. I'm thinking I should get out there early more often! So things were great...until the heavens opened and I got absolutely poured on. The rain itself actually didn't deter me -- I laughed out loud of the absurdity of it as the water dripped off my helmet, and hands, and glasses, and shoes, and every other exposed part of me and my bike -- but but the HUGE BOLTS OF LIGHTNING had me scurrying for home around mile 20. After one crack that I swear was right above my head, I decided that being outside in a thunderstorm with a large piece of metal between my legs (rubber tires be damned) was maybe not such a good idea, and I think I rode faster than I ever have without going downhill. About 22 mph on the flats! Lightning is scary! It was supposed to have been a 35 mile ride, but 23 will have to do.

In non-running news, I gave Vic and his family a tour of Mission Control today and afterward, I showed Jose the cool stuff at Space Center Houston that they do a horrible job of advertising. GRR. I get so infuriated when I think about the way they have set up their museum-quality items. Their coolest things -- the Faith 7 Mercury capsule, Gemini 5 capsule, Apollo 17 command module, and a moon rock -- are stuffed in a dark corner where half the visitors never go. There is just no excuse for it. I feel like going over there and giving visitors an exit poll. "Did you see the moon rock? How about the Apollo 17 spacecraft?" I think I'd get a lot of responses that go something like "There was a moon rock in there? Where??"

Sigh.

This afternoon I also installed a programmable thermostat. Jose monitored things to make sure I didn't, you know, electrocute myself, but I did it allll by myself. I feel very handy. :)

Thursday, August 03, 2006

I survived the mega-crazy-brick-workout-extravaganza. I

I survived the mega-crazy-brick-workout-extravaganza. I felt like I might die, but I didn't.

Physically, it went perfectly fine. With my HRM broken, I don't have a watch capable of giving me splits, but the bike computer told me that the 3 5.9-mile bikes were done in 1:02:12 for an overall average of 17.1 mph. My very basic stopwatch told me that my total time for the workout (5.9 mile bike, 2 mile run, 5.9 bike, 1 run, 5.9 bike, 1 run) was 1:51:43 which means there was 49:29 leftover for 4 miles of running plus 3 bike->run and 2 run->bike transitions. If that'd been all running, it'd be a 12:22/mile average. In reality, I probably spent at least 4 minutes in those 5 transitions changing shoes each time and dealing with my helmet, which gives me a more promising 11:22/mile average for the 4 total miles of running.

So yeah, physically things were good. Physically.

Mentally, unfortunately, I was in alllll the wrong places. I was tired. I was hungry. It was hot. I forgot my water bottles and had to make do with a 20-oz bottle of Dasani from the vending machine. Almost two hours of exercise and only 20 ounces of water meant that I was dehydrated. (Post-workout, within an hour, I had gulped a bottle of Gatorade, a bottle of chocolate milk, and another bottle of water. MMM.) I was the last to finish the workout, and for the entire two hours I mentally berated myself for being so slow. Why was I putting myself through this? Why do I bother? I haven't lost any weight, and while I've gotten faster, I'm not exactly going to be winning races anytime soon...or ever. I had to walk a little bit during the runs to catch my breath. I was mad. I was grumpy. Most of all, I was scared. I didn't want to do it. Somehow as yesterday progressed, I totally psyched myself out about the workout.

On Tuesday morning I was thinking about a Half Ironman. On Wednesday night I was telling myself that even a sprint tri was a dumb idea. I had a good swim workout and felt like I could do anything; then I had a bum day at work, and felt like I'd be better of quitting.

It's funny how quickly attitudes can change, and how much external things affect you. I plan on getting back into good mental shape right away.

Wednesday, August 02, 2006

I mentioned the thought of

I mentioned the thought of doing a Half Ironman and immediately, a conflict appeared. The Ironstar in Conroe is on October 29, and I found out yesterday that 1) I'm invited to Rachel's wedding and 2) it's been moved from October 21 to October 28. Not a problem...if the wedding was in Houston. It's in Georgia. So, it looks like the Half Ironman is not meant to be this year. I even looked up a calendar to see if perhaps there was another one nearby, but alas, nothing. I may set my sights on the Half Ironman in Galveston next April though...

I basically did nothing last night except run 4 miles on the treadmill (averaging 11:00/mile which is fast for me when running on the 'mill) and then ignore Jose for two hours while I messed around with the HARRA website database (the subject of my previous "help!" post). We did have a yummy dinner at Mediterraneo though, so I wasn't a totally horrible girlfriend. Whew. As for the website and its database, I've basically decided that for once, the solution to my problem might be to just go buy one of the "For Dummies" books and work through it.

Tonight is a crazy brick workout with emphasis on transitions (this workout was rained out last week): 6 mile bike, 2 mile run, 6 mile bike, 1 mile run, 6 mile bike, 1 mile run. I think I may die.

Despite the workouts, I seem to be gaining weight. This morning I weighed more than I have in at least two years. NOT COOL. The problem is that with all the workouts, I'm always hungry! I was hungry when I woke up this morning, and my stomach is already growling in anticipation of lunch. SIGH. Goals for the next few weeks: start packing lunches a couple times per week, and go out to each a few times less.

Tuesday, August 01, 2006

Yesterday was a big swim

Yesterday was a big swim workout -- 2000 yards, which didn't sound like a lot until I realized it was 40 laps in my apartment complex pool. I don't think I'd ever done that many laps there before. I was a little intimdated, to tell the truth, because the meat of the workout called for 2x500 with only a one minute break between the two sets. I've swum 500-yard sets before, but never doing freestyle the whole way.

I'm happy to report that all this working out is still paying off -- I did the two 500-yard repeats in just under 11:00 each, without much of a problem! After that it was 4x25 backstroke (random), followed by another 500 yards of cooldown. For the cooldown, I messed around with all kinds of stuff. Some breaststroke, some freestyle, some drills.

The other interesting item of note was that during my 400-yard warmup, I never got winded. The schedule called for using a pull buoy (a floatation device that you hold between your legs so you don't have to kick -- like the opposite of a kickboard), so I was only pulling with my arms. I wasn't going hard, obviously, since it was warmup. But man, I could have done laps like that forever! It was interesting to notice how much more tired you get when you have to involve your legs in the stroke as well.

When all was said and done, I'd done 2000 yards (400 warm up, 1100 workout, and 500 cool down) in 50 minutes. 2000 yards is 1.25 miles, which got me thinking about something else...

I'd like to do a Half Ironman. That's a 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, and 13.1 mile run. It's been in the back of my mind, and I know there's the Ironstar in Conroe at the end of October, but I'd always been sort of thinking about it for next year. 2007. Not 2006. Last night though, I started toying with the idea of trying to do it this year. I mean, by the end of August I'll be halfway there -- doing bike rides of 35 miles, runs of 8 miles, and swims of 2200 yards. I could sign up for On The Run's next tri training program, which begins right when the current one ends. The Ironstar's cutoff time is 8 hours, which I can do -- a reasonable estimate for me would be something like 45 minutes for the swim, 3:30-3:45 for the bike, and 2:45-3:00 for the run, which would leave me with half an hour to an hour to cover transitions and a bad day.

I could wait until next year, and start all over again. Or I could build on what I've already started. Hmm.

Monday, July 31, 2006

I haven't been updating much

I haven't been updating much about it, but I've been working out as usual. Friday was a 5-mile treadmill run after work.

On Saturday we had a "practice triathlon" over at the Pearland Y. Obviously I was not taking it too seriously, since I drank at least 3 glasses of wine at Becca's on Friday night, and didn't go to sleep until midnight. I paid for it when I got to the run. Still, it was a good way to get in some practice with the transitions, and test out my new tri shorts and swimming top.

300 yard swim - 5:16
T1 - 1:57
9 mile bike - 30:37 (17.6 mph)
T2 - 0:50
3 mile run - 34:26 (11:29/mile)

Total - 1:13:06

I'd estimated 6:00 for the swim, so I did very well there. I actually would have finished in more like 5:00 flat, I think, if I hadn't had to pass two people in front of me. Which I had to do in the first place because I mis-estimated my time. Ah well.

The bike went well too, but I think my downfall really began here. I am not very good at hydrating myself while on the bike -- I never drink enough. By the time I got to the run, I was dehydrated from the previous evening's wine and dehydrated from the swim and bike and dehydrated from the heat...and it was all I could do to keep moving. We did three 1-mile loops, and I walked twice per loop. Blech.

Yesterday I did a 22-mile bike ride. It was pretty windy out, which I didn't like at all, so I just kept reminding myself that it was good exercise. For the first 12 miles of the ride, heading more-or-less into the wind, I averaged a sluggish 14.9 mph. I finally reached the far end of my big loop and turned around to enjoy the tailwind, sped up to 17-18 mph on Todville, and cruised back down Nasa Parkway at 20 mph. The last 10 miles of my ride upped my average speed to 15.9 mph total for the ride.

I capped off the weekend with a soccer game last night. We won 4-1, and I got hit right smack in the kisser with a soccer ball. BAM. Right in the face. I'm surprised my nose didn't start bleeding. I had to sit down, then go off the field just to shake my head and clear the tweety birds flying in circles around me. Unfortunately today I have nothing to show for it. What good is taking a ball in the face if you don't even end up with a fat lip?

Sunday, July 30, 2006

I updated the sidebar with

I updated the sidebar with the races I'm planning to do over the next few months, for anyone interested. Up next is Maribelle's 5K on the Bay this weekend. Close to home, and yet I've never run it!

Friday, July 28, 2006

My Polar S120 heart rate

My Polar S120 heart rate monitor mysteriously died on me today about 10 minutes into my treadmill run. Despite my best efforts, I can't get anything to appear. I've had it for almost 3.5 years and have used it fairly regularly, so I'm hoping it's just the battery.

Anyway. I did 5 miles on the treadmill in 56:50, taking things pretty easy since we're doing a practice triathlon tomorrow morning. It was a good run. I'm still basking in the glow of landing my new job (see below). :)

Sunday, July 23, 2006

Well, the Unofficial Houston Running

Well, the Unofficial Houston Running Bloggers Multi-Sport Debut at the Webster Duathlon this morning was a bust, with forces conspiring to keep everyone away except for Jill and me. I can't complain too much, however, because I had a great race. I am starting to see all my crazy training pay off, which is a very cool feeling.

This was my first duathlon -- that's run-bike-run -- and I was a little worried about how I'd fare. One of the women in my training group had done them before, and said that duathlons are actually harder than triathlons, because your legs are already tired when you get on the bike! I found that to be true.

The 2-mile run was a simple out-and-back course past a pond and some smelly horses. I knew I was keeping up a good pace, and actually wasn't that surprised to see ~9:35 when I reached the turnaround. I wasn't sure I could keep it up, and had a passing thought that it might hurt me on the bike, but I decided not to worry and just kept pushing. I finish the run in 19:22. Yes, that's two sub-10:00 miles -- in July heat and humidity!! The training is definitely paying off.

I took 1:19 to change shoes, put on my helmet, and walk my bike out of the transition area and then hit the pavement. The bike course, unfortunately, was pretty boring -- two loops on the feeder road next to the interstate. There was a bit of a tailwind going south, which was nice, but of course meant that there was a bit of a headwind going north, which was not nice. My legs were tired from the run, but not too bad, and I was pleased with my ride. I passed 6 or 7 people, and only one passed me. I finished the 11.6-mile bike in 40:11, or 17.3 mph.

From there it was back off the bike, walk awkwardly into transition in my biking shoes, change back to the running shoes, and get rid of the helmet. After 1:10, I was heading back out to do the run course one more time. Of course at this point I had no illusions of doing sub-10:00 miles since my legs felt like concrete and it was getting hotter, but I was determined to do my best. I made it to the turnaround with one walking break and checked my watch to see ~11:00. I stopped again for a quick sip from the water station and began the last mile. I heard a girl coming up behind me, which motivated me to push a little harder. Though she beat me in the end, she was great motivation and I covered the second mile (and fourth in the race) in ~10:00 to finish the second run in 21:05.

My total time was 1:23:08. This race draws a pretty hardcore crowd, and there weren't more than 20 or 25 people finishing behind me. Nevertheless, I am very happy with how well my race went.

Turns out training does make you faster. ;)

Thursday, July 20, 2006

Just catching up. Last night

Just catching up. Last night was my 5th brick workout, and though I felt pretty tired, it actually turned out to be one of the best yet. I rode 20.5 miles in 1:11:52 for an average (that surprised me) of 17.1 mph. Those miles included 4 x 1.5-mile pickups, which is part of the reaston for the speediness. But pickups usually take a bit out of me and I end up going slower overall.

I transitioned quicker than ever, partly because I'd forgotten my biking gloves and therefore didn't have to take them off. A mere 1:14 after getting off my bike, I was off and running. BOY did my legs feel like concrete. Unbelievable. But I ran 2 miles, with 3 1-minute walking breaks (one at each 1/2 mile) in scarily steady splits of 11:32.1 and 11:32.1. Yes, steady down to the tenth of a second. Freaky.

Saturday, July 15, 2006

I missed the Lunar Rendezvous

I missed the Lunar Rendezvous Run this morning. For the second year in a row. I'm MAD.

This year, my alarm went off as scheduled. (Last year it didn't.) I awoke at 6:30, after a fitful night of sleep, with a pounding headache and a nauseous feeling in my stomach. I got up, put on my running clothes, took an Advil, and laid back down to rest until 7:00. At 7:00 I felt slightly better, but moving made my head hurt. I knew I had to come in to work this morning (where I am right now) to deliver some products in advance of the shuttle landing on Monday morning. And my sister will be in town tonight. Something had to give, and it was the 5K. I took off my running clothes and went back to sleep.

Of course after sleeping until 9:00, I feel fine. Dammit, body, get your act together!

I hate feeling bad. More than that, I hate feeling like I'm using feeling bad as an excuse. And it always feels like an excuse. I feel like if I were tougher, I could just run through it.

HRBers, you have no idea how sorry to have missed you. :(

Friday, July 14, 2006

Friday, Friday, Friday! It's Friday!

Friday, Friday, Friday! It's Friday! Woooooooo!

I know it, and my legs know it. They feel tired just sitting here after last night's 4-miler. I hit the trail at Gilruth later than usual, around 8:00, after taking Chris to the airport. It was hot, but I wanted to get outside and away from the treadmill, so I told myself that I'd walk for one minute every half mile. I am a little worried that I'm becoming too dependent on the run/walk thing; however, it is a big mental boost to know that I have a breather coming up. Even with one minute walking each half mile (that would be two minutes of walking in each mile), I finished the run in 43:26 with splits of 10:38, 10:54, 10:54, and 10:59. Four sub-11:00 miles in July heat and humidity! Hurrah.

The downside, of course, of running outside are the bugs. And man oh man are there bugs. First up was the enormous spider sitting in a web that crossed just above the trail. Tall people better watch out or they'll have a palm-sized spider on their head. Then the mosquitos. God, the mosquitos!

It began when I stopped for my first walk break and felt a stinging sensation on my arm. Mosquito! I quickly slapped it. One down, a million to go. I should have realized that this was a sign of things to come -- if walking is not enough movement to prevent the skeeters from attacking.

After the run, I quickly put on a clean shirt and headed to the softball fields for our late game. Bite, bite, bite went the mosquitos. I doused myself in Deep Woods Off (i.e. stuff that smells bad but has lots of DEET, which apparently keeps the biting beasties away), which helped for oh, about 15 minutes.

I played catcher, since Jen is busy working the mission. Home plate was a swirl of buzzing, biting insects of doom that made it necessary to actually concentrate on keeping the glove out and ready to catch the pitch, instead of using it as a makeshift fly-swatter. Er, skeeter-swatter.

Halfway through the game, a mosquito landed on my finger and started biting; it was the one place I hadn't doused in bug spray. (By the way, if you put bug spray on your hands and then rub it on your face, it sort of burns. This should probably worry me. But it was more pleasant than mosquito bites.)

WHY DO PEOPLE LIVE IN HOUSTON???

Thursday, July 13, 2006

Training programs are interesting beasts.

Training programs are interesting beasts. Lately I have been having flashbacks to late 2004, when training for my first (and, to date, only) marathon was in full force. I remember feeling like all I ever did was work, run, eat, and sleep. I'm feeling a bit like that again as I gear up for the triathlon at the end of August.

Last night was our 4th brick workout. One per week. Four weeks down. Yesterday called for a 20-mile bike with three 1.5-mile pickups, followed by a 2-mile run, and the whole thing pretty much kicked my tail. The first half of the biking went ok, but by the end of my last pickup, I felt like I was about to die. When all was said and done, I biked 20.5 miles in ~1:14, an average of 16.6 mph. Not as fast as last week, but then, last week it was much cooler.

I took a couple minutes to gulp water and change shoes before heading out for the run. Again, it was hotter, and I ran slower. Took a minute-long walking break after each half mile and finished with splits of 11:29 and 11:48.

Overall it was another good workout, and the best thing I noticed is that I might actually be getting a little acclimated to the summer heat. I am a person who overheats very easily, and in summers past, the discomfort of being so hot and sweaty has led to me basically not working out at all. This, of course, only makes things harder in the fall when I try to start up again. This year has been different. Yesterday was hot, and it sucked, but it didn't suck as much as I thought it would. So. Am I acclimating? I hope so.

Other than working out, the HARRA website is taking up a ton of my time. At the moment, it's simply going through all of the pages and trying to get them up-to-date, since there are quite a few bits that fell through the cracks earlier this year. But I have long-term plans for a total site redesign. Typical me.

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

The other thing, the thing

The other thing, the thing I didn't mention yesterday, that's taking up a huge chunk of my time lately is my crazy triathlon training schedule. (By the way, Operation: Get Up Earlier began today. I got to work at 8:15. YEAH!)

Anyway, back to the tri training. Six days a week! I didn't think I could handle it, but here I am four weeks into a ten week schedule and I'm on track. The only thing that threw me off was the trip to Atlanta -- I missed two swimming workouts, and a 25-mile bike ride had to become a 45-minute ride on the stationary bike. Saturday's urban adventure race took the place of a 6-mile run. And this Saturday I'll have to do another 3 miles before or after the Lunar Rendezvous Run to get in my scheduled 6.

But things are going well. I'm really proud of myself for sticking with this so far. I've found myself needing more sleep, of course, and crashing at 10 p.m. is now a regularly occuring event. I haven't lost any weight, which is disappointing, but then, I haven't been watching my eating either. (Actually, I may have replaced some fat with muscle.) If anything, this training makes me hungrier.

I watched the All-Star game last night, or at least had it on in the background while I did my daily email-cleaning, website-updating routine. I can't believe the AL won again. On its last strike. Sigh. I've had a hard time keeping up and getting into baseball this season, especially with the Astros being so streaky. And the solution to their woes is apparently Aubrey Huff, who they just picked up from Tampa Bay. Jason Lane gets optioned to AAA. Random.

Wednesday, July 05, 2006

Ever wonder what it must

Ever wonder what it must look like to watch 55,000 people in 9+ time groups start the Peachtree Road Race? Well, it looks like this!

The link points to a really neat time-lapse movie made from still images captured by a camera pointed at the start line. You can see the wheelchairs start, elite runners, and then all the other time groups. I was in the very last group -- which also appears to have been the biggest, since so many people have to drop back in order to run with their friends! (Thanks Karen for the link.)

Tuesday, July 04, 2006

The short Peachtree Race Report

The short Peachtree Race Report (cause I'm tired and don't want to write more right now):

Karen and I started with time group 9, a whopping 1:15 after the official start. Not crossing the starting line until 8:45 a.m. meant that we didn't finish until almost 10:00, which meant it was ALL KINDS OF HOT out there.

We rocked through the first 5K since it was mostly downhill -- our splits were 11:37 (we had to walk for the first quarter mile just to let the crowd thin out), 10:17, and 10:46 (which is doubly impressive since we walked through the water station and still did a 10:46 mile -- we were booking it downhill at that point).

Things got tougher during mile 4 with the infamous Cardiac Hill. Running in Houston just doesn't prepare a girl for hills, and I had to walk a bit. We did that mile in 11:48.

During miles 5 and 6, Karen and I both began to have issues -- I was starting to feel severly overheated and Karen's knee was bothering her. We were far more liberal with the walk breaks and did miles 5 and 6 in 12:36 and 12:35.

We did the last 0.2 in 2:20 a finish time of 1:12:02, which, quite frankly, I was pretty happy with given the crowds and the weather. We both got the coveted t-shirt and chugged about a gallon of sports drink. :)

Jon's probably already posted in on his blog, but I just looked and saw that Sean Wade took 1st in the Masters Men division. Cool! Way to represent Texans, Sean.

Annnnnnnd... the shuttle launched today! Woohoo! Go Discovery!

Sunday, July 02, 2006

FYI: Kent says hi. I

FYI: Kent says hi.

I am in Atlanta, which doesn't feel that much different than Houston. Sunny. Hot. Humid. I went for a run this morning -- after much internal debate, since today is really supposed to be my biking day, but Carter only has a mountain bike, and a 100-year-old fan exercise bike where the seat doesn't feel right, and I couldn't get over to Kent's exercise room, sooooo I thought about not doing anything, and sat around for a while, but finally realized that if I didn't at least go running, it would nag at me for the rest of the day. And it would have!

So I went running around 9:45. Carter lives in the greatest location for running, and I was able to run on the crushed gravel trail along the banks of the Chattahoochee River. Since my biking workout was scheduled to be a 25-mile ride, which would've taken me about an hour and a half, I decided to run for two-thirds of that -- an hour. The trail is marked, but I started at Carter's condo instead so I had no idea how far I was running. I guessed about 5.5 miles, and when I Google mapped it a moment ago, it turns out that I was pretty close -- 5.42 miles. Not bad at all, and I felt good for almost the whole run, until the end when I started to get a little overheated.

On Tuesday, the Peachtree! Think I can keep up with Sean Wade? ;)

Just saw that we scrubbed the second shuttle launch attempt and will try again on the 4th. Cross your fingers, everybody!

Saturday, June 24, 2006

Claiming to be a runner

Claiming to be a runner in Houston without having ever run the loop in Memorial Park is something like saying you like to travel without having ever left your state. This is what I decided this morning as I ran in Memorial Park for the first time with my tri training group.

With Mom in tow, we headed to the park and arrived just past 7:30. There were people everywhere! I mean, there had to have been more than a thousand people out there -- running, walking, pushing strollers, walking dogs, biking on the road. My mom and I were both incredulous. "Are you sure there's not an event going on this morning?" she asked. "I don't think so!" I replied. "This is crazy!"

We managed to get a good parking spot next to the tennis center, and I headed off to do somewhere between the suggested 4 or 6 miles while Mom started her walk. I felt confident I could handle 4 miles, but felt that 6 might be a bit much for me since I haven't run more than 5K in the past few months. In the end, I settled on 5 miles, starting from the tennis center, running to the 2.5 mile marker, and then turning around and heading back in the opposite direction.

The first 3 miles went pretty well, with a 1-minute walk break each 10 minutes. I neglected to write down my splits before resetting my watch, but I think I covered the first 3 miles in ~33:00 or 11:00/mile. The last 2 miles were a totally different story, as the wheels started to come off, I began to overheat, and the walk breaks became more frequent. By the time I finished in 57:40, my average pace had risen to 11:32/mile.

Nonetheless, I got in the distance and really enjoyed the Memorial Park loop. I was actually a little surprised I didn't see more people that I recognized -- I did see Erica, and watched Sean Wade and Luis Armenteros zoom past me (Sean twice; Luis was with him the first time but not the second). It was a fun morning, and I'm thinking I may make a habit of trying to make it to the park once a month or so for a change of scenery. I really wish it was closer to where I live!

After the run, we went to Tri On The Run for a bike and shoe clinic. The Brooks rep giving the shoe clinic gave a lot of information about shoe materials, fit, and shape, which I found very interesting and informative. I currently wear Brooks's most popular shoe -- the Adrenaline -- so I got her stamp of approval. ;)

From there it was back to Clear Lake (after a stop at Starbucks and the Kolache Factory, the two places that flank the Tri store!), where I hopped in the pool for my scheduled 20-minute easy swim. Last Monday when I did my 800-yard workout, it took me 20:30, so I just did that workout again -- 200 warmup, 4x100, and 200 cooldown with drills. I was the only one there, and the pool felt especially nice since I was still a little icky from running!

Thursday, June 22, 2006

Tonight, tonight won't be just

Tonight, tonight
won't be just any night...
Today, the minutes seem like hours,
the hours go so slowly,
and still the sky is light ...

Minute Maid Park is going to be crazy tonight, and I can hardly wait. Someone must have planned this, as it's too much to believe it was a coincidence. Roger Clemens is coming back, wearing #22, making $22 million, and making his first start on June 22. Clemens! Clemens! Yaaaaaay Clemens!

I took the morning off to sleep in a bit and watch the US-Ghana World Cup match. If you care about soccer, you'll already know that we lost, 2-1, and were eliminated from the Cup. The Czech Republic also lost to Italy, leaving Italy and Ghana as the survivors who will move on from our "Group of Death." With Italy winning, all we needed was a win over Ghana and we'd be moving on instead of them. Alas, we didn't get it.

I do plan to continue watching the World Cup. From here on out, I think I'm going to cheer for Mexico. They're the sole first-round surviver from CONCACAF (the North American division; Costa Rica, Trinidad and Tobago, and the U.S. have all now been eliminated), so to me they're the equivalent of our "home" team now.

Last night our first brick workout came and went, and it went pretty well. I was sore afterwards, and getting out of bed was rough this morning, but the workout itself felt good.

15 miles biking, 52:52 - 16.4 mph
Easy transition - 2:55
2 miles running, 23:15 = 11:37/mile

I need to get some tri shorts soon, though. Last night I ran in my bike shorts, and it's not the most comfortable thing ever. Not bad, but not ideal.

Tonight, 2-3 miles of running before the ballgame. My mom gets in tonight after the game, and tomorrow's my first training day off! Woo!

Wednesday, June 21, 2006

The Astros game last night

The Astros game last night was a tease. They were playing well, up 4-1, and even when the Twins came back and took the lead, the 'stros managed to stretch it to extra innings with Preston Wilson's 2 outs, 2 strikes homer in the bottom of the 9th. But then they lost it on a Twins homer on the very first pitch of the top of the 10th. And the Astros struck out one-two-three in the bottom. Sigh. In allowing the Twins to crawl to .500, the Astros are in danger of dipping back below that mark themselves.

I left work early (at least early for me lately) at 4:30 to get in my run. Today I'm feeling a little under the weather -- achey, mainly. I'm not sure if I'm coming down with something or if I'm just tired. With the game last night, I went to bed late, and got up early. Five hours of sleep doesn't really cut it for me.

Schedule: Run, 2-3 miles easy
Actual: 3 miles moderate, 32:22 - 10:46/mile, 185 avg HR

At the HARRA banquet last Saturday night, Jeff Galloway mentioned one of his trainees who ran a 4:00 marathon by running/walking in a 1/1 pattern for 20 miles before running the last 10K, and it had me wondering what sort of pace I would average if I ran a minute, walked a minute. It also had me wondering whether I would feel less spent at the end of a run. Feeling tired and not all that excited about running last night, I decided to give it a try.

I ran a minute, walked a minute, until I'd completed three miles. My splits were 10:33, 11:03, and 10:46 -- almost certainly a bit faster than what I'd have been able to pull off if I'd run straight through.

It's almost as if I did a 16 x ~250 speed workout. My running intervals were, of course, faster than I could have managed without the walking breaks. I made sure that my walking was brisk, but enough to recover. About halfway through, with 8-9 running intervals under my belt, I started to get more tired and the running became tougher. My pace may have slowed slightly. And at the end of the three miles, I felt about the same as I think I would've after a steady run. One big downside of the method, in my opinion, was the stress of the constant watch-watching.

So I don't really have any conclusions about whether I like the 1/1 method any better. I don't plan to start doing it regularly. But it's a nice psychological boost to know that I can maintain a nice average pace while walking half of the distance, and I'll probably end up doing the 1/1 thing again the next time I don't feel like running but need to get a workout in.

Tuesday, June 20, 2006

I did my first swimming

I did my first swimming workout last night, squeezing it in between rain showers and thunderstorms. Compared to what I usually do -- at least half an hour of swimming, which ends up being at least 20 laps -- it was an easy workout. 800 yards total -- 200 warmup with 20 second breaks between each 50, then 4x100 yards with 20 second breaks, and 200 cooldown with drills, 50 of each. We learned four drills on Saturday:

+ Catchup, where you wait until one hand meets the other before taking another stroke.
+ Fingertip drag, where you drag your fingers along the top of the water during the recovery of each stroke.
+ Thigh touch, where you swim normally but concentrate on touching your fingers to your thigh at the end of each stroke.
+ Six-count, where you count six kicks with each one arm stroke.

I finished my 800 yards, including breaks, in 20:34 with an average heart rate of 142.

In other news, I took this Personal DNA thingy that Brian linked to, and it says I am a Benevolent Director. Probably fairly accurate, though I keep reading "director" as "dictator," and then I start wondering, well, is there such a thing as a benevolent dictator? Doesn't that seem like a contradiction in terms? Anyway, you can mouse over the different colors to see the traits they represent.

And for people who complain when my blog entry is only about exercise, here are some interesting/funny links I've come across lately:

+ What if Microsoft designed the iPod packaging?

+ A review of the recent Mac commercials. ("Hi, I'm a Mac." "And I'm a PC.") The point he makes is interesting. I love the commercials, but they don't make me want to drop my PC and buy a Mac.

+ iPods and baseball, a match made in heaven.

+ If Michelangelo was a soccer fan...

+ Ever wonder about the origin of @?

The rain continues. I'm hoping it stops this afternoon so I can squeeze in an outdoor run while the weather is cooler before heading to Minute Maid for the Astros game tonight.

Monday, June 19, 2006

It was a great weekend

It was a great weekend that started Friday night with yummy Thai food at Merlion. While we were waiting on our food, the Kemah Friday fireworks started! We got to walk just outside and watch the fireworks, and by the time we got back into the restaurant, our food was waiting. Perfect.

Saturday night I made it to St. Arnold's Brewery for the first time for the HARRA Summer Banquet. I enjoyed some great Mexican food, free St. Arnold's beer, and the company of my fun running friends -- Jon and Waverly, Cassie and Manny, Edwin and Donna, Erin and her family, Joe, and Bill. I was also officially elected (along with a bunch of others) to the HARRA Board via a mass "aye" hand-raising. Yep, I'm the new HARRA webmaster for the next year!

Yesterday morning I had the best. breakfast. ever. J spied a can of eggnog waffle mix that had been sitting in my kitchen, unopened since Christmas, when I ended up with it as my white elephant gift from the branch holiday party. I had no waffle maker, thus had made no waffles. A quick trip to Target and $10 solved that problem, and yesterday we had eggnog waffles with blueberries and real maple syrup. It was YUMMY.

In between those activities, I watched a lot of soccer (US vs Italy of course -- whew!! -- plus Brazil/Australia and France/Korea). I'm gonna be on pins and needles Thursday morning as we tackle Ghana and Italy faces the Czech Republic. Go USA! And go Italy!

The rain that I was waiting for all weekend, after being told on Friday that it was going to pour and pour and pour, finally came this morning. I woke up to thunder and the sound of rain pounding on the roof. Thankfully it let up for just a minute as I ran to the car, where my umbrella sat happily.

My triathlon training program officially started on Saturday morning, and I now have my schedule for the next six weeks. There's a beginner option and an intermediate option; I took one of each and plan to do whatever workout seems right for that day, though I hope to stick to the intermediate schedule as much as possible. I'm going to be busy working out, and I'm a little worried that the amount of training will be overwhelming. But I'm also glad to have some structure to follow. So we shall see how things go.

Stroke evaluation was on Saturday morning, and I got some good pointers on things to improve. Breathing on my left side, obviously, and I knew that going in. But there were a couple other things. I need to keep my head slightly lower in the water, and keep my hands closer to my body as I pull beneath the water. Apparently I have a straight arm recovery as well, but they said that wasn't necessarily bad. "Hey, it worked for Janet Evans," said the swim coach.

Yesterday called for a bike ride. There was a group ride scheduled at 8:00 but it was rainy and I didn't want to get up that early, so I rode on my own later in the day.

Schedule: Bike, 12-15 miles, easy
Actual: 15 miles, moderate, 55:29 - 16.2 mph

Biking in the summer is funny. I never realize exactly how hot it really is until I stop, and the sweat comes pouring down from my forehead where it's been soaking what little padding is in my helmet. Sexy, right?

The only bad thing about biking lately is that since I'm just getting back into it, my muscles aren't prepared. I end up with a sore tailbone and a sore neck. No fun.

Thursday, June 15, 2006

It was ever-so-slightly cooler outside

It was ever-so-slightly cooler outside last night, but I just couldn't get myself out into the sun at 6:00. I hit the dreadmill instead...and it actually wasn't so bad. This was the first time I've run on the treadmills at Gilruth, and they're much nicer than the two at my apartment complex. It felt like running on a cushion!

I ran a fairly easy pace, but upped the difficulty by doing the hill program, which got as high as 4.5% grade. Tough! 30 minutes at 5.3 mph, plus the 5 minute progressively slowing cooldown, and I ran right around 3 miles in 35 minutes. I think the hill program was part of what made the treadmill more bearable -- it gave me some variety. I was also able to watch TV, of course, even though there was nothing good on.

I'm happy to discover that the treadmill at Gilruth is bearable, since I'm going to be doing more running this summer as part of the tri training program than I have in summers past. We'll top out at 8 miles by the end of August, which should put me in nice position to continue upping the mileage for this fall's races, including the new Striders-managed Half Marathon (formerly 20K) at the end of October! I am feeling really positive about this training program, even though we haven't started. I really need a schedule, and some motivation, to get back on track.

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

Last night was orientation for

Last night was orientation for On The Run's triathlon training program. It sounds promising, though I realized that I am going to be working out a lot more this summer than I have in summers past! That, however, is one of the reasons I signed up in the first place. I need the motivation.

We start on Saturday with a swim session at a local indoor pool. I'm looking forward to it, because we will each get a stroke evaluation. I'm going to go ahead and predict that one suggestion for me will to learn to breathe on both sides! ;) I always turn my head to the right.

There are people of all abilities in this program, and so there will be people who need serious work on their swimming. I'm sure I'm the odd man out -- since the swim is my strongest part! However, it sounds like the program will be flexible enough for us to get out of it whatever we choose. For me, that means training consistently (always a challenge for me, no matter what the event) and hopefully getting a little faster -- in all three disciplines.

The only real disappointment is that the goal race -- the Cinco Ranch Triathlon on August 27 -- has been reduced from Olympic to sprint distance. I was really looking forward to going my first middle distance race! Instead, I'll focus on getting faster rather than going longer. Someday, though, I do have my eyes on a middle distance tri...and hopefully a Half-Ironman!

Sunday, June 11, 2006

I didn't wear my watch

I didn't wear my watch this morning at the Tejas Triathlon in Sugarland -- gasp! -- so I had to wait until the official results were posted to see what all of my splits were.

Swim (800 meters) - 15:03
Transition 1 - 2:48
Bike (~10.5 miles) - 36:59
Transition 2 - 1:35
Run (3 miles) - 32:23

Total Time - 1:28:48

My biggest surprise was running sub-11:00 miles, even after biking, and even with 3-4 quick walk breaks per mile! I did not expect to be able to do that. With no watch, I had no idea how I was doing, so I just went as hard as I felt comfortable going. Perhaps I should go without a watch more often!

Also cool is that I finished 5th in my group, only 1:46 out of 3rd place and only 2:51 out of 2nd. This race offered an "Athena" category, where women must weigh more than 140 lbs, so that's where I decided to compete. There were only 9 total women in the group, which indicates to me that there are plenty of women who chose to compete in their age group -- I know at least one or two very fit women who weigh 140+ and find it very hard to imagine that there were only 9 of us in the entire race at that weight. Regardless, I hope more triathlons have this category; it's fun for me to be in a group where I'm a bit more competitive. With a little training and some work on making my transitions faster, I could be on the podium in a similar race!

Also interesting to me are the averages, and how I compared. The first average listed below is for the entire field, more than half of which were men. Then I separated out just women.

Averages:
Swim - 16:26 (all), 17:02 (women)
Bike - 32:54 (all), 35:11 (women)
Run - 25:48 (all), 27:43 (women)
Total - 1:18:20 (all), 1:23:10 (women)

That pretty much confirms what I've always said -- I'm an above average swimmer, an average biker (compared to females anyway), and a below average runner.

As for the "who I saw" report, well, I don't know nearly as many triathletes as I do runners. I did see HRBer Steve and his daughter Taylor at the first water station on the run course (and after the race). I thought that Jill was planning to do the race as well, and I thought I even saw her this morning as I drove into the parking lot, but I never saw her during the race and I don't see her name in the results. Jill, I hope everything is ok!

I love triathlons. I think I may like them better than just running (another gasp!). I definitely want to do a few more this summer, and as a step towards that goal, last night I signed up for On The Run's triathlon training program. It's very reasonably priced, and runs for 10 weeks starting on Tuesday! The goal race is the Cinco Ranch Tri on August 27, so for any HRBers out there wanting to try a tri, I'll encourage you to do that one with me!

Monday, May 29, 2006

When I walked out the

When I walked out the door early on Saturday morning, I knew we were in for one hot 5K. As we walked from the car to packet pickup, I think I started sweating! It was warm and it was humid.

Before the race, I saw a lot of the HRBers, but unfortunately I didn't get a chance to really talk to anybody in the rush of picking up my packet, getting Jose registered, and getting our chips.

Thankfully, the first mile was run mostly in the shade of downtown's skyscrapers. I wondered if Jose would feel the ol' adrenaline rush of running in an actual event, and I think he must have -- we hit the 1-mile marker in exactly 11:00. That's equal to the fastest mile we'd run in our training!

The second mile saw warmer temperatures as we emerged from the buildings into the sun. UGH. We ran back past Minute Maid Park and south to Mile 2. I hit my watch at the marker -- 10:56! Jose had actually been pulling me a long for a bit, pumped up by mentally chanting Marine Corps chants that a friend's dad used to yell when the ran together the one season he was on the track team. SO, not only did Jose just run two solid miles without a walking break for the first time, he also did both miles faster than he'd done during any of his runs leading up to the race!

His effort caught up to him in Mile 3, and we walked twice -- once right after the water stop, and once again on the slight uphill section that took us back towards the ballpark. We slowly made our way in the sun back towards the park, and as we neared the stadium, I said "ok, no more walking, you can make it the rest of the way, no problem!"

I haven't run with Jose enough yet to know with certainty what kind of motivation he does or doesn't like while running. Some people like being cheered for and constantly encouraged; some people would rather you just leave them alone and run beside them quietly. Turns out that my "no more walking" remark was a good one, and he later said that he was glad I'd told him that because he'd been thinking of walking one more time.

With two walk breaks, we still managed a 12:20 third mile. We hit the 3-mile marker just before going into the Minute Maid tunnel and whoa -- talk about a strange experience. We went from sweltering in the hot sun to being plunged into virtual darkness. Jose remarked that he wondered if he'd blacked out; I just worried that I'd fall on my face in the dark. We both made it through the last tenth in 1:01 for a 35:18 finish. That's faster than anything we'd run in his training, which he later told me had been his goal -- to finish the race at a faster pace than anything he'd done before. SO, Jose's first race, an average time of 11:20/mile...not bad, not bad at all! I was very proud of him. Aw. Schmoop. ;)

If he breaks up with me tomorrow, at least I can say I did him some good!

Yesterday I had a little change of pace and hopped on my bike for the first time since last June. Yes, it had been 11 months since I'd ridden anywhere! After consulting my training log, I realized why -- last summer was when I had the bulk of the problems with my right knee, it was the time when the overuse injury from marathon training really kicked in. Bike riding made my knee hurt more, so I stopped. And just never started again, as evidenced by having to pull out of the MS150 this year due to a complete lack of training.

I'm happy to report that after yesterday's ride, my knee felt good. A little aching and discomfort (the injury has never entirely gone away), but today it feels normal again.

I took things pretty easy, with a nice 15-mile ride that included two laps around the space center. It took me just over 56 minutes, and I averaged exactly 16 miles per hour. I was pretty happy with that distance and speed for it being my first time on the bike in almost a year. Thankfully it wasn't too awfully windy either.

I hope to get in at least 1-2 more rides before the Tejas Triathlon on June 11. I certainly won't be in top form for the race, but I'm looking forward to it nonetheless as a means of getting me back in triathlon mode! It's been almost two years since I did one, which is really a shame since I enjoy them so much. I'm even thinking of signing up for On The Run's tri training program that starts in mid-June...

Saturday, May 27, 2006

On Wednesday, Jose and I

On Wednesday, Jose and I ran 3 miles in 36:00. This morning, in some nasty, nasty humidity, we ran 3.1 miles in 35:18 as he made his racing "debut." Yay Jose!

More later.

Thursday, May 25, 2006

I've been enjoying the pumpkin

I've been enjoying the pumpkin loaf from Starbucks; I've been hungry in the mornings more than usual lately, and the pumpkin loaf really hits the spot. Today I made the mistake of looking up how many calories are in one piece of pumpkin loaf. Sigh. No more pumpkin loaf for me.

...

Jose and I ran 3 miles in 36:00 last night, or a flat average of 12:00/mile. We took short walking breaks during each mile. It was hot, but surprisingly not too bad. I felt like I could have gone faster and longer. Nevertheless, Jose is ready for the Astros Race for the Pennant on Saturday and I plan to run with him.

...

This post about Letter People totally took me back to kindergarten. I'm pretty sure S was a dude with Super Socks, which may explain why I like funny socks so much.

Wednesday, May 24, 2006

Plans for the next week

Plans for the next week or so:

Wednesday - 3 mile run
Thursday - 1/2 hour swimming plus softball
Friday - Off
Saturday - Astros Race for the Pennant 5K
Sunday - 15-mile bike ride
Monday - Memorial Day! Off.

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

Well, my exercise plans for

Well, my exercise plans for the week are already shot -- I'll be making a quick trip out of town this weekend, so there will be no 15-mile bike ride or 3-mile run. There will, however, be hiking. :) And I'll try to stick to my plans for tomorrow and Thursday.

Such is life, eh?

Saturday, May 13, 2006

Contrary to what Joe says,

Contrary to what Joe says, I didn't know every 5th person at the Summer Kickoff Fun Run this morning. Maybe every 10th though. ;)

I love this race precisely because it's in my part of town and so many people turn out for it. The course is actually one of my least favorite -- a pretty dull out-and-back along 2094 and South Shore Boulevard -- but it passes quickly when I spend most of my time watching the people on the other side and looking for friends.

Joe's been having hamstring issues, and with his higher priority race in Colorado coming up in two weeks, he decided to take it easy and run with me today. Debbie was also with us for the first two miles, but pulled about 50 feet ahead at the mile 2 water stop and stayed there until the finish line. It was nice to have a pacer (though I think Joe was really just running whatever pace I wanted to go) and someone to chat with.

We finished in 33:01 with steadily slowing splits of 10:18, 10:34, 11:09 and 1:01. Not fantastic, but not too bad either.

The laundry list of people I saw is long. Buzz gets special mention for setting a new PR and finishing 1st in my age group (25-29 female), which she accomplished by keeping Ron (her husband) in her sights throughout the race; Joe and I met fellow Houston Running Blogger Erin for the first time, and she took 1st in her age group and was a mere 13 seconds from winning overall; Chris, a coworker, finally let his wife Kristin drag him along and ran his first race ever finishing just behind me in ~33:30 (Kristin was 2nd in her age group, and their adorable kids did the kids race); and Rich tried racing again despite the fact that his longest run of late had been 2.25 miles.

I also saw coworkers Mark, Darrin, and Floyd... Michelle came out to cheer (she'd already done her run for the day but came anyway)... Sam was out as a supporter as well, taking it easy in preparation for his leg in the Beach to Bay relay next weekend...

The funniest moment of the morning, though, has to be when I went to the packet pickup table to get my packet. They looked and looked and -- no Sarah. I wasn't on the list! Did I forget to register ahead of time? It was highly possible -- I register for so many races that I do lose track. The volunteer helpfully pointed me to the registration table, so I walked over and presented them with my situation: "Hi. I thought I pre-registered but apparently I didn't. I want to register now, but since I thought I registered ahead, I only have $6!"

I offered to take the money by the local store, On The Run, this afternoon, but they said I could just mail it in. "Do you happen to work at NASA by any chance?" the guy asked. "Yes." I replied. "Well it'll be ok then, I work there too, I can track you down if you don't pay!!" Needless to say, the first thing I did when I got home was write a check and put it in the mail. :)

Wednesday, May 03, 2006

I've been pretty good about

I've been pretty good about my exercise for the last week and a half; it helps to have someone else holding me accountable. On Monday, I went to Pilates for the first time with Becca and Jen. It was fun, but I don't think I was doing the exercises right -- I really wasn't very sore the next day.

This evening I went running in the heat (~6:00) with J. He had to make it to his apartment complex before they closed at 7, so we did two miles together -- 11:07 and 11:09. I took a short walk break to bid him adieu, then ran one more mile a little faster -- 11:10 including the walking time.

I've got two upcoming races in May, well, three if you count one that I'm shooting. This weekend I'll be doing photos at the Trot for TOMAGWA north of town; May 13 is the Summer Kickoff 5K at the local high school; May 27 is the Astros Race for the Pennant (two free tickets, yay!). Hope to see a bunch of the running bloggers around.

Friday, April 28, 2006

This new flexible work schedule

This new flexible work schedule ain't half bad! I worked 42 hours last week, 33 hours so far this week, and so all I had to do this morning was come in this morning to work the 5-hour FDO/Booster sim and voila -- my week was over at noon! I had lunch with the boy, went for an afternoon run all alone on the trails, and now I'm home watching TV and working on websites. I could get used to this.

This morning's sim was fun and funny. The next shuttle mission has two initialization loads -- high dynamic pressure and low dynamic pressure. This creates enough confusion as it is, but just imagine you are sitting on console for the first run of the morning expecting to see the engines throttle down to 67% (low dynamic pressure value) to match what you have pre-configured in the ARD, but the shuttle simulator only throttle downs to 72% (high dynamic pressure value). And then throttles back up nine seconds too early.

If you're me, at that point you start furiously trying to calculate the change in weight to take out of the ARD (because the ARD thinks you are way heavier than you actually are, to the tune of what you eventually calculate to be ~13,000 pounds) and just as you're beginning to worry, the flight director calls the run off while you're still in first stage and says "let's get the shuttle simulator properly configured, people." And in the back room, where ARD, Targeting, and Abort Support are all girls today, you'd just hear us giggling.

It was one of those mornings.

Last night I stepped on the scale for the first time in a week and let's just say I was not happy with what I saw. Too much eating out and not enough working out! But I'm feeling good about my running this week, and optimistic about getting back on track. I've run three days already and will run again tomorrow.

Today's run:
Mile 1 - 11:21
Mile 2 - 11:32 (w/ 1:00 walking break)
Mile 3 - 10:33
Total - 33:26

It was warmer than I thought out there. And I've been having my standard it's-been-a-while-since-I-ran-and-my-shin-splints-are-back pains. But it will be ok.

Thursday, April 27, 2006

To all my running friends

To all my running friends -- if you still have your copy of the March issue of Inside Texas Running, can you save it for me? Apparently there were three photos somewhere in there that I took (probably of the Park to Park run). I like to save tear sheets that have my stuff on them, and I must have missed the photos because I think I threw my copy away! I was also recently surprised to discover that while I get Inside Texas Running (a HARRA benefit?), I do not receive Runner Triathlete News. I didn't realize that they were different until now, either, so Jon, I haven't been able to read your column! I guess I need to subscribe, eh?

Last night Jose and I had planned to ellipticate, but after noticing the cool air and sunny skies, I told him there was no way I was going to work out inside when there was such great weather outside. So he came along and off we went. Afterward, I have only one thing to say, and it is: Freaking boy. This is exactly the second time he's gone running with me, and if he can run like this from scratch, he's going to be kicking my butt within months. SIGH.

Mile 1 - 11:22
Mile 2 - 12:17 (took a walking break at 1.5 miles)
Mile 3 - 11:00

Total - 34:39

While we were cooling down, Jose asked how much longer it would be before we were running 10:00 miles. SIGH. I informed him that running consistent 10:00 miles has been my dream for oh, like five years. But I bet he'll get there within a few months if he runs consistently.

As for this weekend, I am not doing Bayou Bash because my team (not Striders) sort of fell through, but Debbie and I may do this instead -- a Team-in-Training 5K/10K in Seabrook. I don't even know where I found this link, and can't find any information about it anywhere, so I'm not convinced that there will actually be people there if we show up. Anyone know anything about it?

Tuesday, April 25, 2006

Around 3:00 yesterday, a few

Around 3:00 yesterday, a few hours in advance of our planned run, Jose emailed me inquiring as to whether I ever ran in pants. "Sometimes," I replied. "when it's really freaking cold." Needless to say, he and his pants stayed inside on the elliptical machine while me and my shorts headed outside to the Gilruth trail for 3 miles.

OH MY GOD WAS IT HOT.

Mile 1 - 10:12
Mile 2 - 10:55
Mile 3 - 10:58
Total - 32:05

At the end, my face was beet red. Very attractive, I must say.

But the biggest news of the day: George passed his cert sim! It was a tough one, and he had to deal with five runs instead of the usual four, and he kicked MAJOR BUTT. Go George!

Saturday, April 15, 2006

I got up bright and

I got up bright and early this morning for the Resurrection Run 5K in Nassau Bay. At <5 minutes away, it's the closest race to my apartment and I've run it each year since I moved here full-time. As I was getting to my car around 7:40, my cell phone rang. "Who the heck is calling me this early?" I wondered. Of course it was none other than Jon, who said he was standing there with Waverly and Joe and Edwin and they all wanted to make sure I hadn't overslept!

Ha, ha. I swear, Jon is never going to let me live down last summer, when I overslept not once but twice and missed both the Lunar Rendezvous Run and Maribelle's. ;)

I got there about 10 minutes before race start and chatted with the four HRBers, as well as my friends Sean and Amy. Oh! I even saw a guy there wearing the t-shirt from the Yuri's Night race two weeks ago, which made me all kinds of excited.

My goal for this race was ~11:00 miles, or anything under 34:00. Edwin and Joe are much too fast for me, but I was hoping to keep Jon in my sights for at least a mile or so. Jon, however, took off like a shot from the start line! Whoa! His red shirt got farther and farther away as I decided to just head out and see what happened. I know the course pretty well, and as the first mile marker neared I felt pretty worn out.

9:58.

Oh, that's why I feel so tired!! I blame Jon for my fast first mile. ;) The first marker is near an open bit around the lake, and I could see him up ahead. I knew that if I'd run a 9:58 mile, he had to have done sub-9:00. Whew! I resolved to keep it steady for the second mile and despite being tired, told myself that I would not walk until I hit the Mile 2 marker.

Where was that marker? I was getting so tired! I wanted to walk so bad! But finally I saw it up ahead.

10:08.

Oh, that's why I'm still feeling like crap. I really pushed myself through that second mile! I walked for a minute here as I drank some water and let my heart rate calm down just a bit. "I still have 14 minutes to make it 1.1 miles to meet my 34:00 goal. Nooooo problem!" I thought. I started to run again. Then walked for 30 seconds. Then ran a little more. Then walked for 30 seconds. Boy was I tired!

Finally I turned onto the final road, with less than half a mile to go, and I decided to see if I could beat 33:00 instead. I hit the mile 3 marker just before turning into the parking lot.

10:31.

My walking hadn't done too much damage, probably because I picked up the pace for ~30 seconds each time I prepared to walk! I covered the last 0.1 miles in 1:04, pushing myself to the finish line but feeling like I just had nothing left to push. As I crossed the line, the clock read 32:04, but my watch (which reflected the time I crossed the start line, even though my chip apparently did not record that correctly) read 31:41!

I beat 32:00 with a 31:41, which Jon pointed out after the race is my 2nd best Resurrection Run result (of four years). I laughed and told Jon that I didn't even know that, and that he was amazing. He'd just been looking at past race results last night, as it turned out, and informed me that my best Resurrection Run was 30:something. He was right, of course, as I discovered when I looked it up myself.

In 2005 (when the race was on my birthday!) I ran 33:24. 2004 was my kick-butt year, coming off the excellent training I'd done for my first two half marathons, and I ran 30:30 according to my running log. In 2003, my first Resurrection Run, I ran 32:17.

I wanna run another sub-30:00 5K. I've only done it twice, both in December 2003 just before my first half marathon. I want to do it again in 2006.

Saturday, April 08, 2006

I've always suspected it and

I've always suspected it and now I'm certain: Charlotte is good for my running!

I did the 10K in the Charlotte Race Fest this morning and, following a couple solid months of a lot of activity but not much running, I finished in ~1:08. The results have not been posted yet, and I had some issues with my watch that left me 3-4 minutes off, but my watch read 1:03:57 (average heart rate of 190) as I crossed the finish line so 1:08 should be about right. I definitely beat my 1:12 goal time. :)

The course was lovely because, well, Charlotte is lovely in the spring! (Sometimes I really miss this city.) The weather was gray and overcast, and at the start I was afraid it might thunderstorm -- the clouds were very, very dark. But we only got a few drips, and the clouds kept things pretty cool.

We started about five minutes late (one of many issues that left me feeling a little disgruntled with race management). Mile 1 was mostly downhill, and I spent the first few tenths messing with my watch. Somehow the sound had gotten turned on, and it was beeping along with every beat of my heart. Rather annoying! It took me a few minutes to figure out how to turn it off, so that's the reason for my watch time being 3-4 minutes off the clock.

I cruised through Mile 2 without much trouble, even keeping steady up a long hill. Things fell apart for a while in Mile 3 though, when I was faced with another long hill and took my first couple walking breaks. Mile 4 was flat to downhill and I regained some energy there and really cruised along feeling good. There was no Mile 4 marker, but there was a mile 11 marker for the half marathoners, so I took my split time at 4.1 miles (2.1 remaining). Mile 5 stayed mostly flat, with one quick down and up that I pumped through. Mile 6, however, kicked my butt as we had to climb back up the hill that we'd run down in the first mile. I kept a steady pace for the last 0.2 and crossed the finish line with the clock reading 1:08:xx. Take out the 30-40 seconds of start time and by my best estimate I ran something like a 1:07:45, or just a bit under 11:00 pace. I'm very happy with that result.

Mile 1 -- 7:13 (more like 10:30-11:20 accounting for watch issues)
Mile 2 -- 10:30 (cruisin')
Mile 3 -- 11:37 (stupid hill!)
Mile 4.1 -- 11:15 (1.1 miles, cruisin' again)
Mile 5 -- 10:05 (0.9 miles, still feeling good)
Mile 6 -- 11:25 (another freakin' big hill!)
Last 0.2 -- 1:53

If you're interested in the route (or the elevation change, aka the hills that kicked my butt in miles 3 and 6), I mapped it here. Total elevation change was only ~140 feet from lowest point to highest point, but the hills here are what you'd call "rolling."

As for my issues with race management, they were mostly minor, but made me appreciate how well I think most Houston races are organized:

+ First of all, we started a bit late. Not a huge deal, but hey, I was ready to start at 8:00.

+ The race was chip-timed, however, there were no timing mats at the start line. They were at the finish line, so I can only assume that the race is sort of chip-timed -- they use the chip to get your finish time, but everyone is given the same starting time. That'll make my official time slow by the 30-40 seconds it took me to reach the starting line.

+ At the second water station (mile marker 3), I actually had to wait in line for a drink. It was quick, a minute at most (and probably not even that), but still not cool to have to stop and stand waiting for the volunteers to fill cups.

+ There was no mile marker 4. There were markers for 5 and 6, so where was 4? I'm certain that I didn't miss it, as those around me were looking for it as well. There was a mile marker 11 (for the half marathon), so I took a split there (which would be 4.1 miles for me).

+ Big hill right before the finish line!!! (Ok, I'm joking on this one, I have no complaints about the course -- Charlotte is just hilly.)

+ At the finish line, there was hardly any water. They had two of the office coolers, you know, the plastic jugs with small cone-shaped cups that only fit a gulp or two of water. I ended up just standing there to refill my cup 5 times. After I left the finish area (where they were taking chips and giving out medals), I spotted two coolers with cups, and went over to get some Gatorade -- but the coolers were empty. And this was at the end of the 10K, with all of the half marathoners still to finish! Only once I got to the post-race tent, a few tenths of a mile away, did I get a good cup of Gatorade. Not having water right at the finish line is inexcusable to me.

+ The post-race party was pretty lame. For $30 (yes, $30 entry fee for the 10K, that's another complaint), they should have had more than water, Gatorade, oranges, bananas, bagels, and doughnuts. But that was all they had.

I'm still glad I ran the race because I liked doing a Charlotte event and I was very happy with my performance, but I definitely learned that we runners have it good in Houston!

Update: My official time from the race website is 1:07:54. So, with the time to get to the start line taken out, probably something like 1:07:30. Woo!

Thursday, April 06, 2006

On the Houston Running Bloggers

On the Houston Running Bloggers message board, we always have a topic going about what races everyone is doing for the upcoming weekend. I commented that I would be at home in Charlotte and hadn't been able to find a race there on Saturday (granted, I didn't look very hard, just visited the website of my "local" running store in Charlotte and that was it). However, the amazing Jon took my comment to heart and found me a race! SO, Saturday morning I'll be running the 10K in the Charlotte RaceFest!

It starts only a few miles from my house -- next to the mall where I worked for two years -- and the route also passes by my high school. Fun! You may have noticed a dearth of running-related posts lately, and that's because I haven't been doing much running. Therefore my goal for Saturday is 11:30 or better miles, or ~1:12 or better finishing time. What a nice way to kickstart my running again.

Thanks Jon!

Saturday, April 01, 2006

Ah, the weekend. I spent

Ah, the weekend. I spent last night stressing out about this morning's Yuri's Night 5K, which I organized for the third year in a row. The week before the race, I always find myself telling my friends "don't let me do this again next year, don't let me take charge, don't let me commit myself to organizing this race!" But when race day arrives, and especially once the runners have finished and I'm giving out awards, I feel good, and I'm glad that I did it again. I like organizing, and I like being in charge and knowing everything that's going on and being able to answer everyone's questions.

We had 94 runners at final count, which is less than the past two years. There's been a consistent downward trend in the registration, which is directly related to my lack of time this spring (and tangentially related to the glut of races that occur in this area at this time of year). I did a horrible job of getting the word out, and knowing that, I was actually very pleased with 94. I really feel like the ideal size for the race is 150, and if I end up organizing it again next year that will be my goal. That's enough people to make it a decently sized and competitive race, while not overcrowding the trails at Challenger Park.

We're a small, bare bones race, but I think everyone enjoys the course and has fun running it. So that makes me happy. Another year, another successful 5K.

Thanks especially go to everyone who volunteered, including Jon who made the trek all the way from the Woodlands. The Houston Running Bloggers were represented on the course as well by Jen.

Monday, March 13, 2006

Some pics from the Bayou

Some pics from the Bayou City Classic including yours truly in photographer mode, courtesty of Edwin, here and here.

Monday, March 06, 2006

I've been catching up on

I've been catching up on everyone's blogs and just read on Cassie's blog about the trail run she did with Jon, Rick, and Dave. Fun! It reminded me that I should mention the one "run" that I did while in Patagonia. Last Saturday we were hiking towards Gray Glacier, and no one else felt as up for the hike as me, so at one point they turned around to head back to the refugio while I pressed ahead to get a little closer to the glacier.

About an hour later the weather began to look really nasty up ahead, so I made the decision to turn around and head back. I climbed back up the ~150 meters I had descended, which took a little while because 1) it was uphill and 2) I kept stopping to take pictures. By the time I reached the top, the sun was out again and it was beautiful. Stupid unpredictable Patagonia weather! Rather than turn around again, I decided to just head back to the refugio since I guessed (correctly) that the Cuernos del Paine were probably finally in sunshine and would make for a great photo.

The rest of the way back was mostly downhill, and I was feeling good, so (and here's where the HRBers can be proud) I ran a lot of it. Yup. Ran down the trail, feeling good, in my hiking boots. It was a lot of fun, and got me down to the bottom with lots of time to take photos of the Cuernos.

For the future, though, I don't recommend running in hiking boots. I had some very interesting blisters the next day and my knees had been replaced by those of a 90-year-old.

Friday, February 10, 2006

There are rumors that last

There are rumors that last weekend's 6K cross country race was actually 6.3K. That's an extra 0.2 miles, which puts me right at a 10:00/mile average. Which is pretty fast for me and would explain why my heart rate was so high and why I was really struggling!

Saturday, February 04, 2006

Rick is audio-blogging today as

Rick is audio-blogging today as he runs the Rocky Raccoon 100-Miler with Dalton. The race started at 6 a.m. and their goal, according to Jon, is to finish sometime between 6 a.m. and noon tomorrow. Best of luck to both of them!!

In the meantime, I ran the Buffalo Wallow 6K cross-country race this morning. Gavin came along as well, so that was nice. I finished in 39:06 and Gavin finished right around 29:00. I saw a bunch of people there and met a few more. The On The Run team took 4 of the top 11 spots, with 1, 2, 4, and Sam finishing in 11th place. I officially met Joe, and finally met the infamous Steve who's been sending me emails about the RRCA website all these months. ;)

It is so much fun to go to races now that I know so many people out there. It really gets my weekend off to a great start.

My race went well. It was the first cross-country race I'd ever done, and it was certainly harder than a normal road race even though by cross-country standards it was an easy course (or so I was told). The Master's Men started at 8:00, so the three-loop course had already been trodden three times before the women's race started at 8:45 -- and it was pretty muddy in parts.

At 8:45, the gun went off and the herd of women started running! The funniest moment was about a tenth of a mile into the race as the course narrowed to go between two lines of trees just before climbing one of the two steep hills. There was a mud pit right at the bottom of the hill, and many of the women immediately slowed to gingerly step around the mud as best as they could, with many girly complaints of "ew!" and "yuck!" I had to laugh. It's a cross country race! And after the rain of last week, yeah, we were going to get a little muddy.

I made it up the steep hill and around the top end of the course. We ran along Allen Parkway just for a moment before diving back down a steep hill to pass the start line (and spectators) and go under Montrose. The second steep hill was climbing from the park back up to Allen Parkway, where we then ran flat to the other end of the loop. At that point we turned and headed back downhill into the park, and weaved past trees and up and down small hills, back under Montrose, and past the start/finish line to begin another loop.

I was feeling good on the first loop and ran up both steep inclines. I passed the clock in ~12:30 for my first loop. The loop had to have been ~1.25 miles, so I was on 10:00 pace or so. I was happy, but was also starting to feel pretty tired and I knew I wouldn't be able to maintain that over two more loops.

I walked up both steep portions of the second loop, which seemed to leave me just as tired as if I'd run them. They were seriously steep! I came around the second loop to see the clock reading ~25:30. 12:30 for the first lap, 13:00 for the second. Right as I began my third loop, the winning woman finished the race. I was thiiiiiis close to getting lapped. ;)

The third lap was, of course, the worst. I walked up both inclines again, and took an additional walking break towards the other end of the loop. It was cold this morning (below 50) and so I'd worn a long sleeve shirt. The start/finish line was mostly in the shade, so it seemed like the right thing to do. But the majority of course was in the sun, and once I started running it was a little hot and I wished I'd worn short sleeves!

As we turned the final corner and headed back towards the start/finish for the final time, I decided to try to catch up to 4-5 women who were strung out one-by-one a little in front of me. I'd been running with them pretty solidly until my last little walk break, and I didn't want to fade at the end. I set my sights on the last woman in the line, and managed to pass her with maybe 0.2 miles to go. I never caught any of the others, but I closed the gap and the group of 5-6 of us all finished within 10-20 seconds of each other.

All in all, my time was 39:06, or right at 10:30/mile for the 6K (3.72 mile) course. I slowed down by about 30 seconds each loop -- 12:30, 13:00, and 13:30 or so. My average heart rate was a very high 194 -- I'm not lying when I said I was really struggling out there with the hills and the sun. It was definitely one of the toughest races I've run, but I'm glad I was able to push myself to a good finish.

p.s. There's a photo of me in the Striders photo album. Yep, as a result of helping Steve out with the RRCA Convention webpage, I am now a Houston Strider as well as a Running Blogger. :) A month ago I didn't belong to any running clubs; now I'm in two!

Wednesday, February 01, 2006

I ran last night. Yay!

I ran last night. Yay!

3.25 miles
33:something (I forget)
10:21/mile (but I remember the pace)
189 average heart rate

I must get back to running regularly. Not running much since the Half is symptomatic of the fact that my life seems to have become an explosion of activity. I am doing too much, and not sleeping enough. This morning I hit the snooze button for an hour and a half. Yes, one and a half hours. Absurd. So I got to work at 9:15, which means I'll have to stay late, which means I'll probably go to bed late again, and the vicious cycle repeats itself.

Must. Get. Back. On. Somewhat. Normal. Schedule!

My head feels really weird today. Dizzy-like. It makes it hard to concentrate.

Tuesday, January 31, 2006

I will go running tonight.

I will go running tonight. Somebody throttle me if I don't.

I am planning to do the Buffalo Wallow 6K on Saturday morning. My worry, however, is that I am too slow. The Masters Men start at 8:00, Women (all ages) at 8:45, and Open Men at 9:30. I estimate it will take me somewhere around 38:00 to run a cross-country 6K. (An 11:00/mile pace would be right at 40:00.) That's getting pretty close to the men's start time! Eek.

I began my MS150 fundraising in earnest with a massive email yesterday. If I somehow didn't spam you with that email ;) and you'd like to sponsor my ride, you can donate here. Thanks!

Friday, January 27, 2006

On Tuesday they took a

On Tuesday they took a picture of all the JSC people who ran the marathon or half marathon and put an article in JSC Features about it. Of course they ended up using the cheesy shot with us giving thumbs up. Ugh. I'm on the front row, second from right. Michelle is front row, third from left. Nick (Skytland, not Saadah) is in the back row, left of center.

And here's a photo I never got around to posting that Nick (Saadah, not Skytland) took of me leaping into the air when I saw my cheering section.

Good times.

Wednesday, January 25, 2006

I went running last night.

I went running last night. THANK GOD. I really needed it, and not just because I was starting to lose fitness after eight non-running days. I needed because my legs felt all antsy, and I had all this pent-up energy. Oh, it was great.

I ran what I thought was something like 3.5 miles, but when I got back to my apartment, hit "stop" on the watch (which I hadn't looked at) and saw 27:36, I knew that either I've secretly been holding out on everyone about my speediness or my mental mileage estimation was, well, far off. Google pedometer happily informed me that it was the latter, so thankfully Sam doesn't have to worry about me coming up on his heels anytime soon. Hahaha! ;)

I've never guessed so poorly on a distance, and I would have known sooner if I'd been checking my watch during the run, but I wasn't. Anyway, it turns out that I ran 2.71 miles, which puts me at a much more Sarah-like 10:11/mile pace. I was breathing pretty hard, which felt great and was good for the previously mentioned pent-up energy.

Happy sigh.

Thursday, January 19, 2006

Cassie posted a list of

Cassie posted a list of her upcoming events and I'm now inspired to do the same. I need to anyway -- the next few months are crazy busy for me and I need to somehow keep track of my commitments! I really wanted to do the HARRA Iron Foot races, but I already know I'll miss at least two of them, so I'll have to wait until next season. So, by weekend (and for the record, it sorta freaks me out that I am planning weekends this far in advance):

Jan 21/22:
Jan 28/29: Run the Woodlands
Feb 4/5: Buffalo Wallow Cross Country 6K
Feb 11/12: Park to Park 5-Miler OR Surfside Half (Sat) and maybe West U Warmup Bike Ride (Sun)
Feb 18/19: in Patagonia!
Feb 25/26: still in Patagonia!
Mar 4/5:
Mar 11/12: Bayou City Classic (but I may be out of town!)
Mar 18/19: Seabrook Lucky Trails Half OR Relay (Sun)
Mar 25/26: in Tahoe attempting to ski! (if somehow not, then Law Week 8K) also, my birthday!
Apr 1/2: YURI'S NIGHT 5K, Webster
Apr 8/9: Space Race Bike Ride (Sun)
Apr 15/16: Resurrection Run 5K, Nassau Bay (Sat) and Easter
Apr 22/23: MS150
Apr 29/30:
May 6/7:
May 13/14: Summer Kickoff Fun Run 5K, League City
May 20/21: Silverlake Sprint Triathlon, Pearland (Sun)
May 27/28/29: Astros Race for the Pennant 5K (?) & Memorial Day!

And even farther ahead:
Oct 1: Try Andy's Tri

Monday, January 16, 2006

I slept from 11:00 last

I slept from 11:00 last night until 11:45 today. It felt so good. I'm really not very sore at all. In fact, I was more sore last week after the Rockets Run and soccer than I am today. Weird how those things go.

After yesterday's Half, a little voice in the back of my head has started going "you know...you could still do the Love the Half Texas Challenge..."

If I did, I'd have to start in two weeks with the 3M Half in Austin.

Jan 29 - 3M Half - Austin
Feb 12 - Surfside Beach Half - Surfside
Mar 19 - Seabrook Lucky Trails Half - Seabrook

Plus two of the races in April and May. I dunno. I have a feeling I'm not really mentally prepared for that, and am instead just riding on the high of a successful race yesterday. But it's something to think about. Realistically, I'm thinking this may be a good year to do the Texas 10K Challenge, and save Love the Half for next year.

I just want to make sure I have something to work toward this year. The 10K Challenge actually is probably a good one, because it will force me to keep somewhat in shape for the summer and early fall races.

Sunday, January 15, 2006

I was supposed to have

I was supposed to have dinner with some friends at 6. Sometime around 4:30 I must've fallen asleep watching the Panthers game because next thing I know, it was 6 and the score of the game had changed! Ah well. I wussed out on dinner. I'm just sleeeeepy.

A couple photos from today... I didn't take as many as I wanted to, or of exactly what I wanted to, but c'est la vie.

Jessica, Cassie and Manny post-race:

The finish line!

Holden:

Jen:

Sam, Jessica and Jon post-race (Lisa, note Sam's shirt!):

Sunday, January 15, 2006

2:18:33! I did the Half

2:18:33! I did the Half in 2:18:33! I am happy.

I did 2:15 two years ago when I was better trained, and figured I could do 2:25 this year, so my goal was somewhere in that 10-minute window. I really thought it'd be closer to the 2:25 end. But I had a good day, and started strong, and managed to maintain it. My splits were all over the map, but my slowest mile was actually the first, when everyone was battling the starting crowds.

Mile 1 - 11:20
Mile 2 - 10:43
Mile 3 - 10:48
Mile 4 - 10:17
Mile 5 - 10:37
Mile 6 - 10:19
Mile 7 - 10:26
Mile 8 - 10:13
Mile 9 - 10:53
Mile 10 - 10:22
Mile 11 - 9:13 (short?)
Mile 12 - 11:46 (long?)
Mile 13 - 10:34
Final 0.1 - 1:04

I headed downtown and parked right in front of Minute Maid Park at 5:30 -- for free! Woo! A car pulled in right next to me and it turned out to be Erin, a coworker. She'd seen me on I-45 and followed me all the way downtown. I'd totally forgotten she was running the Half, but it was nice to see her. We headed into the convention center where I immediately spotted the bright orange of the Houston Running Bloggers banner.

The pre-race festivities passed quickly enough. I headed outside at 6:30 to use the outdoor port-o-potties (much shorter lines!) and mill around. What a difference from last year -- last year it was freezing as I stood waiting for the start, but this year it was downright pleasant.

At 7 a.m. we were off, in the glow of an absolutely beautiful sunrise. It was a little cloudy, and the sun lit up the clouds in a brilliant orange. For the first mile, I couldn't stop looking at the pretty sky. The race was pretty uneventful for the first few miles. Not too many spectators, but still tons of runners tightly clumped together. As we went over the Elysian viaduct, I glanced up and saw the streetlights bouncing up and down. I guess that's what thousands of runners crossing a bridge will do!

After an 11:20 first mile, I settled into a comfortable pace. Since my goal was 11:00 miles, it was easy to judge whether I was under that by doing the math. By the time I hit the 7-mile mark, I had a couple minutes "in the bank" to get me under 2:25, so I was feeling good.

Just past the 8-mile mark I got a huge boost from a crowd of my friends! (They were there more for Michelle who was doing her first marathon, but thankfully waited around to cheer for me and Erin as well!) I'm sure I'm going to forget someone who was there, but Nick, Curt, Sara, Jose, Ashley, James, Paul, Sonia and a couple others hollered and shouted and got me excited and feeling good. I saw them again a mile and a half later after the Half course turned around and we headed back downtown.

The toughest part was the end -- I started to get pretty tired and my legs started aching. I walked a couple extra times in the last 2 miles (after having walked only through the water stations to that point, as is my habit). As we entered downtown, the wind tunnel effect hit with a vengeance, but as we turned the final corner and I could see the finish line far in the distance, I knew I'd make it. And I knew I'd make it under 2:20.

After finishing, I found some of the other HRBers, as well as my friend David from the Gilruth trail. After a while, Jon, Jessica and I started walking backwards along the course to find others to cheer for. We ended up walking back to ~24.5 miles -- so I ran a half marathon and then walked 4 miles there and back! Sheesh.

As for the HRBers, they rocked it! Waverly -- Jon's 10-year-old daughter -- came in under 3 hours at 2:54 and change. Jessica beat 2:00, and Cassie and Manny soundly beat 2:15. Sam ran 1:19, which wasn't what he was hoping for but he seemed happy enough afterwards. I never did see Keith, though I see from his time that he finished right behind me. I saw Erica at the finish as well though I didn't catch her time. In the marathon, Lance clocked 3:02 and change, Steve S came in around 3:53 and Steve B finished just a smidge over 4:00. Jon, Jessica and I then got to see Dalton, Holden, Dave, Joe, and Jen near the 25 mile mark. It was great to see each of them in turn, and see that they were going to make it to the finish! I also saw a couple non-HRB friends, including Erin and, later, Michelle. Michelle was having a lot of trouble with her knee, but she pulled through in the end!

I had a great run and another successful Houston Marathon & Half Marathon day is in the books.

Thursday, January 12, 2006

Last night I had a

Last night I had a dream that I was late to the Half Marathon and had forgotten to pick up my packet in advance. So I was frantically running around the convention center trying to get everything in order before the race started. I guess some part of my brain is a little anxious about the race, despite my overall "aw I've done this before" feeling.

I was cleaning out some old bookmarks last night and came across this great photo essay from the 2004 NYC Marathon. It got me thinking about what my photography plans are/should be for Sunday. Obviously the first 2:45 of the marathon are out for me, since I'll be running for almost 2:30 and then getting food for another 15 minutes. But afterwards, I'd love to try to get some shots even remotely as good as those on that site. And of course, photos of the HRBers finishing!

First, how do I get my camera? I could check it with my sweatshirt, etc, but that is a little risky. I've done it before (at the Marine Corps race in October) but I wasn't happy about it. The only other option would be to leave it in my car, and hopefully park close enough that I can get it quickly once I've finished running.

Second, where do I go to take photos? I'm pretty sure I won't be allowed back into the finishing area, and after that people are funnelled into the convention center. Do I take photos inside?

Wednesday, January 11, 2006

Hey Running Bloggers, we've got

Hey Running Bloggers, we've got t-shirts! I'll have them at the pasta party on Friday.

The bad news is that the material is VERY thin. Probably more applicable if you are a girl, so girls -- your sports bra will definitely show through. (In the photo I've got a tank top on underneath.) Just an observation. They are also long; the shirt bunches at my waist because it's a little tight to stretch over my hips. Again, probably much more applicable if you are a girl with hips larger than your waist like me!

But the good news is that we have t-shirts, they were cheap, and the orange shows up great!

Wednesday, January 11, 2006

Oh HRBers, I was so

Oh HRBers, I was so good last night. I beat my own brain and went for a run. And yes, I'm now patting myself on the back for it.

See, I'd planned to go after work, but I left a little later than I'd planned and it was too close to sunset to go running on the unlit trails here at JSC. So then I went home, and dutifully put on my shoes and went to the fitness room, but both treadmills were taken! (Ah, the beginning of the year, when everyone's trying to stick with their resolutions and thus the fitness room is always crowded. I can't wait till February.) I could've run outside, but I am so, so sick of the back-and-forth route that I have to follow if I run from my apartment; half mile loops over and over are boring as all can be. So at this point, I figured the fates were conspiring such that I not run. My brain and body were starting to go along with this, since my legs were still pretty sore from Sunday's race and soccer game.

So I went home, took off the running clothes, and settled in on the couch for dinner and some web surfing. Around 7:30 I decided it was time to go to the grocery store and get something to put in my very empty cabinets. At 8:30 I was back home again, but still thinking about how I hadn't run. "Hell with it," I thought, "I'll try again."

I got dressed all over again and walked back over to the fitness room. As I crossed the pool, I could see at least one of the treadmills was still taken, and sighed as I figured the other would be in use as well. But it wasn't! Woo!

I did 4 miles in the same fashion as last week's treadmill run -- 5.0, 5.3, 5.6, and 5.9 miles per hour, or 12:00, 11:19, 10:43, and 10:10 miles. I was worried that I wouldn't be able to finish the 10:10 mile without a fight, as I always seem to struggle more on the treadmill, but the last mile passed pretty smoothly, enough that I considered attempting one more at 6.1 mph (9:50 mile). But it was already 9:30 and I was ready to get back to the apartment and enter the "wind down" portion of my night...and I also didn't want to push too hard with the half coming up on Sunday.

Other than the constant "will I, won't I run?" debate in my head, last night was uneventful. It was my last free Tuesday night for the semester, since UHCL classes begin next week. This spring I'm taking the web design class. I'm not looking forward to it nearly as much as the graphic design class, but hopefully I will get something out of it, and if not, it still counts towards the nebulous M.A. that I may be working towards...

Tuesday, January 10, 2006

I just signed up to

I just signed up to track about a zillion people via my cell phone at the marathon and half on Sunday: Waverly (and thus, Jon), Cassie, Jessica, Sam, and Stephanie in the Half, plus Edwin, Holden, Jen, Steve B, Lance, Steve S, Rick and Michelle in the full. Who am I missing? I know I'm missing people.

My cell is going to be dinging like crazy with all those updates, but I'm hoping they'll be useful in knowing when to look for people to cheer for once I've finish my own race. I haven't decided whether to carry my cell with me or not as I run (probably not), but I'll get it once I finish the half. I'm also trying to figure out how to get my camera once I'm done! :)

Sunday, January 08, 2006

I ran the first ever

I ran the first ever Rockets Run in 2003, when it was still at the Compaq Center and when the course turned out to be more than a quarter of a mile short. (I finished in 28:something when I'd never even broken a half hour.) After that experience, and after hearing similar complaints, I skipped the race in 2004 and 2005. Today I decided to give it another chance and headed downtown to the new race site at the Toyota Center.

Here are the HRBers (thanks for the photo Jon):

I still have a lot of complaints about the race including:

+ A 10-minute wait to get my packet (because you had to sign a waiver that probably could have been signed online when you register!)
+ A wait to get water at the finish line (not having cups pre-filled)
+ No bananas, bagels, or other standard food (instead, there was pizza, hot dogs, and Diet Pepsi that had expired in July -- I took about 5 sips and threw the rest away, it was gross)
+ No posted results
+ A huge cloud of diesel exhaust as you enter the tunnel (probably unavoidable, but still icky!)

Thankfully the course was measured correctly, though the mile markers were wrongly placed. By consensus after the race, we decided that Mile 1 was long, Mile 3 was short, and the last 0.1 was long.

Come on, Rockets. I don't know whether I'll do it again next year. It makes me angry to pay for something that the Rockets should be able to do well. Instead, they just don't care. That's the saddest part -- they could do it right, but they just don't care.

If only they'd take a tip from the Astros. The Race for the Pennant is a very well-done race.

My splits were as follows:

Mile 1 - 10:13 (long, though I didn't realize it because 10:13 seemed like a damn good pace to me!)
Mile 2 - 9:49
Mile 3 - 9:21 (short)
Final 0.1 - 1:02 (long)

Total Time - 30:25 (9:49/mile), average heart rate of 189

Obviously I'm very pleased with my race; it's the fastest 5K I have done in more than a year. The encouraging (and frustrating) part is that I probably could have gone a little faster. Lance and Steve S (both of whom I finally met in person after the race) will cringe to hear me say this, but I never felt like I was going all out until the final sprint, which means I probably could've broken 30:00 if I'd pushed myself.

I ran 2.5 miles alone, then Cassie and Manny pulled up beside me. I'd been wondering the whole time where they were; I knew they were behind me because I never saw Cassie's bright red shirt in front of me. They had to have been right behind me the whole time, and Cassie later confirmed that they were. When they pulled up beside me I told myself "I'm going to stay with them, strong through the end." And I did. Cassie beat me to the line by a couple feet though after sprinting past me on the court. ;)

Obviously the last tenth of a mile was mismeasured. I ran that tenth faster than any other because 1) it was the end and 2) it was downhill through the tunnel to the basketball court, and yet I was only doing 10:00 pace? I don't think so. The last tenth was probably more like 45 seconds, making Mile 3 more like 9:35.

Nevertheless, I'm happy! Half marathon next weekend. I don't expect to match my 2:15 from 2004, but I fully expect to finish under 2:30 without too much of a problem.

OH! And mad props to Waverly, who broke her 5K PR by more than a minute! (And also earned a $100 payday from Jon; hmm, I wonder if I could convince my Dad to pay me if I break a PR...)

Saturday, January 07, 2006

First of all, congratulations to

First of all, congratulations to Andrew aka Jelly Santelli!! He ran his first half marathon today down at Disney World in a very respectable 2:27:57. On Sunday I'm going to try to match his time. :) Way to go Jelly!

I've fallen off the training wagon in the last month, but at this point, with the half marathon coming up next Sunday, I'm as ready as I'm going to get.

Two years ago I was totally in Half Marathon mode as I prepared for my first 13.1-mile run ever in January 2004. It was a big deal to me. Last year I was totally in Marathon mode as I prepared for my first 26.2-mile run ever in January 2005. It was an even bigger deal to me. This year... Well, oddly enough, the Half has sort of snuck up on me. I've been talking about it and training for it, but having already done two halves and one full marathon, this Sunday doesn't seem like such a big deal.

I sort of miss that anticipation, that feeling of "I'm about to do something I've never done before." That's not to say that I'm not looking forward to the race, or that I think the Half this year is any less of an accomplishment than it was the first time I did it (in fact, this year it will probably be more since I've been lax on my training!).

It's just a thought.

Today I didn't want to go running. I fear I am becoming a Joe "I Hate Running" Breda protege. ;) But today I really didn't want to go. I'd told myself a few days ago that I'd do 6-7 miles today, but my brain and body compromised and I did 3 miles. BUT I did them in 30:28 for a 10:09/mile average. I was really huffing and puffing at the end.

Friday, January 06, 2006

I had a fantastic run

I had a fantastic run last Thursday in Charlotte. I did not run Friday because I didn't want to have to pack sweaty clothes when I flew to Atlanta. I did not run Saturday (though I did ice skate) because I planned to run Sunday and Monday. I did not run Sunday, Monday, or Tuesday because I was sick and just wanted to sleep. Then I did not run Wednesday because I was shooting soccer games.

So, it was with a feeling of slight desperation that I forced myself to squeeze in a treadmill run last night. After six days off, and still recovering a bit from my cold, I decided to take it pretty easy and ran three miles, one each at 5.0, 5.3, and 5.6 mph (that would be 12:00, 11:19, and 10:43 per mile).

It was a nice, relaxing run (well, as relaxing at the treadmill can be) and I'm glad I fit it in. Afterwards, I enjoyed dinner at Mely's with about a zillion people including Nancy and Graham, who had a layover in Houston on their way back from the "Becca's family goes to Ecuador for Christmas" trip.

And in other news, I quickly counted up my...

Sarah's 2005 Running (And More) By The Numbers

Hours spent running, swimming, biking, racing, etc - 83.08
Miles run or ellipticalled (mostly run) - 347.05
Miles biked - 270.7
Miles swum - 6

Highest running mileage week - 28 miles in the week that ended on Jan 1, 2005, i.e. my last big week before marathon taper! Yes, the week of the marathon, the marathon was the only thing I ran.
Lowest running mileage week - 0 miles, many times, especially during summer. :(
Highest biking mileage week - 150 miles during MS150 weekend in April
Lowest biking mileage week - 0 miles, many times, including every week since July. I really must train this year.

Number of races run: 15
Number of races biked: 1 (MS150)
Number of other races: 1 (Houston Urban Adventure)

Soccer games: lots
Softball games: lots
Climbing: not much, should go more

Thursday, December 29, 2005

After a day off yesterday

After a day off yesterday to recover both physically and mentally from my 12-miler, I did a quick 5K this afternoon before the Georgia Tech bowl game. (We are currently sucking it up against Utah. Boo.) The good news is that I had a good run! 31:40 for the 5K, which is an impressive 10:13/mile for me -- and that's my pace with hills!

(Though I do have to say -- I wonder if I don't enjoy hills more than the endless flat of Houston. Sure, hills involve going up. But they also involve going down! Up is a challenge, but down is fun; flat can get so monotonous.)

I ran my standard Charlotte route that goes up lovely Queens Road with all the tall trees, and past the park. The last half mile is on Lilac Road, which is an enjoyable downhill section before a final 0.1-mile uphill push to the house. Since I start and finish at the same point, I know that the net elevation of the route is zero, but man -- it sure feels nice ending with that awesome extended Lilac downhill.

I probably won't get to run tomorrow, since Mom's got a full schedule for me and I head to the airport in the evening to head down to Atlanta for a few days before getting back to Texas. But I'm hoping to squeeze in a couple 3-4 mile runs on Saturday, Sunday and/or Monday. Carter's neighborhood is nice for running.

Tuesday, December 27, 2005

The best thing about today's

The best thing about today's 12.25-mile run is that it's over.

It was not a good run for me. I don't know whether I was tired (probably), not hydrated enough (maybe), or had just psyched myself out (likely) but I just felt dead. It was also a different time of day -- I've always preferred running in the late afternoon but today I headed out at 10:30 a.m. so that Mom and I could shop after lunch.

I ran this 6-mile route twice, stopping for 3 minutes at my house between loops to use the bathroom and sip some Gatorade. Actually, it was 6.13 miles, so two loops was 12.25 miles.

Loop 1 - 6.13 miles, 1:07:36, 11:02/mile
Break - 3:00
Loop 2 - 6.13 miles, 1:10:01, 11:25/mile

So my total time (excluding the break) was 2:17:37, or 11:14/mile. It was not as strong a run as I'd been hoping for, but coming in at an 11:14/mile average is a minor miracle when I consider how sluggish and generally lethargic I felt. I mean, I felt dead. By the last mile, I was walking 30 seconds for every 2-3 minutes of shuffling.

I have to say, I felt "off" from the start. I just never got into a groove, and my legs felt very heavy. Even slight inclines were doing a number of me, and I considered bailing when I got back to the house after the first loop. "I could try again tomorrow," I thought. But I really wanted to knock this thing out, and so I started out again. The second loop was worse, and I'm actually surprised that I finished as close to the first loop time as I did. As I've always said -- I am horrible at judging my pace! I guess I must have been running at a pretty good clip during the times I was running -- because there were definitely a lot of walking breaks on the second loop.

But I'm glad I got my 12 miles out of the way. It would be tough to feel worse than I did today on January 15 during the Half, so I can take comfort in the knowledge that even if the 15th is a repeat of today, I'll still come in under 2:30:00.

Saturday, December 24, 2005

Christmas Eve is here! It

Christmas Eve is here! It was a beautiful day with a Carolina blue sky. I was up very early (6 a.m.) to ride with Mom to take Katie and Joel to the airport and see them off to Seattle. I went back to bed around 8 and slept for another three hours. Ah, the beauty of vacation.

After a few errands with Mom, I headed out for my run. I decided to up the distance even more since I probably won't run tomorrow (or if I do, only 3 miles). I did 3 miles Thursday, 5 yesterday, and did 7 today along this very picturesque route. There were quite a few sizable hills and I was a bit sluggish, so I took a few walking breaks during the last bit of the bigger hills. Because of that, imagine my surprise to come home, measure the route officially on Gmaps Pedometer, and see that I did 7 miles in 1:13:34 -- 10:31/mile!

Charlotte really seems to bring out the best in my running. I'm sure it has a lot to do with the fact that for each of the past three years when I come home for Christmas, I've been in the final phase of training for a big January event (Half, Full, Half). But still. The weather here is usually my ideal running weather -- sunny, clear and around 50 degrees during the day -- and it's fun to run at home. I'm extremely happy to be back to the point where I can sustain a 10:30 pace over a good distance.

Friday, December 23, 2005

Running in Charlotte is blissful.

Running in Charlotte is blissful. The streets are pretty, the air seems clearer, and I don't even mind the hills -- at least not too much.

Yesterday Katie and I did 3 miles together in 32:30 (10:50/mile). It was my first run since the 10.7 miles I did last Sunday, so I was definitely due! We headed out as the sun was going down and gabbed the whole time. I'm sure I talked a lot more than she did. :) I like being able to run with her when I'm home. We had early Christmas tonight -- she and Joel got to open all their presents, and we got to open ours from them. They're leaving early tomorrow morning to spend Christmas with his family in Seattle, but we've gotten to hang out together the past two days. Joel fits into our family just like another brother. I'm glad my sister married such a funny guy.

Today I ran alone and followed a 4.5 mile route I found online -- and then modified it for me. (Yay Google Pedometer!) I added a bit here and there and ended up doing 4.9 miles in 51:54, or 10:36/mile. I certainly did not realize I'd been going quite that fast, but was pleasantly surprised when I did the math at the end. That explains why I was feeling pretty tired in spots, especially the uphill portions! Heh.

Since I'm on vacation, I'm hoping to fit in a run almost every day for the next week. I really enjoy running around my neighborhood since I make it back to Charlotte only once or twice a year. It's a very refreshing change of scenery. I know I won't get a run on the 26th because we head up to Chapel Hill for lunch with my aunt, but hopefully every other day.

I'm aiming to do a 12-miler on the 27th. I even found a route online that goes right by my house! Perfect. I used that same website for running routes last year when I was doing marathon training. After Christmas I emailed the webmaster to tell him how much I appreciated his routes; I'm glad to see the site is still there.

Wednesday, December 21, 2005

I read something recently out

I read something recently out in the running and blogging community written by a guy who is a very accomplished local runner and someone who trains extremely hard. I've never met him in person but I have a lot of respect for his work ethic, running talent, and his dedication to the local running community. But in his comments, he implied that he is upset by runners who aren't on a constant quest for improvement -- runners who don't approach every race with the intention of setting a new personal record at the distance.

Runners like me.

It got me thinking about why I run, and what my goals are. (For the record, I believe this person reads this blog occasionally, and so I hope he'll understand that I'm not trying to use this entry as a retort. I think he actually brought up a very interesting issue.)

If I went into every race with the intention of PRing, my running "career" probably would have lasted about 3 months. I would've run some races, but the first time I didn't PR I would have gotten mad at myself and quit. It's one of my more annoying and frustraing traits. But my running life is now entering its 4th year precisely because I don't try to PR each and every time.

Look -- let's be honest. I'm not built to be a runner, and I don't have natural running talent. I'm never going to be a truly competitive runner, so why kill myself just to get to the point where I can do 7 minute miles? I'd rather stick to a level of running that I can sustain that is happy and enjoyable rather than push myself to the point where I'm not enjoying it just to shave a few minutes off my 5K time.

I think I may be among the minority, at least in the group of Houston runners I've gotten to know over the past year, in thinking that way. And I know there are many runners out there who disagree with my opinion and don't understand why I wouldn't want to keep pushing to be the best I can possibly be, but hey -- that's me, that's my personality. I push myself to the point where I am satisfied, and for me, that is enough.

It's odd, actually, because I can be a very competitive person. But running has become something I do for me, not for anyone else, and I just don't have that desire to go-go-go train-train-train. I don't mean to come off as pessimistic or unmotivated -- I do train, I do try to improve, and I do want to improve.

But I have a limit; there is a line somewhere that I won't cross. It's not a time or pace line as much as it is an "enjoyment" line. There is a point where running ceases to be fun for me. I came close to that point at the end of my marathon training (that 22-miler alone did me in!), and my running suffered this year because of it. So I took a step back and reevaluated (and continue to reevaluate) and that's why I'm doing the Half this year and not the full marathon. I wasn't ready to start training that much, again. Not yet.

I'm ok with that, and in the end, I think most of my runner friends are as well. The one thing that really drew me to the running community, and the one thing that has kept me involved, is that overall I find runners to be some of the most accepting people I've ever met. Most don't care how fast or how far you run, as long as you just run! Period. It's an individual sport and you can get as little or as much as you want out of it -- that's the beauty of running.

~-~

Christmas arrives faster and faster each year. Wasn't it just July, like, yesterday? I'm flying home to Charlotte tonight and am looking forward to some rest and relaxation. I'll be in Atlanta for New Years, and back at work on January 3. Christmas will be different this year because Katie will celebrating in Seattle with Joel and his family. But they don't leave until Saturday so I'll get a couple days to chill with the Chalmers.

~-~

Be nice to your UPS man. He's crazy busy and he deserves it. :)

Sunday, December 18, 2005

I am so tired. And

I am so tired. And I think I'm in the pre-cold stage for the bazillionth time this fall. And my knees hurt. And my face is a tiny bit sunburned. BUT I gutted through my long run today. And I mean gutted. I didn't want to do it. I tried to talk myself out of it. But I told myself it was necessary, and so at 11:15 I found myself beginning to run. I told myself I'd go for 2 hours or 10 miles, whichever came first.

I wasn't feeling very motivated at the start, and the fact that the "out" leg involved going into a fairly strong headwind at times didn't help. But in the end, it didn't turn out to be so bad. I ran on the Seabrook trails, from the pool to Pine Gully to the pool to Pine Gully to the pool. Two out-and-backs for a total of what actually turned out to be 10.7 miles. (I knew it was slightly more than 10. Didn't know that "slightly" was close to another mile.) I did the first out-and-back in exactly an hour, and the second slightly faster for a total of 1:59:23, or an 11:09/mile pace. Average heart rate was 184.

I took a few quick walking breaks, both to help myself out and to mimic what I will be doing during the half marathon since I always walk through the water stations. I did 19 minutes running, 1 minute walking four times in a row. I hit a low point and did a 9/1 bit. Then a 14/1 bit. And then ran the final 15 minutes to the end thanks to a good song that queued up on the mp3 player at just the right time to get me through.

I was slightly overdressed. It looked and felt colder when I left than it actually was (due to the fact that the sun came out just as I began the run). It was probably in the upper 50s at the end of my run, and I'd dressed for upper 40s. I was wearing capris, a long sleeve shirt, and gloves. The gloves came off after the first hour and I just carried them the rest of the way.

One more long run and I'll be ready for the Half! My plan had been to do 11 next Sunday and 12 the following Sunday. Well, since those Sundays are Christmas and New Years Day, it probably won't happen. I will probably compromise and do 12-13 miles on the 27th or 28th...

(Oh yeah, and yesterday I did my scheduled 45 minutes of cross-training on the elliptical. I thought about running, but the weather was nasty.)

Thursday, December 15, 2005

Random. I happened to look

Random.

I happened to look at my photoblog site stats this morning (which I hardly ever do) and saw that I'd gotten a few hits from a message board. I went there to check it out (use login name "Veller", password "Hello", thanks Bugmenot!) and it turns out that it's a message board string about a hand sign someone is calling "The Annie" that is actually the Hook 'em Horns sign. And because of that, some girl apparently hotlinked to this photo on my photoblog.

Random. I think this is the first time I've seen a photo of mine show up in a completely unexpected place.

Anyway. I've thrown myself a bit off my half marathon training schedule in the past couple weeks, partly because of laziness (like not going for my long run on Sunday and putting it off until Monday) and partly because of work (I'll be here until 9:00 tonight for a sim, so no running for me tonight).

I'm hoping to make my "departure" from the schedule as non-impact as possible by sticking to the important runs. After bailing on Sunday, I already mentioned how I did my long run on Monday. Well, that meant that I wasn't in much of a mood, or rather, my legs weren't in much of a mood, to do my scheduled 3.5 miles yesterday. So I skipped it.

I promised to get back on track today with my speed session, knowing already that I won't be able to run tomorrow night because of work. Then: torrential rains all afternoon yesterday. Scary stuff. Lightning, flash flooding on the roads, tornado watches, etc. Not a good day to run outside.

SO I did my speedwork on the dreadmill. I mean, treadmill. And it actually went ok. For some reason I find that I have to slow down a bit when I run on the 'mill, so I decided to make my intervals time-based instead of distance-based. After a 1-mile (12:00 pace) warmup, I did 45 minutes of intervals. Nine sets of 5 minutes each, where I ran the first two minutes at 6.7 mph (a hair under 9:00 pace) and the next 3 minutes at 4.5 mph (13:20 pace) to recover. Overall I think the strategy did a decent job of approximating the ~2:10/3:20 400m run/jog repeats I did the last time. I finished with an abbreviated 2/3 mile cooldown (12:00 pace again).

Overall I covered less distance, but the 8:57 pace is slower than I'd have been doing on the trail outside. The treadmill just slows me down somehow. Who knows. Anyway, total distance covered was 5.68 miles, so after taking out the 1.68 of warmup and cooldown, my intervals covered 4 miles total. If I'd done the true 9x400 repeats outside it'd have been 4.5 miles. So, not too far off. I was happy with the workout.

I'll run a few miles on Saturday and then try for 10 on Sunday and hopefully I'll be back on schedule! I have to say -- having a schedule (as well as knowing the running bloggers are keeping tabs on me) has been really helpful on the motivation front...

Tuesday, December 13, 2005

I was a lazy bum

I was a lazy bum (relatively speaking) on Sunday and skipped my scheduled long run, so I promised myself that I would do it last night. Otherwise I'd miss it entirely, and that wasn't a good option. So I headed out from work a tad early to do three laps on the Gilruth trail. I timed it just perfectly -- any later and the first half of my last lap (the wooded part) would have been completely dark. As it was, there was just enough light left for me to run without turning an ankle.

The Gilruth trail is 2.9 miles (wish they could find a way to add a tenth), so my splits are a bit wacky. I decided to just hit my watch on the miles, or else I'd never know exactly where I was after the first loop. Then about a half mile into the second loop, the battery in my mp3 player died! I'd forgotten to change it! Argh!!

Fortunately, no sooner than the battery died, David (the guy I met at the Reindeer Run a couple weekends ago) ran up from behind me. We ended up running the rest of my second loop together and chatting, so it turned out that the dead headphones weren't the end of the world. :)

As he headed inside for a bathroom break, I added a tenth of a mile to my second loop to stop by my car to pick up a fresh battery. That made the second loop an even 3 miles.

First Loop:
Mile 1 - 11:00
Mile 2 - 10:55
Final .9 - 9:38
(31:33 loop)

Second Loop:
Mile 1 - 10:52
Mile 2 - 11:12 (chatting with my new friend David)
Mile 3 - 11:45 (a full mile, including a pause at my car to get a new battery for my mp3 player!)
(33:49 loop)

Third Loop:
Mile 1 - 10:46
Mile 2 - 11:03 (including a pause to gulp from the water fountain)
Final .9 - 9:18
(31:07 loop)

Totals:
8.8 miles
1:36:31
10:58/mile
183 average heart rate

I'm really happy with the run. Almost 9 miles (my training schedule called for 8), which is farther than I've run since, well, the marathon last January. I'm feeling good about the upcoming Half. It'd still take a miracle for me to equal my two 2:15 halfs of 2004, but I'm thinking that my 11:00/mile goal may just be doable.

Best part? I felt good for the entire run tonight, and I didn't take any walking breaks! It was only in the last 1.5 miles that I started to tighten up -- my hips started to ache in that vaguely familiar way that I remember from marathon training -- the ache that says "wow, Sarah, you've made us poor legs and hips run farther than we have recently..."

Hooray for good long runs.

Monday, December 12, 2005

I'll just call this entry

I'll just call this entry "Fun with Photos of the HRBers!" Here are the Houston Running Bloggers (all but a couple of us) at Run The Woodlands on Saturday morning:

Then today, I caught most of the HRBers that ran the Jingle Bell Run (I was shooting for Karen), including...

Speedy Sam:

Gavin's dad Mike (not a blogger, but still):

Lisa, the race's resident celebrity (she was #1! I wanna be #1! guess I'll have to go into broadcasting):

Cassie:

Waverly:

And finally, Jon and Joe Paterno (and Jon ran the 30K only hours before this race -- he's crazy!):

My camera missed Keith, but he was in the crowd as well. I saw everyone, and Jessica, at the finish, where I also got to manhandle a 400mm lens that Bryant (another photographer) had rented. Oooooooooh it was big. Ooooooooh it was niiiiiice.

I wish I could send you all prints, but they belong to Karen. Visit her site to buy them!

Saturday, December 10, 2005

We had a grand ol'

We had a grand ol' time at Run The Woodlands this morning. It was the self-proclaimed "Bloggers Edition" and almost everyone made it out: Jon and Waverly, Cassie and Manny, Jessica, Jen, Edwin, Joe, and Keith. Even Steve and Holden came out to volunteer and cheer while saving their legs for the 30K tomorrow. (The links to their blogs are all in the sidebar -- I'm too lazy to do it again here!) Add Gavin and Mike (Gavin's dad) to that list and I knew almost half of the runners in attendance. Not bad for my first appearance at the race. :)

I've always liked the idea behind Run the Woodlands and like it more after having run one -- it's a 5K held on the 2nd and 4th Saturday of each month. There's no formal registration, no t-shirts, no prizes, and no hype. Just put $1 in the bucket (which covers Gatorade, timing, and the little stuff) and off you go. There were 35 finishers this morning, I think. As for me, well, I had a great race, my best in a long while.

It wasn't quite as cold as I'd expected, so the temperature was my version of ideal -- hovering around 50 degrees at the start. The race begins at an elementary school and starts with two laps around the parking lot before heading out for a large loop around the neighborhood. My initial plan had been to keep Cassie and Manny in my sights, figuring they'd run something like 30:00. I quickly discovered two problems with this plan. First, the path was curvy enough and the trees were thick enough that I couldn't consistently keep tabs on people more than a hundred feet or so ahead of me. Second, Cassie and Manny were flying!

As they pulled farther and farther away, I decided to focus on a girl in front of me wearing a knit hat and going about my pace. I followed her until somewhere around 1.25 miles where she suddenly paused, not sure which way to go. She looked at me, and I laughed, saying "I don't know which way to go either!" She laughed as well -- she'd been counting on me to tell her if she went off course, I'd been counting on her to lead me in the right direction. We decided to go straight, which was the most obvious choice and ended up being the right one.

Now that we were side by side, we starting chatting. Her name was Alexa and she's only been running for 3 months so far -- today's 5K was her first race ever. I thought that was pretty cool, so we talked a lot about running and why we each started doing it, and what we liked about it. I told her about training for the marathon and she said something like "wow, I can't imagine ever doing that." I replied with "yeah, that's what I thought when I first started running too -- you'd be surprised what you eventually start thinking of doing!" I really enjoyed running with her. She'd never run more than about 2 miles before, so having me there helped keep her going. And she was slightly faster than me, so having her there kept me going. We stayed together for the rest of the race until she pulled slightly ahead of me at the end to finish strong in front of her family (who were all there waiting for her). I felt good the whole way, breathing hard but not hard enough that talking was impossible. I could have picked up the pace a bit, but was having fun with Alexa.

Next thing I knew, we were turning back into the school parking lot and about to hit the finish. I glanced at my watch and was surprised. My final time? 31:21! That's a 10:07/mile average! (My best average pace in months, over any distance.) I was really excited, and felt even better when I overheard Jon comment to someone that "wow, that's a great finish for Sarah!" Better yet is the knowledge that I still had something left -- I felt good enough and strong enough at the end that I know I could have finished even faster.

After the race, Jon invited all of the HRBers to his house for breakfast and we got to all hang out and talk. It was a lot of fun (thanks for having us Jon!), and I got to hear about everyone else's run this morning. A lot of us had good days -- Edwin, Jessica, Jon and Waverly all set PRs I think. Cassie had her best 5K since her ITB injury, and beat Jon by a second (it was the orange shirt, Jon)! Jen had a nice run to stretch her legs before doing the 30K tomorrow. Keith tacked the 5K onto the end of an 11-mile run to get in his distance for the day. Gavin ran an great 21:30 (though he didn't come to breakfast).

I loved the race and loved the course. If The Woodlands were only a little closer to Clear Lake I'd run this race as often as possible!

Friday, December 09, 2005

I've been a slacker this

I've been a slacker this week. After my 7-mile run on Sunday, I skipped my scheduled Tuesday run and didn't do any cross-training on Wednesday. Yesterday the cold weather was not exactly inspiring, but I knew I needed to run! So I hit the treadmill. The dreaded treadmill. I won't even bother to rehash how much I hate the treadmill -- if you've read my blog for a while, you know.

I resolved to run for 3 miles at whatever pace felt comfortable, so I ended up at about 34:30 or an 11:30/mile average. Closer to 12:00 for the first mile, closer to 11:00 for the last. My legs felt pretty tight so I decided not to push it any more than that.

From there it was back home for a quick shower and off to my branch's Christmas party. It was fun and funny as it usually is, though my gift got stolen -- twice. I ended up with hot chocolate mix and pancake mix. Could've been worse.

I've got quite the weekend planned. I'm spending tonight at Gavin's parents house (along with Gavin and Jen) so that I can go do tomorrow's Run the Woodlands: Bloggers Edition 5K. It is going to be cold. Brrrr. Tomorrow night is the annual holiday boat parade down in Kemah, then on Sunday I'm shooting the Jingle Bell 5-Miler and playing soccer. Sometime between all that I'm attempting to turn the Air Babes/AE Female Mafia into a comic book page.

For those of you that know me, Becca, Karen and Jen -- what should each of our powers be? I want something Batman-ish, i.e. no telepathy or anything like that. I want each of us to have some cool gadget, you know, that we could've used our mad engineering skills to have made...

Monday, December 05, 2005

Unfortunately I had to run

Unfortunately I had to run yesterday before the cold front came through, so it was muggy and warm. It did rain a bit during the run which was cooling, but not enough.

I did 7 miles in 1:20:25, or 11:29/mile, with an average heart rate of 183. However, this 7-miler could easily be divided into two very different halves. The first was great! As I pulled into the parking lot next to the park where the trails begin, I saw Stephanie running past. (She's also training for the half.) I waved her over, quickly got set to go, and we ended up running my first half hour (and her last half hour) together. That half hour, and the 10 minutes after she pulled off to go home, were great -- I felt pretty good. But around 40 minutes, something just died. I took a ton of short walking breaks in the second 40 minutes of my run, probably 5-6 minutes cumulative time. While the first 40 minutes were probably somewhere around a solid 11:00 pace, the last 40 had to have been more like 12:00/mile.

I can't even explain it. I just felt dead. Maybe it's from the intervals I did on Wednesday or the 5K of Saturday.

Regardless, I'm happy that I at least covered the distance. My training schedule said 6 miles, but I pushed through to 7 since I've been feeling better this week. I was secretly hoping that my leg issues would go away as they have before, and miraculously, they have. And so suddenly. Last Sunday's long run was filled with pain, but I haven't experienced it since. It's so frustrating, because now I feel like it couldn't have been all that bad if it disappeared so quickly! But it was. Bad.

Saturday, December 03, 2005

Reindeer Run 5K

Rich, Gavin and I did the Reindeer Run this morning, a 5K held only a mile and a half away from my apartment. It's one of my favorite runs to do each year because it has a nice course, is well-organized, and has a happy fun "small neighborhood gathering" feel, even though it draws 500 runners.

In years past I remember this race being very cold, but unfortunately Houston has not gotten the "IT'S DECEMBER NOW!!" memo this year and this morning's weather was 75 degrees -- and muggy.

Despite the weather, I was able to get close to my amended (as of Thursday) goal time and turn in my best 5K time in recent memory: 32:45.

I covered mile 1 in 10:52 as I eased into the race and saw how my legs were doing (good!). Just after mile 1, I heard a "hi" next to me and looked over to see a man that I've been seeing a lot out on the Gilruth trail lately -- we've both been running out there after work. We introduced ourselves and chatted for the entire second mile before he pulled ahead again. He's also training for the half marathon and was actually doing the course 3 times to make a 9-mile run. He'd done one lap before the race, was using the race as his second lap, and then planned to do one more. He'd finished his first lap slightly late and so he started the race a couple minutes behind everyone else. He caught up to me, slowed to my pace for a mile, then took off again.

I felt pretty tired during the second mile and figured I'd probably sped up a bit running with David, but it turns out that I was probably just breathing harder because I was talking! The second mile passed in 10:54, so as David pulled ahead I resolved to do the final mile in something more like 10:30.

The muggy air started to get to me around the 2.5-mile point and I had to do a few minutes of my "don't walk don't walk don't walk" chant. (Thursday's run was the first in a long time that I'd done entirely without a walking break, a feat that I repeated today; my fitness level is finally getting back to where it used to be!) As I turned the corner to cover the final .15 miles, I felt ever-so-slightly sick, but I managed to cross the line in 32:45 -- I ran the last 1.1 mile segment in 11:00 flat, or a 10:00/mile pace. I was pretty happy about that.

I turned to walk back to meet Gavin, who finished in just over 24:00, and before I could even get the tenth of a mile back to where Gavin was, Rich came across in 34:15. That's an awesome time for him, especially since he said he was going to run 12:00 miles. Yeah right. :)

I saw a bunch of other coworkers while we milled around afterwards. During the last mile there were two girls about 100 feet ahead of me that I was focusing on, hoping to catch them. I didn't quite make it, but after the race I saw them again and it turns out one of them was Erin (who works in my division)! I hadn't recognized her from the back, and didn't even figure it out until I mentioned my time and she said "oh, you finished right behind us!" I paused, walked around behind her and her friend Alicia, and laughed. "Yep -- I was trying to catch you!!" I said.

Floyd was also there (I see him a lot), as well as Charlie with his kids. This race has a ton of stuff for kids to do, including a petting zoo. Yes, a petting zoo. They had some goats, and a calf, and a deer, and a couple chickens, and a llama. I was so amused.

All in all it was another fun Reindeer Run, and I'm feeling happy with my running heading into next week's Blogger Meetup at Run the Woodlands!

Friday, December 02, 2005

I'd planned to go out

I'd planned to go out last night and do a 3-mile run at 11:00/mile pace. I wanted to see if I could do that pace consistently without leg pain after running Tuesday (12:30/mile) and Wednesday (speed work) with only twinges of pain -- nothing like what was affecting me over the past month.

I started out right on target and was feeling so good at mile 1 that I decided to pick it up a bit. I thought about Sam's run the other day where he did 3 miles in 7, 6, and then 5 minutes (damn that's fast) and ruefully thought "I couldn't even do an 11-10-9 minute progression. Maybe 11-10:30-10..." And I was feeling good enough that I decided to go for it.

The result? A total 3-mile time of 31:25 with an average heart rate of 176 which broke down into:

1 - 11:04
2 - 10:34
3 - 9:47!!

Yes, a 10:28/mile average and a 9:47 final mile! And I wasn't dead at the end either. I felt good. Strong. Breathing hard, but not out of control. It felt good. It was just the run I needed heading into Saturday's Reindeer Run 5K. My goal time for Saturday had been 34:00, but after last night I have to admit that I'm going to try for last night's pace -- and a finish time more like 32:30. Even if I can't do it on Saturday (it's supposed to be warmer outside) I'm pumped about last night.

Thursday, December 01, 2005

Ok, this is going to

Ok, this is going to make me sound like an idiot, but last night I finally figured out how to use the lap timer on my heart rate monitor (which I've had for almost two years) and more importantly, recall the data afterwards. Better late than never, right?

I did my second speed workout, and changed things a bit from the first one that I did two weeks ago. Then, I did 5x400 with 400 recovery, with the speed 400s at ~1:50 and the recoveries ~4:00 walking. Last night I did 7x400 with 400 recovery, but changed my pacing. I did the speed repeats in ~2:10, and jogged the recoveries instead of walking them.

I did discover afterwards that my measurements are a bit off. I run on a trail between the 1-mile and 1.25-mile markers, and it turns out that the 1.25-mile marker is short by about 20 meters. So...my workout was really more like 7x380. Close enough.

(Rich had suggested the marker was off on Tuesday, and it turns out he was right according to Gmaps pedometer. But the 1-mile marker and the 1.5-marker, where I turn around when I'm doing 3 miles, are both correctly placed.)

1 mile warmup - 12:05

7x400 speed intervals / 400 jogging recovery
2:05 / 3:17
2:05 / 3:20
2:10 / 3:24
2:09 / 3:22
2:08 / 3:28
2:09 / 3:23
2:06 / 3:12

1 mile cooldown - 12:02

My average heart rate over the entire 1:02:23 workout (5.5 miles which actually comes out to 11:21/mile -- which is actually not a bad overall average! -- perhaps I should run all my races as "speed" workouts!) was 176.

Others are starting to answer Jon's end-of-year running questionnaire, so I'll take a shot as well:

What were your top 10 events in 2005?

Ten is a lot, and will include more than half of the races I've done this year (since I've done about 15). The links will take you to my blog entry about the event. My rankings are far more based on my particular feelings about an event and how I ran than how well the event was organized. Oh, and a couple of them aren't running.

1) Houston Marathon (January 16, Houston). First of all, I did it!! My first marathon! And I met my goal time of 5 hours! I've never been prouder of myself than I was that day. :)

2) Rodeo Run 10K (February 26, Houston). I set my 10K PR at that race, a performance that came more or less out of the blue. The weather was crappy, I almost missed the start, and yet I still set a PR. Weird.

3) Marine Corps Marathon 8K (October 30, Washington DC). I always love doing races in other cities because the change of scenery is so nice. The course for the 8K wasn't very exciting (mostly it was a long route around the Pentagon) but I really liked the finish. Climbing the hill to the Iwo Jima memorial was exhilirating, even if the hill itself sucked. After finishing the 8K I watched a lot of the marathon, which was also fun.

4) Yuri's Night 5K (April 9, Webster). Shameless bit of self-promotion for the race I organize. ;) In 2005 we had ~120 runners. In 2006 I'd love to hit 200.

5) St. John's Reindeer Run 5K (December 3, Nassau Bay). Ok, this run hasn't actually happened yet but I'm listing it anyway because it's one of the runs I look forward to most each year. This will be my 4th year to run it. I enjoy the course (the neighborhood is one of my two favorite places to run in Clear Lake), I like the foam reindeer antlers they give you, and it's well-organized. It also has sentimental value since it's the race where I set my 5K PR back in 2003. Haven't matched 29:18 since.

6) Uptown Turkey Trot 10K (November 24, Houston). The first race in Houston that I've done 4 times, i.e. every year since I moved here. I think the course has changed every year, but I like the festive atmosphere on the morning of Thanksgiving as everyone is happy to be with friends and family and have the day off work.

7) MS150 (April 16-17, Houston to Austin). Not running, but still a great event. It was my second year doing the ride, and I rode with Team Mission Control. It was just as fun as the first year, and I've already signed up for 2006.

8) Houston Urban Adventure Race (July 30, Houston). This would rank higher on the list if the weather hadn't been so awful. Just imagine: July. Houston. Even though the race began in the evening and finished after dark, it was HOT and HUMID. I walked more than I ran, I think. Regardless, it was still a really fun event that involved running, biking, and figuring out the fastest way to get from place to place to pick up clues. Oh, and it started on the field at Minute Maid Park! I definitely want to do it again in 2006.

9) Seabrook Marathon Relay (March 13, Seabrook). I'm not sure I'd want to do the full marathon since it's four laps of the same thing. But doing one lap as a member of a relay team was quite enjoyable. The Seabrook trail is one of my two favorite places to run in Clear Lake even though I don't run it very often.

10) Koala 20K Relay (October 16, Houston). This race finally got me running again after a long summer of slacking off and being completely unmotivated. The course is boring, but I turned in a good performance, 11:00/mile, and I finally met Cassie.

What one person - or more than one, if necessary - inspired you to achieve more this year or to perservere or endure more as a runner?

This is a tough one because after about March, it really wasn't a very good year for me and running. For most of the summer I was really suffering from lack of motivation, lack of inspiration, and a general feeling of being burned out after working so hard up to and just after the marathon. But getting to know the group of people now known as the Houston Running Bloggers inspired me to start running regularly again this fall. So that's something.

What are some of your goals for 2006?

+ Run the Houston Half Marathon on January 15 and finish under 2:30:00. This is a far cry from my 2:15 half marathons in early 2004 (in Houston and Austin), but I haven't trained as well this year.
+ Ride the MS150 and actually train for it this time. That means doing at least a couple long (40+ mile) training rides instead of just gutting through the two days without training. I figure training will make my butt and legs much happier come the actual ride.
+ Do at least one triathlon, hopefully Olympic distance (I've only done sprint distance before). Hopefully more than one triathlon. I really enjoy them.
+ THE BIG ONE: Maintain at least some level of running fitness over the summer (unlike the past two summers) so that when October rolls around and I want to start running regularly again, I can do so without all the pain and agony and frustration!!

Wednesday, November 30, 2005

Last night I shrugged off

Last night I shrugged off running on my own and instead did 3 miles with Rich and Philip. They are getting back into the swing of things and take it pretty slow, so we did the 3 miles in 37:31, or 12:30/mile. My average heart rate was only 165 and I didn't have to work too hard (as evidenced by the fact that I blabbed basically the entire time).

But (and this is a big but) my legs didn't hurt at all! Well, just a twinge, but basically not at all! Perhaps I need to do these nice, relaxing runs more often. Not only do they result in less pain, but they make me remember that running can be enjoyable.

I had a great time. The weather was cool, the company was good, and I just enjoyed the feeling of jogging. Maybe there's a reason for my lack of running inspiration of late. Maybe I've simply been pushing myself too hard in a misguided attempt to suddenly recover the type of speed I've only had after months of regular workouts.

Tonight's supposed to be speedwork too, so it'll make up for my leisurely pace last night.

Sunday, November 27, 2005

Today I hit the Seabrook

Today I hit the Seabrook trails for my scheduled "long" run of 5 miles. I ended up going 5.25 -- running this route from the pool out to Pine Gully Park, and then back. I ran it in 59:09 for a pace of 11:16/mile. Average heart rate was 180. I must admit, I didn't feel great. My stomach was rumbling in a rather unpleasant way, not from hunger but just from discomfort I think.

At that pace, the run should have been easier than it was; it was very windy down here today. Fortunately the wind worked with me for most of the run out, but most of my last two miles were run into a fierce gusting headwind. I ran the "out" part in under 30 minutes and the "back" part in between 30 and 31 minutes. Not too much of a difference at first glance, until I mention that I walked for 3 minutes of the faster first half and only 2 minutes of the slower second half. Wind sucks. Though I did think about how much harder it would be battling that wind on my bike... whew!

Yes, my legs still hurt, but no, not quite as bad. I took some Advil about an hour before I ran, so maybe that helped. And perhaps the gravel and dirt surface of the trails helped as well. I'm sure my legs are happy to get off the concrete every once in a while.

Saturday, November 26, 2005

For my scheduled half hour

For my scheduled half hour of cross-training today, I hit the elliptical machine for the first time in over a month. I did a 28-minute interval program with 5 minutes of cooldown. I have to admit that I didn't work very hard; my average heart rate was only 160. But it was nice to get a workout without worrying about how much my legs might or might not hurt.

I slept until 1:00 today. One o'clock!! I don't think I've slept that late since college, and I must say -- it felt good. Of course I'm now sitting here at midnight wide awake, but hey. It felt gooooood.

My brother Brian used to make us laugh because, unlike most kids, he would put himself to bed. Most kids will fight to stay up as late as possible, but not Brian. When he was tired, he went to bed. No fanfare either -- most of the time we'd just look up and ask "where's Brian?" We'd find him sound asleep in bed. I think he still does it even today. He's tired, so he goes to bed.

I, on the other hand, have always had the opposite problem. Hell, half the time I'm up late for no good reason, just messing around on the computer or watching junk on TV. There are nights that I don't get to bed until after midnight, only to have to get up for work the next day. Why was I up late? Who knows! No reason.

So a part of me feels that by sleeping until 1:00 today, I was just making up for months of going to bed too late. The gloomy weather and constant rain only helped. I woke up once at 9:30 to the sound of driving rain and had to get up close the window. But I was dead to the world until afternoon.

And it felt good.

Thursday, November 24, 2005

Happy Thanksgiving! Rich and I

Happy Thanksgiving!

Rich and I ran the Turkey Trot this morning up by the Galleria. I've run this race every year that I've lived in Houston (which is also every year since I started running, since I started running about six months before I moved here). Today was my 4th Uptown Turkey Trot. In 2002 and 2003 I ran the 5K, and last year they added the 10K. I did the 10K last year and repeated it today.

I saw both Cassie and Manny, but only during the race (and I missed Jen entirely -- such is life when the race draws more than a thousand people). I first saw Cassie right around mile 2 as she returned to the course from what looked like a port-o-potty break. ;) She jumped back into the race about 50 feet ahead of me. Then I saw both of them just after they'd passed the turnaround, and just before I reached it. Manny was a minute or two ahead of Cassie, who was a minute or two ahead of me.

Overall I had a good race, finishing in ~1:06:30 plus or minus a few seconds (I didn't start my watch exactly right). This is almost the exact same time I clocked in this race last year! Average heart rate was 189. My legs didn't bother me too horribly, though they were definitely tight and warranted a few walking breaks. More troublesome is the fact that now, an hour after finishing, my left Achilles is in some pain. It didn't start hurting until after the run. Hope it will be ok.

I love doing the Turkey Trot, and it's become a bit of a tradition for me. My only complaint is the course structure -- because both races finish finish in the same spot, and because the 5K started almost 20 minutes after the 10K, I had to run the last 2 miles while weaving my way around walkers, who had stretched across both lanes. I actually ran from mile 4.5 to 5.5 on the sidewalk; it was a bit removed from the road and thus was clear. Other 10K runners had the same idea. The race really needs some cones or volunteers stationed along the last mile and a half to encourage walkers to stay to one side of the road so that runners can get through. I doubt the walkers slowed me down by more than 20-30 seconds, but it was annoying.

Now that I've burned off my 600 calories for the day, it's time to replace them with lots of turkey, sweet potatoes, and pie! Mmmmm. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Wednesday, November 23, 2005

It wasn't as cold as

It wasn't as cold as I'd expected last night when I went for a run after work, squeezing it in before the sun went down. I'd only brought a long-sleeve shirt so I was a bit warmer than I would have liked to be, but the run went ok anyway. I did 3 miles in 33:24 for an average of 11:08/mile. Average heart rate was 177. I did the first mile in 11:10, followed by a 2-minute walking break for the ol' burnin' legs, and then ran the rest of the way. The second mile (with walk break) was almost exactly 12:00, with the last mile being something like 10:14!

The good news is that while my legs hurt, they didn't hurt quite as much. And by the time I got to the third mile, they weren't bothering me too much. We're talking shades of pain here, but hey, slightly less pain is better than same old, same old! The most interesting thing to me is the last mile -- 10:14. And I felt pretty good, like I could have done another ~10:30 mile without a problem. I'm choosing to interpret this in a very positive way, just for the sake of my running motivation -- my cardio system seems to be recovering from the summer's lack of running and revving back into shape, but my legs just haven't caught up yet!!

The third mile is probably also the cause of the leg stiffness and slight soreness I had this morning when I got up. At least I know I was working hard! Today is more or less a day off, and tomorrow morning I'm running the Turkey Trot 10K. It'll be the first 10K I've done since my part of the 20K relay a month ago, so hopefully I can at least replicate that performance.

Sunday, November 20, 2005

My training schedule for the

My training schedule for the weekend dictated 3 miles (plus soccer) yesterday, and 4 miles today. I'd planned to run after soccer and Harry Potter yesterday, but we were short a girl on the field and I played the whole game and I was wiped out. So I skipped my run, but this afternoon I did 4.5 miles following this route through Nassau Bay.

Nassau Bay is a great neighborhood (town?) to run through when I get the chance. I could (and have) actually run there straight from my apartment, but it makes me nervous to do so since it involves a very busy half-mile stretch of Nasa Parkway where there are no sidewalks. Houston is horribly lacking in sidewalks.

Anyway, Nassau Bay is pretty, with lots of trees and lovely houses and lakes and quiet streets with little vehicular traffic and lots of foot and bike traffic. I can run and people watch at the same time.

Today I did 4.5 miles in 50:27 for an 11:13/mile pace. Average heart rate was 176. I took two 2-minute walking breaks in the first two miles for my stupid, stupid legs. The following is an example of how my mental state progresses during a run like today's:

"Ok...start off easy...maybe today my legs won't hurt...maybe... Uh oh. There's a twinge. Yep, they're starting to hurt. Ok, well maybe today it won't be so bad....maybe.... Ok, it's bad. OW OW OW. What is wrong with my freaking legs?? I hate running! Why am I even bothering?? I'm so pathetic. I'm going to have to retire from running at the ripe old age of 27 because my damn legs can't handle it. I can't believe I signed up for the half marathon. I must be crazy. OW OW OW."

Obviously this is not a good state of mind, and it leaves me tired, frustrated, and wondering why I'm even bothering to try to run at all. By mile 3 today I was doing decently again and my legs had stopped their screaming, but the fact remains that while my legs continue to hurt, I have begun to dread running. I don't look forward to it anymore. I don't get excited about it. I just don't want to go.

Sigh.

In other news, I saw Cassie and Manny at this morning's Tulane School of Medicine 10K. They both had great races with Cassie finishing right at an hour and Manny a couple minutes ahead. I was at the finish line taking photos and wondered why they didn't finish together -- usually they do. After the race Cassie told me she'd had to stop to throw up!! (She's been sick all week.) But she seemed ok afterwards.

The race was well done from what I could tell, and the combination of Sunday morning timing and the 10K distance drew some top-notch runners including Sean Wade and Luis Armenteros (who finished 1-2 bang-bang).

Friday, November 18, 2005

As Cassie mentioned in the

As Cassie mentioned in the comments, pics from last weekend's 8.4K are available for viewing at Karen's site. (2658 running next to me in a couple is Cassie!)

Friday, November 18, 2005

Yesterday I had that pre-cold

Yesterday I had that pre-cold feeling. You know, the feeling that you are about to get a cold. Stuffy nose. Itchy eyes. Tingle in the back of your throat. I debated whether to press ahead with my planned 3-mile run, and in the end I did. It turned out to be a good thing, as it actually made me feel better for the rest of the evening. Of course today I'm back to pre-cold.

I ran the 3 miles in 33:46. The first mile was 11:00, second was 12:00 with 2 minutes of walking, third was 10:46 with 1 minute walking. Average heart rate was 174, max was 188. My legs hurt (hence the walking breaks to get them to reduce their screaming to a dull roar), but what's new?

Thursday, November 17, 2005

Last night I did my

Last night I did my second speed workout ever. (The first was a fluke that hadn't thus far been repeated.) There are a couple high school tracks around here that I could use, but the trail out at the Gilruth is actually very well-suited to 400-meter repeats. It is marked every quarter mile (i.e. every ~400 meters) and winds out along the back fence for a mile before hitting a fairly straight section where I can do the repeats by going back-and-forth before running the mile back to the parking lot as a cooldown.

So I headed out in the chill (The cold front finally came through! I am wearing a sweater today! A sweater! YESSSS!) to do a warmup mile in 11 minutes. My Achilles/shins started to hurt around the half-mile point and continued through my first 400 bit.

I ran the first 400 repeat straight out of the mile warmup (no pause) and did it in 2:05. My legs were still hurting. From there I walked the 400 meters back to my starting point at which point the pain had gone away and stayed away for the rest of the evening, returning only slightly when I did my mile cooldown back to the car.

This just begs the question: what about my running style causes this pain? It doesn't happen when I'm running fast, as in speedwork or soccer games. Thus I am forced to think that the pain has something to do with the fact that I am a plodder. A slow runner.

(Note to Cassie -- thanks for the email. I know I do a weird turn thing with my right leg, and I think that has something to do with the overuse injury still happening in my knee. The thing about the Achilles/shin pain is that it occurs equally in both legs. Strange.)

Anyway. Enough with me whining about my hurting legs. After the 2:05 repeat, the rest went as follows: 1:50, 1:50, 1:51, 1:53. Each was followed by a ~4-minute walk of the 400 meters back to my starting point. As I progress, I plan to start jogging those recoveries, I think.

My only question, and I'm sure the HRBers will chime in, is whether I'm doing my repeats too fast. Since I'm really a 10:00 miler at best (and currently more like a 10:45 miler), I think my 400-meter repeat time should be something like 2:15. I tried to look it up but can't find a working pace calculator at the moment.

Anyway, then I did a 10:45 mile to cool down. Total distance for the workout was 4.5 miles, total time was 52:16, average heart rate 167, max heart rate 228. I am a freak of nature -- according to theory, my heart should have exploded. Or something.

Wednesday, November 16, 2005

3 miles, 34:46 = 11:35/mile

3 miles, 34:46 = 11:35/mile
Average heart rate = 171

My training schedule said Tuesday called for 3 easy miles. And from the pace listed above, it certainly seems like the run should have been easy. Alas, it wasn't. The leg pain came back. Again. Annoyingly again.

At least the weather was good! I ran about half an hour after the long-awaited cold front blew through in a torrent of rain and lightning. It was still pretty windy outside, but the rain had stopped and the temperature had fallen to a lovely 62 degrees. With the slow pace, I never felt tired. I just felt pain.

And that's what I've got to fix, somehow. Is it possible that I have slight Achilles tendonitis? That's where the pain always begins, before migrating around to the front of my ankles as well. After getting new shoes a week and a half ago, I had two runs where my legs felt decent (including Sunday's 8.4K). But last night...not so good.

Maybe it's a strength thing. My next idea is to look up some exercises or stretches that will strengthen my ankles.

Sunday, November 13, 2005

When the alarm went off

When the alarm went off at 5:25 this morning I almost rolled over and went back to sleep. I really didn't feel like driving downtown to run the Fleet Feet 8.4K. But Carter spurred me out of bed saying that yes, I did want to run, and off we went.

It was pretty hot and humid (note to the weather gods: I know it's Houston, but come on, it's November! Make it cooler already!) The race started off pretty well as I managed to keep myself going a bit slower than the sub-10:00 I started off with at the Marine Corps 8K two weeks ago. I passed through mile 1 in 10:20 and mile 2 in 20:40. I was trying to keep Jon in my sights as he slowly pulled away. Jessica was already long gone with her speedy self, and Holden and Buzz were still chillin' back at the start line waiting for the 25K to begin.

So I started with two consistent 10:20 miles...but unfortunately I knew that was probably too fast for me. I watched the lead runners (including Sam, who I finally met in person after the race) head back on the other side of the street and stopped to walk at the first water station just past mile 2 and that's when I turned to see Cassie running up from behind me. If Cassie's behind me, I was definitely going too fast -- because Cassie's faster than me! :)

She had a good pace going though, so we ran together for a while. As we made the turn to start the back half of the race and head back towards downtown, the first 25K runners started to pass us (they'd started 15 minutes after the 8.4K). Geez are those guys fast. Amazing.

Cassie and I passed through 3 miles in 31:30 and continued along together until ~3.5 miles when I finally needed another walk break. As I told everyone after the race, if it'd been a 5K it would've been my fastest time in months! ;)

Mile 4 was pretty rough, as I finally started to pay for going out a bit fast on a hot and humid day. I stopped several times to walk in 30-second spurts before finally running in the last 3/4 of a mile. I finished the 5.2-mile course in 56:07 for an average pace of 10:48/mile.

So after averaging 10:30 through 3 miles, I must've average more like 11:10 miles for the final 2.2. I felt pretty crappy at the finish line, and even a little nauseous, but that quickly went away. I wish I'd been able to keep up with Cassie (she finished 3 minutes ahead of me), but c'est la vie. I'm pretty happy with my run overall though, despite my pace being slightly slower than I did two weeks ago in DC. (Then again, the weather was much better for running in DC!)

All in all, it was a good race and I enjoyed seeing everyone. It's so cool that I know so many people in the running community now -- it really makes races even more fun. Up next for me is the Uptown Turkey Trot 10K on Thanksgiving, though next weekend I think I will be taking photos at the Tulane Med School 10K.

Tuesday, November 08, 2005

Two more quick ideas.

Two more quick ideas.

Tuesday, November 08, 2005

Another idea for a Houston

Another idea for a Houston Running Bloggers logo. (The first is the old idea, the second is the new one.)

I have at least one more idea that I want to try tonight...

Also, I added a list of the upcoming races I plan to run in the sidebar. :)

Wednesday, November 02, 2005

Last night I felt completely

Last night I felt completely ambivalent about running, but since I'd brought my clothes to work I went ahead to the Gilruth to do 3 miles on the newly repaved trails.

I'm in a rather unfortunate place with my running right now. My right knee continues to ache, not getting any worse but also not getting any better. Add to that a wicked burning sensation in my ankles and legs that lasts for at least the first mile and a half. Put those two together and I am not a happy runner. GAAAAAH. It shouldn't be that painful to run. And I don't know why it is. And it makes me not want to run anymore.

With ample walking breaks to attempt to ease the burning, I did 3 miles in 35:00, or 11:40/mile. My average heart rate was only 172 -- that is low for me, which indicates how much walking I really did. A bunch.

I want to run again, and I want it to be fun again, and I want it to be not painful again. At the moment, it is neither fun nor painless and that frustrates me immensely.

I'm calling the orthopedic doc again today. I want to go back about my knee, and perhaps he can give me advice about the burning ankles as well. And I'm gonna try another short run tonight. I have a full calendar of races I plan to do between now and Christmas, and I want to be able to do them and still feel good.

Sunday, October 30, 2005

Yesterday Becca, Buzz and I

Yesterday Becca, Buzz and I found ourselves with a free day in Washington DC. What could three girls possibly do during a girls day out? Pick one of the following:

a) Go shopping at all the hip and trendy DC shops.
b) Get manicures and pedicures and generally pampered.
c) Go to the new hangar of the Air and Space Museum and see lots of cool airplanes and spaceships!!!

If you have to ask, you obviously don't know us.

We all ran our races and had a lovely time this morning. Becca and I did the 8K (4.97 miles) which ran around the Pentagon and finished next to Arlington Cemetary and the Iwo Jima memorial. I finished in 53:06 and was very excited about my ~10:40/mile pace. My split times were:

Mile 1 - 9:30 (too fast!)
Mile 2 - 11:00
Mile 3 - 10:45
Mile 4 - 12:00
Mile 5 - 10:00

Obviously those splits are slightly approximated, and I know for a fact that the Mile 3 marker was almost 0.2 miles off; since we ran the last 3+ miles of the marathon course, the 8K mile markers should have been 0.2 miles after each marathon marker, but the 3 mile marker was only about 200 feet past the 24 mile marker. So, in reality, mile 3 was probably more like 12:00 for me, since I walked for a minute during that mile, and mile 4 was probably more like 10:45.

Overall I felt pretty good. I again had a lot of leg, and even some heel, pain -- burning, tightness and the general feeling of not being entirely in control of my feet -- but sadly I'm starting to get used to it. (I do need to go back to the doc about my knee.) But I was able to push through it by concentrating on various runners in front of me, and trying to stay with them. It also didn't hurt that moving forward meant seeing more of (and keeping moving meant looking good for) the hundreds of incredibly cute Marines! I love the Marines. :)

Becca rocked her 8K, the farthest she'd gone in almost two years, in ~1:20, and Buzz rocked the full marathon in ~5:10 (she ran with a friend and was an hour off her marathon PR, but had a great time). The course was awesome -- I'd love to run this marathon someday. Miles and miles of pretty fall trees and white marble monuments. The only complaint is the steep hill at the end. The course finishes at the Iwo Jima monument which is about 100 feet above the road below, and having to run up that hill after 4.8 miles was brutal enough. I can't imagine facing it after 26 miles!

Up next for me running-wise is the Run Through the Brooks 10K next weekend...

Sunday, October 16, 2005

My half of the 20K

My half of the 20K relay this morning was one of my most painful runs ever, but I'm happy to report that the outcome was great! The Blogstas (that would be Cassie and me) combined to finish in 2:12:48. Cassie rocked the first half in 1:04:46 (and she's coming back from injury, people!) while I took a leisurely 2-mile walk to the exchange point with Curt (who was running with Debbie), Jessica (who I met in person for the first time), and other relay runners. We were passed by the lead runners before we had even walked the couple miles out there! We also spotted Jon riding in the police pace car! Sweet ride, Jon. ;)

I didn't see Cassie go past, but her boyfriend Manny told me she was just a couple minutes away. After a quick chip exchange, off I went. I must have been excited about running in a race for the first time since June, because I took off and did the first mile in 10:00 flat -- WAY too fast for me at my current level of fitness, especially since I hadn't done 10K since the spring. I felt it immediately, as my legs immediately began to burn.

This is a recurring problem for me, and is always especially bad after I've taken an extended break from serious running. Whatever muscle it is that runs up the front of your ankle and up the outside of your shin bone -- that's what tightens. That's what burns. I stopped to walk a couple short bits in the first 1.5 miles hoping that would help the muscle loosen, and as I walked I felt like my feet were just slapping the ground, as if I had no control over my ankles. It's hard to explain. I feel like there must be some stretch I can do to lessen the problem, but I haven't found it yet.

Anyway. I worried momentarily that I might not be able to make it the whole way, but by mile 2 the burning was starting to subside. Miraculously, I was still maintaining about a 10:30 pace. As I passed the finish line to begin the third and final lap of the race, I saw Jon again, sans police car this time.

As I headed back out Allen Parkway I got into a bit of a groove. The run was hard, but the pain in my legs had subsided to a dull ache and I found myself thinking that I should just keep pushing so that I could be as far as possible before the inevitable bonk! ;) With 5K down (and 15K for The Blogstas) I spotted Holden stretching by the side of the road. I hollered at him, and we chatted for a few minutes before he left me in the dust. ;) I managed to keep him in my sights for most of the rest of the race though, so whether he knows it or not, he was pacing me!

Since I had the second half of the relay, I had to deal with the sun. It wasn't particularly hot (which is very good) but it was annoying to have it in my face. As a result, I stared at the pavement a lot. By the time I passed the 12-mile marker (0.4 left) I knew I was going to end up with a good run despite the fact that I was so tired and my legs were really hurting. I picked up the pace just a bit, passed Jon one more time, and even managed to sprint the last hundred yards to the finish. I only saw Curt -- I ran right past Cassie and Manny and didn't see them, and they didn't see me. That's cause I'm so speedy. ;)

My 10K time -- 1:07:51, or 10:57/mile. By my watch, anyway, though the official time says 1:08:02. I guess there were a couple seconds of chip transfer, etc.

I am really happy with my run. I hadn't done that distance or that pace in months, and I'm pumped that things came together today despite the many aches and pains and issues. It was great to finally meet Cassie and Manny and Jessica as well (and Vic, I must have missed you!). Debbie and Curt finished their relay in style, with Debbie running a 10K for the first time ever and Curt getting in a good run after his marathon a few weeks ago. Michelle did the entire 20K as she continues to prepare for the marathon in January. All in all, everyone I talked to had a good day!

Now go read Cassie's report!

Wednesday, October 12, 2005

5K! 34:33! 11:06 per mile!

5K! 34:33! 11:06 per mile! Woot!

Now, all the Houston Running Bloggers who run much faster than me (which is, really, everybody), please try not to laugh too hard at my excitement over tonight’s run. But it was a good one. I felt better than I have lately, and it showed in my speed. Or, "speed." At 11:00/mile, speed is a relative term.

I truly can’t explain why some runs just go better. I wish I could, so that I could somehow capture it. As far as I can tell, there are just some days when my body feels better, and also when my brain is prepared to handle a higher level of discomfort. Some days I just don’t want to work hard, and some days it feels good. Last night was obviously, one of those.

I wasn't in The Zone; I’ve been there before and it’s fabulous, but last night wasn’t like that. But I was zoned out for most of the run, which is almost as good. I thought about my trip to JPL (I’m leaving today), and about baseball. I thought a lot about baseball, as is probably evident if you read the post below. ;)

I ran on the afore-mentioned boring street outside my apartment complex. I ran around 8:00. I hadn't eaten since lunch, and hadn't had any fluids all afternoon except a coke. I got to bed too late last night and only got about 6 hours of sleep.

And yet I had a good run. Go figure.

Saturday, October 08, 2005

I can't say that days

I can't say that days like this make all the summer heat bearable. But I can say that all the summer heat makes days like this feel even more amazing.

It's 72 degrees outside. 72! The humidity is low. Low! It's partly cloudy, but just enough sun to keep things bright and airy. In short, it is a PERFECT day, the type that Houston doesn't see nearly enough of.

Because of the weather, Vic specifically requested stories from today's runs, and I aim to please, party people! I did run today, around 1:30, and it was a good one, better than in months. I didn't even want to go (my motivation lately has been, ahem, lacking, to put it mildly), but I forced myself, knowing full well that days like these deserve to be taken advantage of. I went farther than I've gone since the spring, and still felt decent at the end. I ran in Nassau Bay, a nearby neighborhood on the water with lots to look at, so I enjoyed myself.

And did I mention the weather, OH, the weather was fabulous!

All in all I did 4.68 miles (according to Google pedometer). I didn't wear a watch, since I've misplaced the heart rate monitor sensor that goes with it. So I just ran. I did the distance in ~55:00, for a pace in the neighborhood of 11:45/mile. My half of the 20K relay next Sunday will certainly be slow, but at least I know I'll make it.

Friday, October 07, 2005

One first stab at a

One first stab at a Houston Running Bloggers logo...

Friday, September 30, 2005

This is for the Houston

This is for the Houston running bloggers...

I'll be at the 10-Miler on Sunday morning taking official race photos (for raceshots.net). I'm 90% certain I'll be standing somewhere on the bridge on NASA Road 1, between mile markers 6 and 7, so smile. ;) I'll also be at the finish line once everyone has passed me at mile 7 and there aren't any more photos to take. Looking forward to meeting everyone!

Update: I don't know what I'll be wearing, but I'll definitely have a blue flowered bandanna on my head. Based on last year's results, I expect to finish up with photos and get back to the finish line between 9:15 and 9:30.

Friday, September 30, 2005

there's no place I can be / since I found Serenity

Last night I hit the treadmilll again, inexplicably, since I have such a distaste for it. The "cold" front had not quite materialized yet, and I guess I'd rather watch TV while running than watch the same street over and over again. I did 40:00 again, this time alternating between 5 minutes of running and 30 seconds of walking. In the end, I did slightly more than the day before -- 3.4 miles, so that's 11:46 per mile. And I did it all at 1% grade, up from 0% the day before. For the last two minutes, I even ran at 10:30 pace just to remember what it feels like.

Thanks for all the kind comments yesterday. I almost closed comments when I posted it, because I didn't want anyone to feel like they needed to say something. The permanent internal conflict with having a blog is that sometimes I want to get thoughts out, and in public, but don't want readers to feel the need to do something. But in the end I left the comments open, so again, thanks for the kind words.

"What am I doing with my life??" is a question I often ask, and sometimes I start to panic a little when the answer doesn't seem right, or when I can't seem to come up with an answer in the first place. Whether I like it or am comfortable with it or not, I've discovered ever since I left home and went out on my own as an adult, I do have a marked tendency to go through periods of intense inner turmoil. I suppose it's just the way I am. I'm sure this won't be the last time.

So, on to fluffier things, at least for today! Serenity comes out tonight and I'm pumped. I don't think I've ever gone from not caring about a movie to counting the hours until showtime in such a short timespan. Last week I didn't care about it, in fact, I figured I wouldn't like it. Now, I'm excited. While many of the reviews say that the movie is good, but will only seem great to fans of the show, I hope everyone reading this will give it a chance. The more money it makes, the better the chance that it has a future somewhere.

I think I can hear Gavin laughing in the other office, laughing with satisfaction because he finally recommended a TV show/movie that I do like, and that doesn't have Nazi torture death chambers like another movie -- that shall remain nameless -- that he forced me to see.

Plans for the weekend: Maybe run Race for the Cure tomorrow. Maybe. Soccer game tomorrow afternoon. 10-Miler on Sunday morning, where I'll either be taking photos or volunteering, depending on need. Baseball game Sunday afternoon, where hopefully the Astros will have already clinched, if not, it'll be a nail-biter. And homework all in between!

Thursday, September 29, 2005

- I'm not leaving Serenity.
- Mal, you don't have to die alone.
- Everybody dies alone.

Last night I did 40 minutes on the treadmill. 3.32 miles. Average heart rate of 177. 9 minutes running and 1 minute walking, times four. 12:03 per mile. Sigh.

I hate the treadmill. Despise it. Dread the thought of running on it. I find that I run slower on it, for reasons unknown, and my legs hurt more. My shins tighten, my ankles sting, and when I get off my legs feel all rubbery.

And yet, on the few occasions that I do resign myself to that never-ending piece of rubber, I finish with a huge sense of accomplishment, perhaps more than I get from a normal run. Like I won the war. I defeated the evil treadmill! I pounded it into submission with my feet. And that feels good.

I doubt I'll ever voluntarily choose the treadmill over the outdoors, but every so often I guess it's not so bad.

Holden was right in his comment yesterday though -- the run did wonders to calm my nerves. The itchy, antsy, anxious feeling has returned a bit today, but hopefully another run tonight (maybe even outside if the weather cools after this morning's brief rainshower) will put it to rest again. If not, I'll have to hunker down with my shut-out-the-world headphones. Let me explain...

I spent my final year and a half of undergrad as the Entertainment Editor for the Technique. We published weekly, on Fridays, so deadline was always Wednesday night. Sometimes I'd get a lot done early, after meeting with my staff on Tuesday or by coming in early on Wednesday. In that case, I'd spend most of deadline screwing around with the rest of the staff until I was tired enough to go home. Sometimes, though, I'd have tons to do and needed to concentrate amidst the chaos to avoid being there literally all night. I had these huge headphones, massive things with lots of padding, that'd I'd clamp conspicuously on my head. They did a decent job of blocking out sound, especially once I turned the volume way up on my CD player. (CD player. Ha, that's sooo 2001.)

For the past couple days, I've been wishing I could wear those giant headphones for hours on end in some attempt to block everything out. The restless feeling, I think, has to do with being a little lonely, and feeling a little trapped.

I'm a rather independent person. Most of the time, I love living alone, and sometimes even find myself tiring of groups, and longing for the peace and quiet of my little apartment next to the bayou. At the same time, I've been in the same place for more than three years now. I haven't been in the same place this long since high school. Growing up, I always had a plan. I always knew what I'd be doing in 1 year, 3 years, 5 years. I don't know that anymore. Moreso, I don't even know what I want to be doing. I'm restless in my job, and I'm restless in my life. I have been looking at houses, for no other reason than I want change. I surf job websites. (Though Gavin says if I was cold on our camping trip, I shouldn't go to Antarctica. I counter that they have much warmer clothes with them down there.)

Amidst the chaos of evacuating for the hurricane, I somehow ended up feeling suffocated. The whole thing made me feel a little frantic, and lonely -- but sort of a delayed reaction that didn't truly kick in until I got back home. I live alone, I have no family in the area, and I'm single. I have many, many wonderful friends, but with potential disaster staring me in the face, I had an minor internal panic attack. Last week, the thought of hitting the road out of town alone freaked me out. And yet I realized that everyone around me had more important things to think about. It was me, on my own.

I'm not sure I like being on my own all the time.

Anyway. I just wanted to write it down. It's what I do.

Tuesday, September 20, 2005

I got out of class

I got out of class an hour early last night (Side note -- a few students, including me, got figuratively slapped on the hands for using an technique on my last project, tracing a photo, that had not been taught yet. Are you kidding me? I'm not allowed to figure out how to do something on my own to make my homework assignment come out like I wanted it to be? Gimme a break.) so I had time to go for another run.

I ran my extremely boring 3.1-mile route back and forth on the street in front of my apartment complex. The route consists of back and forth on the 0.5-mile long street. My apartment complex is located about 0.2 miles down it, so I can break it up into out-and-back sections of 0.4 and 0.6 miles. I run 0.6-0.4-0.6-0.4-0.6 and then the path from my door to the complex entrance and back is another 0.5. EXTREMELY repetitive and boring. But it's better than nothing.

After Sunday's crappy run, and after reading Jen's account of her 12-miler, I decided to do a run-walk sequence last night. I ran for 9 minutes, and walked for 1 minute. I did that three times, then ran the rest of the way home to finish the 5K in 37:02, average heart rate of 176. Even slower than Sunday's run. How pathetic.

However, despite the extremely depressing slower time, I felt a bit better about things thanks to all the encouraging comments I got yesterday. Right now I'm out of shape, it's still pretty hot and humid outside, I haven't been eating particularly well either, and I don't get enough sleep. There are a lot of factors conspiring against any decent run performances at the moment, and I'm just going to have to work through them.

Monday, September 19, 2005

I ran yesterday. I haven't

I ran yesterday.

I haven't admitted it, really, but yesterday as I ran, I finally realized that I am currently at the lowest point of my entire 3.5-year running "life" and it's really damn depressing.

I ran 3.1 miles around and around my apartment complex yesterday, and it took me 36:22 (average heart rate of 180). ~13:10 for the first 1.1 miles, 11:50 for the second mile, and 11:22 for the last mile. That's longer than it took to run my first-ever 5K race in 2002. That's longer than it's taken me to run any 5K race, ever.

I've been saying that this summer is just like last summer, that I haven't been running because it's so hot, that I've been making up for it in other ways. But that's not true. I haven't been running and I haven't been doing anything else. No biking. No swimming. Just sitting on my butt each evening.

I had another soccer game on Saturday morning and by the second half, I couldn't run anymore. I could jog weakly after the ball, but I couldn't turn on any sprint speed. It was really hot, to be sure, but I still had zero energy.

I don't know why this happened. I could say I got burned out after the marathon, and I think I did. I could say that I've been hoping my knee will get better with a break from running, and I have. But mostly I just haven't been running. Because I just haven't felt like it. At the same time that I've really started to get to know a lot of other people in the Houston running community (through blogs and other ways), I've essentially stopped running. It makes no sense.

I hate this. I hate that I am back to basically zero fitness a mere 9 months after running a marathon. I hate that I've fallen far enough that it'll take me at least a month, a painful month, to get back to the point where running isn't annoying.

I hate that after I ran 3.1 miles last night, my legs felt tired and sore. And this morning, when I got out of bed, my knees ached. Not the left one, which I hurt years ago, or the right one, that is still complaining from the mystery bump on my kneecap, but both of them.

Sigh.

Sigh sigh sigh.

By October 16, I must be ready to run 10K as part of the Houston 20K relay. I'm running with Cassie, who I hope doesn't mind that I'll be lucky to finish my half in 1:10!

Thursday, September 15, 2005

Last night was going to

Last night was going to be my first run since a month ago when I was in San Francisco and ran along the Embarcadero. I brought my running clothes and shoes to work, and shortly after 6:00 I headed over to Gilruth. That's when I discovered that the trail is closed. Closed! As in, not open for running.

I vaguely remember reading about this in one of the daily "news" emails that we get at work. I think they're repaving, or re-asphalting the trails. This is good, as they definitely need resurfacing to smooth out a lot of cracks and bumps and pits that have developed over the years. But it meant that my carefully devised plan to run before I got home, so that I couldn't get home and talk myself out of it, was ruined!

Drat.

I drove home, planning to run from my apartment, but I just couldn't get into it. I have grown to like running from my apartment less and less, because it basically involves running back and forth on the half mile street out front since both ends of that street connect to the very busy and sidewalk-less El Camino Real (which then connects to the very busy and partially sidewalk-less NASA Parkway). Very boring.

So I went to the weight room and did 35 minutes on the elliptical machine while I watched TV. About 2.3 miles total (my mileage is always lower on the elliptical) and an average heart rate of 167.

Better than nothing, right?

Monday, September 12, 2005

I've been thinking of joining

I've been thinking of joining a running club. I'm already a member of HARRA, but as I get to know some other area runners (both online through the community of running blogs and in person), I've been thinking of joining one of their groups. The obvious choice seems to be the Houston Striders since I am helping them with a webpage and since their list of members already includes Jon, Cassie, Jen, Holden, Vic, and Jessica.

(I haven't met any of them in person but feel like I know them anyway. I have become one of those people with "online friends." A bit freaky and dorky. But I have a feeling I'll be meeting them all soon!)

Anyway, decisions, decisions. I am in desperate need of some motivation to get running regularly again, and a club might be the way to go. My concern with the Striders is that they all seem to be pretty far away from me down here in Clear Lake. This is the problem with living in the 'burbs a long way from Houston's best running locale -- Memorial Park. It'd take me at least half an hour just to get there to meet anybody for a run. :(

Sunday, August 28, 2005

The Houston Running Bloggers, or

The Houston Running Bloggers, or Houston Blogging Runners, met up yesterday morning at Run the Woodlands for the bi-weekly 5K. It was masterminded by Jon Walk, who really brought us all together in the first place. I wasn't able to be there because I was crewing for the Ballunar Festival, but I hope to make the next one!

As for running, well, it's about time I got back to being active. I'm disgusted that I've gained 10 pounds in the past year, much of those put on post-marathon and at least 3 of them added in the past month as my level of exercise activity has dropped to basically zero. NOT GOOD.

I want to run the Houston Half Marathon in January and at this point will be starting basically from scratch again as far as my distance running abilities go. I would like to do the 10-Miler in October again but am not sure if 6 weeks is enough time to get ready for it. Same with the 20K also in October. We will see.

What I do know is that this week I've got to start getting back on the horse. It won't be easy -- and Wednesday night I'm leaving for a trip to Seattle for the Labor Day weekend -- but since that trip involves a lot of hiking, it'll be ok. But I've got to start running again.

Tuesday, August 16, 2005

After the sessions ended for

After the sessions ended for today, Gavin and I ran 3.6 miles (according to the Google Maps Pedometer) along the Embarcadero here in San Francisco and it was one of the loveliest runs of my life. I wasn't wearing a watch or timing myself, but I think we ran for about 40 minutes. I was slightly surprised to see 3.6 miles, but I guess that's possible. My legs and ankles were very stiff at first, and it was a struggle. But the last couple miles felt good; my breathing calmed and my legs stopped aching and while I could have used some bodyglide, life was good.

I have lost a lot of fitness (as well as gained about 5 pounds) in the past month and a half, which makes me sad. I've got to get back on track and get active again!

It was my first run in...I don't even know how long. It felt pretty good! Granted, a lot of that happy feeling is due to being able to run in gorgeous sunny, breezy, cool weather along the San Francisco Bay, watching sea gulls and sailboats and tourists and streetcars.

Life is good.

Saturday, August 06, 2005

I woke up this morning

I woke up this morning at 8:15 after 10 lovely hours of sleep. (I went to bed at 10:00 last night, tired after a long week and three days spent fighting a cold.)

The problem? I was supposed to wake up at 6:15.

Mysterious forces are conspiring such that I may never actually meet Jon face-to-face. The Maribelle's 5K was this morning and as far as I know, he was planning to run it. I was also going to get a chance to talk to Lance, a local race photographer and editor of a local running publication, about taking photos for him.

I was planning to run as well, but yesterday decided not to because I'm still rather congested and lethargic from this cold. So I emailed Jay, who was organizing the race, and asked if he needed any volunteers. I didn't want to run, but still wanted to meet Jon and Lance. So I told Jay I'd be there at 6:45.

I overslept. Just like for the Lunar Rendezvous Run a month ago. But GET THIS: I overslept because my alarm didn't go off because my power went out at 4 a.m.!!

See what I mean about the mysterious forces conspiring against me?? I went to bed at 10-freaking-oclock. That's a full eight hours of sleep. I'd be hard-pressed to sleep through an alarm after a full eight hours.

Making matters even more bizarre and frustrating is that I actually heard my power go out at 4 a.m. but didn't register what it was. Because of this cold, and having to breathe through my mouth, my mouth has been annoyingly dry all week. Last night I drank tons of water, and woke up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. As I climbed back into bed, I glanced at the clock: it glowed solid and read 3:55. I laid down, and as I was falling back asleep I heard my computer beep as if it had just turned on, and heard the air conditioning skip a beat.

I heard it but didn't think about it until I woke up with the sun streaming in (always a bad sign if you were supposed to be up before the sun). My clock was happily flashing "4:13" and the microwave just said "0." My battery-powered clock, however, said 8:15.

In the three years I've lived here, I can count the number of times the power has blipped out on one hand. Until last night, it had always been during a thunderstorm. It's truly bizarre, I can't get over it.

Next weekend I'm taking photos at a race in Galvestion.

I'm setting every freaking alarm I have.

Thursday, August 04, 2005

Cassie tagged me with this

Cassie tagged me with this little running quiz, so here we go:

Q: What are you training for now?
Nothing in particular, in fact, I am horribly bad at running consistently during the summer. Lately I have been so busy that I'm always tired, and the past couple days I've actually been sick with a cold. Boo. However, I am planning to run the 8K held along with the Marine Corps Marathon at the end of October (my friend Buzz is running the marathon, I'm going along for the fun). I also plan to run the Houston Half Marathon in January, and I'll probably start training "seriously" for that in late September. I say "seriously" in quotes because I don't really train for a certain time. I just train to cover the distance without hurting myself!

Q: If you are raising money for a cause, what is it and why is that cause important to you?
I have not done anything like Team in Training, though I considered joining when I was training for the marathon last year. I ended up training on my own. I have, however, ridden in the MS150 for two years in a row and plan to do so again in 2006. I don't know anyone with MS, but it feels good to raise money for a good cause.

Q: What is the farthest distance you’ve run in your training and what is the farthest distance you will run before your event?
My farthest training run ever was the 22-miler I did three weeks before I ran the 2005 Houston Marathon (my one and only marathon so far). A lot of training plans top out at 18 or 20, but I'm very glad I chose to go a bit farther. The 22-miler was far more hellish than the marathon itself. When I start training for the half this fall, my longest training run will probably be a 12 or 13-miler. I'd like to improve on my time from the 2004 Houston and Austin Half Marathons (2:15 and 2:16), but that'll take some work.

Q: What is your favorite flavor of gu? (or other sports gel)
I haven't experimented with them much, but I did use them on my long training runs and during the marathon. I didn't try different kinds, I just went with the first brand I tried since I liked it well enough -- CarbBoom in apple cinammon or vanilla orange (the latter has caffeine).

Q: How many days a week do you run?
During the summer (i.e. now), one day per week if I'm lucky and the weather cooperates. I overheat very easily, so I spend a lot of time in the summer inside on the elliptical machine or riding my bike (at least there's a breeze on a bike). During the winter, I try to run 3-4 days per week, and on the other days I usually have something scheduled like a softball game, soccer game, or rock climbing. While training for the marathon, I ran 4 days per week.

Q: Are you injured in any way right now? If so,what are you doing about it?
Yes, mildly, and it's one of the reasons I've been even lazier than usual. I have an overuse injury in my right knee that has been nagging me for months. In April I finally went to the orthopedic doctor who gave me a brace to wear each time I was active for 8 weeks. I went back in June and my knee hadn't gotten any better, but hadn't gotten any worse either. I had an MRI and it's basically just inflammation and tendonitis causing a lovely bump on top of my kneecap. No scoping necessary, just time. He offered a cortisone shot, but I declined for the time being. It hasn't really gotten any better though despite me not doing much (it bothered me last Saturday at the Urban Adventure Race) so I may go back in another month or two and see if a cortisone shot helps.

Q: what is one item of running clothing/gear (shoes don’t count) you can’t run without?
A t-shirt. Sounds silly to say, but it's true -- you will never see me running in just a sports bra, or even in a sleeveless shirt or tank top. I like having sleeves, and I sweat enough that I like to be able to wipe my face on my sleeves.

Q: Do you have a talisman you are planning on taking to your event? If so, tell us!
Nope. But I do keep reminders of each race. I made a quilt out of the t-shirts from the first 30 races I ran, and have the bib numbers from every race hanging in my bathroom (odd place for them, but it's motivating).

Q: Share one thing about yourself we don’t know.
I have a secret desire to kill Gavin. Ok, fine, I just said that because he's standing here laughing at my sad Monte Carlos. Anyway, I was 7th chair flute in All-State Band my senior year of high school. It was very important to me at the time, but now doesn't seem like that big a deal.

Saturday, July 16, 2005

The Lunar Rendezvous Run starts/started

The Lunar Rendezvous Run starts/started at 7:30 and I woke up at 7:29. My alarm was set and on and I just didn't wake up. I live 5 minutes away; I could have woken up as late as 7:15 and still made it to the start line in time. But I didn't. I suppose I could be going there right now, and starting 15 minutes behind everyone, but I'm so mad at myself at the moment that I just can't do it.

I'm so upset about missing the race that I feel a little sick to my stomach. This race sort of feels like my race. The one I always run. The anniversary of my move to Houston. It's a significant event in my head, which I guess is why I'm so upset that I f*$!ing overslept.

This is the second time in a week I've slept through my alarm. It's happening more and more frequently. I'm not an oversleeping type of person; something is wrong. I have been far too busy, for what seems like years, and in fact is probably this entire year so far, since Christmas. Something has to give. I have to cut something out of my schedule. The question is: what?

Sorry Jon and Jessica -- I was so looking forward to meeting you! We will have to meet at another race, one that I can get my ass out of bed for.

*cry* I'm so upset. :(

Thursday, July 14, 2005

3.1 miles, 34:07 = 11:00/mile

3.1 miles, 34:07 = 11:00/mile
Avg heart rate = 182

I had a decent run tonight but I think it would have been tough to get myself going much faster, so I think I'm going to have to amend the prediction I made over on Jon's blog, in which I estimated a finish time in this weekend's Lunar Rendezvous Run of 32-33 minutes. Yep, let's up that prediction to the 33-34 minute range.

Sigh...as I again lament the fact that six months ago I ran a marathon, and now I have lost all that great conditioning. Waaaaah!

Anyway, Jon saw in my previous entry that this will be my 4th year at this race, and looked up my previous times:

2004 - 32:44
2003 - 30:50
2002 - 34:36

The 2002 race was only 6 months after I'd started running, and was the first race I ever ran in Houston. All I wrote in my training log is: "LUNAR RENDEZVOUS 5K (hot, hot, hot)."

I then went and looked up the entry in my training log for 2003, since the 30:50 time surprised me. I do not run well in the heat AT ALL, and I wasn't training for anything in particular in spring 2003 that would have helped me out. Turns out I must have just had a good day, as I wrote: "LUNAR RENDEZVOUS 5K (Really hot, but I did a 9:15 first mile!!)" Obviously I couldn't keep up the 9:15 pace. ;)

Last year, I wrote: "LUNAR RENDEZVOUS 5K. Freaking hot. 9:50, 10:30, then 12+ final 1.1 miles." Probably more like what will happen on Saturday, unless the weather stays cool (and cool is relative, but oh well).

Anyway. Just some observations.

Monday, July 11, 2005

Saturday's run 3.75 miles, 45:21

Saturday's run
3.75 miles, 45:21 = 12:06/mile
Avg heart rate = 187
Max heart rate = 200

Saturday morning I woke up around 9:30 to the sound of drizzle on my window and overcast skies. By 11:00, the rain had stopped by my view was still overcast and my thermometer was reading about 79 degrees, so I decided to try an outdoor run for the first time since I was home in Charlotte.

I walked out the door to see that the skies in the opposite direction were clearing and the sun was coming out. It wasn't quite as "cool" out as I'd been expecting, but by this point I was committed and ready, so I pressed on.

I started jogging, and the farther I went, the more the sun started shining and the hotter it got and the more the humidity rose. UGH. I made it 20 minutes without stopping, but then needed a quick 1-minute walk break. After that, I managed to run for another 10 minutes before stopping for a walk again, 2 minutes this time. This was the point, almost 3 miles in, that the heat, humidity, and my low level of running fitness combined to make my run completely fall apart.

It took me 15 minutes to shuffle, walk, pant and gasp the final mile home. It was tortuous. It was awful. It was miserable. I've never been able to so vividly pinpoint the point at which I maxed out my anaerobic threshold and just couldn't go any farther. But I'm glad I did the run outside, and if nothing else it was good "preparation" for the humid torture of the Lunar Rendezvous Run 5K this Saturday.

(The Lunar Rendezvous Run is a mini-tradition for me; it was the first race I ran in Houston, two days after moving here, and this will be my 4th year in a row.)

Friday, July 08, 2005

I haven't posted workout information

I haven't posted workout information in a while, but here's a summary of what I can remember off the top of my head. I've done the elliptical machine three times since my last post: Saturday, Sunday, and Tuesday. Both Saturday and Sunday were "long" workouts, 50 minutes in all, with Sunday at a slower stride rate. Tuesday I had to use a different machine that was not calibrated the same way, I think, because the resistance/incline levels did not feel as tough as they do on my usual machine. Ah well.

I've had the itch lately to do a triathlon. It's been more than a year since my last one, the Danskin in 2004. Of course I was registered for the Danskin this year a month ago and didn't end up going, which made me a little sad, but it was nice not to have to travel up to Austin by myself. I missed the Speedo Women's Tri this year because I was in Atlanta for Katie's graduation, and I will miss Try Andy's Tri next month because I'll be in San Francisco for the AIAA conference. However, in looking around some local race calendars I did come across something that might be a lot of fun: the Silverlake Aquathon in Pearland in a couple weeks.

I've never done an aquathon before; this one is a 2.5-mile run, 1-km swim, 2.5-mile run. Sounds totally doable, and fun. I should be able to finish it in about 1.5 hours -- 55-60 minutes for the two run portions, and 20-25 minutes for the swim. Anyone want to do it with me? No bike riding involved for those of you who hate bikes...

I also recently have seen a little survey on some other running blogs so I figured I'd answer it myself:

What is your favorite long run pace?
Whatever pace gets me to the end! :) If you read all the training advice, I know that I actually do my long runs too fast. Based on my 5K time of 30:00, my long run pace should be something like 12:40, but when I do long runs they are usually at a pace closer to 11:30.

What is your favorite -- or typical -- pre-run meal?
I don't pay nearly enough attention to what I eat before running. Since I often run in the evening, a lot of the time the only food I have to go on is whatever I had for lunch which, I know, is not the ideal way to do things. If I was thinking ahead that day, I'll eat a granola bar or something similar about an hour before I head out to run.

What was the distance of your first official race?
A 5K held in conjunction with a half marathon in and around Golden Gate Park in San Francisco in January 2002. I finished in 34:something. I haven't gotten all that much faster over the 3+ years since, but my PR has dropped to 29:18 (which I ran in late 2003). Well, I guess that's 5:00, a fairly big improvement.

Do you typically run in groups or run alone?
Alone. Partly by design, partly not. In order to run with someone, I have to be very confident that I'm not slowing them down, otherwise I feel guilty the whole time and that's no fun. I don't mind being slowed down too much, so it's easier to run with people who are slower...except it's hard to find people that are slower than me! :) So I usually prefer to just go alone so I can listen to my music and do my own thing. Every so often when I do run with people though, I enjoy being able to chat. My favorite person to run with is my sister, though I can probably count on two hands the number of times we've been able to run together.

Name the one or two new running experiences (occurring within the past year) that you have grown the most from.
The marathon, no question. It was such a huge committment, both in terms of the time necessary for training and the mental motivation needed to stick with the long, slow runs.

What is your least favorite structure to run on/over?
Structure? Hmm. I've run the Kemah Bridge once in a 5-mile race, and it sucked because it's so steep and because I never run on hills since there are none here. Oh -- does a treadmill count? I really hate running on treadmills. They're boring, and they seem to aggravate my shin splints.

Thursday, June 30, 2005

YESTERDAY'S SUMMARY: EFX machine, 35:00,

YESTERDAY'S SUMMARY:
EFX machine, 35:00, ? strides
Avg heart rate = 170

I did the elliptical machine last night, but hit the reset button at the end when I actually meant to hit the summary button. Zap went my workout data. I am such an engineer in some aspects; wanting to know the intimate details of my workout is one such area. I feel lost without know exactly how many strides I did, even though it is surely somewhere between 4900 and 5100.

I've been pondering my next athletic goal for a while now. I know I want to do the Houston Half Marathon again next January, but I don't need to (and, let's face it, won't) start seriously training for that until the weather starts to cool off in September and October. I'd like to do the USA 10-Miler again, in early October, and perhaps the marathon warm-up series 20K in late October. Even though I'm not training for the marathon, I'd consider doing the 25K again...but the course was SO boring (three identical 5+ mile loops) that I'm not sure if it's worth doing. If I can do the 20K in late October, which is less than a mile short of a half marathon, that would leave me two and a half months to try to improve my speed. Might be worth doing.

I'd really like to find a triathlon this fall though, I think. I had signed up for the Danskin in Austin three weeks ago, and didn't end up going because I had no one to come to Austin with me, and because I was just lazy. But I was sad to miss it. I like triathlons a lot.

Of course I do have one other tempting goal, and that is to work on speed for a while. The one goal I have yet to accomplish since becoming a runner is a consistent sub-30:00 5K. I've finished under 30:00 twice, and have a bunch of finishes between 30:00 and 31:00, but I'd like to be able to do a 5K a bit faster...

(p.s. Running Chick has a great entry today.)

Wednesday, June 29, 2005

YESTERDAY'S SUMMARY: 15 miles biking,

YESTERDAY'S SUMMARY:
15 miles biking, 55:11 = 16.3 mph
Avg heart rate = 173

I decided to go for a bike ride yesterday afternoon for the first time in a couple months. Summer always spurs me to break out the two-wheeler, as somehow it never seems quite as unbearably hot while biking. There's always a breeze, even if it's self-generated.

The fact that I am 5-6 pounds heavier than I was six months ago hit home at Katie's wedding; when I looked at myself in my dress, I decided that I must be carrying all of those extra pounds around my stomach! I want to lose it, but I'm having trouble lately. Since Christmas, it seems, we have been eating out a lot more, and I have been lazier about exercising.

All fall I was so focused on the marathon that since it's been over, since mid-January, I've felt rather burned out. Running just hasn't been as interesting to me since the marathon. I certainly don't regret doing 26.2, but I think that once it was over, and I didn't have a large goal to look for down the road, I started to feel pretty listless about running.

I started running in December 2001 because I wanted to lose weight, but after I got past the initial "I hate this" feeling (which I'd never managed to get past in my multiple previous attempts to start running) I found that I liked it. Being in a beautiful place like the San Francisco Bay Area certainly helped; everywhere I ran there was something pretty to look at. After six months, I was attached enough to the exercise to keep up with it despite moving to running-unfriendly Houston.

Until recently, it hadn't been a struggle to get regular exercise. In addition to running, I started biking, swimming, and playing softball. I started playing soccer again for the first time since 8th grade, and I started rock climbing again for the first time since early in my co-op days. I love all my activities, and though it may sound cliche, I think becoming involved in so many athletic pursuits has had an incredibly positive impact on my confidence and self-esteem. But lately, exercise and workouts have started feeling more like a chore.

My only motivation for doing anything athletic in these past few months has been to prevent ballooning. When I first started running, I was something like 195 pounds. I was never obese, but I was definitely overweight. Only now do I realize how much heavier I looked then, and how much heavier and unhealthy I felt. I'm still a bit overweight, though I am a zillions time more fit than I was three years ago; I'm probably more fit than I've been in my entire life. But as I get lazy, I'm losing it. The least I've weighed in recent memory was 169 for the first couple days after returning from Peru last September. As soon as I stopped, you know, hiking for 8 hours a day, I immediately climbed back to about 172. Marathon training put on a few more pounds of muscle, which I think have since turned to fat, and I now find my pants fitting not quite as loosely as they used to.

So somehow, I've got to get my motivation back, and start to like working out again. Unfortunately this will be tough to do, with summer and hot, humid weather upon me, but I've got to try.

I think I need a new goal. I'm not interested in doing anything farther than a marathon at this point, so it's got to be something different. I'm thinking maybe an Olympic distance triathlon (1.5k swim, 25 mile bike, 10K run), since all I've ever done are sprint distance races. We shall see.

Thursday, June 23, 2005

TODAY: Walking, 1:10:00 Katie and

TODAY:
Walking, 1:10:00

Katie and I joined Mom on her daily walk this morning, just like I did two days ago. The weather has been great lately, and we enjoyed trekking through the neighborhood. There were a lot of other people out, and some bikers riding the standard 3-mile Queens Road loop.

YESTERDAY:
EFX machine, 30:00, ? strides

I did the elliptical machine over at the church rec wing. They have a different type of elliptical machine, and it surprised me how much different it felt to use it. There was no incline, only resistance and stride length. It took some adjustment, and I felt much more tired after a half hour than I usually do. It's probably good to shake things up!

Tuesday, June 21, 2005

TODAY: 3.6 miles, 38:45 =

TODAY:
3.6 miles, 38:45 = 10:45/mile
Avg heart rate = 179

I ran three laps around the "long block" from the house tonight after dinner. It was dark, but I ran past diners eating outside on East Boulevard, and people sitting on their porches on Floral, and people walking down my street in the twilight. There is something so comforting about running along the streets where I grew up. I know them so well, and yet go such long stretches without seeing them, that I could probably run 10 laps and not get bored. I love this neighborhood. I love my parents' little house, even if it is not really big enough for six now-adults. I love the trees and the hills in Charlotte, and the cleaner air.

I've been getting headaches in the late afternoon. I told Mom today while we were at the post office that perhaps the clean air is too much for me, and that I need to go back to the smog. The guy checking his PO box next to us almost laughed out loud.

YESTERDAY:
? miles, 28:15
Avg heart rate = 179

I ran with Katie. She's too fast for me. ;) She said the route was 3 miles, but there's absolutely no way it was that far because 1) I'm slow and 2) we were talking and 3) there were hills. Probably more like 2.5 miles.

Wednesday, June 15, 2005

EFX machine, 35:00, 5520 strides

EFX machine, 35:00, 5520 strides
Avg heart rate = 177

The weather outside yesterday was simply stifling. There is no other word to describe it: stifling. There was no way anyone could have gotten me running outside, so I headed again to the elliptical machine. I have a feeling I will be in that exercise room a lot this summer. At least they now have three TVs, so I can usually watch what I want to. Last night I watched the Astros, who started losing when I left. Poo.

I did go back to the doctor on Monday. I didn't end up writing anything here because, fortunately, there wasn't much to report! He looked at the MRI and my knee is just inflamed. The lump on my knee is just fluid and inflammation, and scoping it would do nothing to help. He offered to give me a cortisone shot and said that might break it up a little faster, but said I could also just wait it out. So I decided to wait it out. He said to come back in September or so if it's still bothering me, and to continue wearing the brace to help take some of the pressure off the joint.

So, we shall see if it gets better! I guess it just needs time...

Monday, June 13, 2005

EFX machine, 45:00, 7062 strides

EFX machine, 45:00, 7062 strides
Avg heart rate = 183

I did my longest stint to-date on the elliptical machine on Saturday, figuring it was time for a >30 minute workout. It was very satisfying. I am still toying with the idea of going to Atlanta for the 4th of July to run the Peachtree, so if I do that I'm going to have to be prepared to run a 10K. I haven't run that far since...mid-March? Yeah. Mid-March. I could finish it now no problem, but it'd be more pleasant if I prepare at least a little.

My Peachtree number came in the mail, I'm in the 20,000s. I was in the 20,000s last year as well; that's where they put you if you make the effort to submit a certified 10K time, but it's slower than 55:00. (Mine is the 1:03:09 I ran in the Rodeo Run last February.) Chrissy apparently submitted a fast enough time that she got a chip! Wow. :) She's in the 10,000s, James is in the 20,000s. If I don't end up running, I've promised Alex that he can have my number.

This afternoon I head to the doctor again to see what he says about my knee after having looked at the MRI...

Wednesday, June 08, 2005

EFX machine, 33:00, ~5150 strides

EFX machine, 33:00, ~5150 strides
Avg heart rate: 175

I was disgustingly sweaty after doing the elliptical machine yesterday, so it was fiiting to come home and see this in Runner's World, in response to a question about whether people who are in great shape sweat less (as the rumor goes):

"Runners who aren't drenched at the end of a workout may indeed be more fit, but their inability to wring out their shirt is most likely because they weren't working at as high an intensity as others who are running the same pace or distance. If a beginner and an experienced runner go for a run together, the beginner with undoubtedly perspire more than the experienced one because he'll be working harder...

Actually, well-conditioned runners start sweating earlier in a run than their nonrunning friends do. Their bodies are better trained to regulate their core temperatures, so they'll perspire at lower body temperatures.

Fitness level isn't the only thing that determines how much runners sweat. ... Genetics play a role, too: Some people just have more sweat glands."

Monday, June 06, 2005

The doctor has requested an

The doctor has requested an MRI on my knee. This does not make me happy 1) because MRIs are expensive (even though I'm sure insurance will cover most of it) and 2) because I feel silly going through all this doctor stuff for a knee that hurts, but not so much that it stops me from running or walking or doing anything.

Anyway. I go for the MRI tomorrow, then back to the doctor next Monday. The MRI will tell him whether it is knee goop that can be dissolved with a cortisone shot (ooh, how Jeff Bagwell of me), or whether it is scar tissue that should be "scoped" which is short for "arthroscopic" which means "cleaning out knee gunk after cutting into your knee." I have never had surgery on anything before in my life, so I really do not like the sound of the second option.

Stupid knee.

Sunday, June 05, 2005

Summer Kick-off Fun Run 5K

3.1 miles, 34:21 = 11:05 min/mile
Avg heart rate = 189

Two words: HOT and HUMID. I finally did the Summer Kickoff 5K yesterday for the first time since moving to Houston. Despite the fact that it's less than 5 miles away, I'd always had some reason for not doing it. Probably the weather!!

Debbie ran it with me as well. We did a 10:45 first mile, a slightly faster second mile, and then I slowed to maybe 11:30 for the final mile and another minute for the last 0.1. Debbie pulled away from me at the end and finished about 30 seconds faster. I just couldn't follow her, as I was tired, dehydrated (I'd had two beers and a margarita Friday night, and didn't drink enough water before bed), and feeling the beginnings of the tingle of heat exhaustion. But it was a nice run with a nice crowd, and they had great food afterwards. Sandwiches, ice cream, the works! I didn't partake in much except water and a coke, but they had all sorts of good stuff.

Thursday, June 02, 2005

YESTERDAY'S SUMMARY: EFX machine, 5196

YESTERDAY'S SUMMARY:
EFX machine, 5196 strides, 33:00 min
Avg heart rate = 173

My legs were surprisingly sore after Tuesday night's run. It made me glad that I'd at least gotten back out there, even if I chose to retreat to the cool air and the entertaining TVs of the exercise room.

There are three EFX machines in the room, two older and one newer. The newer one is of course the most desirable, because it is silent, while the other two creak and squeak with each step. Alas, the newer one was already in use, so I creaked and squeaked my way through 5000+ strides while watching the beginning of the Astros game. They ended up winning! They've won two series in a row! Amazing.

Tuesday, May 31, 2005

TODAY'S SUMMARY: 3 miles, 32:16

TODAY'S SUMMARY:
3 miles, 32:16 = 10:45 min/mile pace
Avg heart rate = 193

You can look at my average heart rate and immediately infer three things.

First, I have not been running outside in a while.
Second, I must have really been pushing myself yesterday, or it was hot.
Third, the old "226 - your age" rule for calculating a person's max heart rate does not apply to me!

Of course all three are accurate. I haven't been running outside in a while, and have only just begun substituting the elliptical machine for running. I both pushed myself hard, and it was indeed the warmest day I've run on yet this year. And obviously the heart rate rule is wrong for me, since 226-27=199 and in addition to averaging 193 for the run, the max I hit was 207. 207! I would be worried about this kind of thing if it weren't a trend I've noticed since the day I got a heart rate monitor. My heart just really likes to get pumping, I guess.

Anyway. It was warm outside, but I want to at least get some degree of adaptation going on to maintain some level of outdoor running fitness, so off I went for a three mile run at Gilruth (out 1.5 miles, turn around, back 1.5 miles). I covered the first mile in 10:44, the second in 10:44 (I'm never that consistent!), and the third in 10:48. The third mile is actually a bit misleading, because I stopped for ~30 seconds to gulp some water from the cooler along the course, so the actual running time for that last mile, as I strained to finish, was more like 10:20.

Go me! It was harder than I'd planned on running, but it made me feel good to be able to do three sub-11:00 miles despite being, um, less than diligent about my training, oh, basically since February...

My knee hurts tonight though. And banging it into the table at dinner at Mely's did not help. That aside, it still ached while running. I don't feel like it's getting any better. I go back to the doctor on Monday, eight weeks after I first went and he gave me the brace. I have not been perfect about wearing the brace during athletic activity, but I have definitely worn it while running, playing soccer, and doing the elliptical. I just don't feel like the knee is improving. I'll think it's getting better, and then randomly it will start to ache again. I'm a bit worried about what the doctor will say now that eight weeks with the brace hasn't done much...

Monday, May 30, 2005

YESTERDAY'S SUMMARY: EFX machine, 5048

YESTERDAY'S SUMMARY:
EFX machine, 5048 strides, 33:00 min
Avg heart rate = 172

Summer in Houston sucks. We were probably lucky this year that "summer" didn't truly start until about a week ago. But since then: HOT and HUMID. My two least favorite running conditions.

So I've begun the move inside to the elliptical machine, and perhaps every once in a while, the dreaded treadmill. And if it's a cooler week, I'll go outside just to try to keep my body adjusted.

I shot the Astros Race for the Pennant 5K on Saturday morning (the name is funny since the Astros are simply chasing a .500 record at the moment), and I was sweating despite not even running. That's how humid it was. Ugh.

Wednesday, May 25, 2005

I'm grumpy today. Despite the

I'm grumpy today. Despite the fact that I overslept, I still feel just exhausted.

Last night we all went out to dinner to celebrate Nick's birthday, so I decided to work out beforehand for the first time in more than two weeks. It has finally gotten hot here, so in lieu of running I headed for the elliptical machine in the exercise room.

It's been a while since I'd been in there, and I was happy to see that there are now three elliptical machines (one more than there used to be) and three TVs (two more than there used to be). I could finally choose what I wanted to watch even though there was someone else in the room. Hurrah!

I decided to take it a bit easy, and only did a 28-minute program on the machine. Four minutes at high intensity and incline, four minutes at lower levels, and repeat. Including a five-minute cooldown, I went a bit more than two miles. Of course the mileage on the elliptical is always a bit sketchy to me, since your stride is constrained and all that. In any case, I worked up a good sweat and it felt nice to try to get back into the swing of things. Katie's upcoming wedding should be a nice motivator to work out regularly for the next month.

Tuesday, May 10, 2005

SUMMARY: 4 miles, 44:10 =

SUMMARY:
4 miles, 44:10 = 11:02 min/mile pace
Avg heart rate = 186

While I'm posting workout summaries, I should recap last Thursday's run. I ran from the apartment complex, knowing that I wouldn't be able to get any exercise in during my busy weekend in Atlanta. I'd only planned to do a 5K, but my guilt over having lost so much fitness since the marathon four months ago got to me, and I ended up doing a nice round 4 miles. Summer is coming, and the weather is getting warmer, and I know this means I will run less, and less. I hate the heat and humidity so much: UGH.

But last summer I hardly ran at all and I paid for it in September when I started marathon training. In fact, had I continued to run at least once or twice a week during the summer, I think I might have finished the marathon as much as 5 or 10 minutes faster. C'est la vie.

This summer, as I think I may have already mentioned, my goal is to maintain at least an 11:00/mile 10K level of fitness... :)

Tuesday, May 10, 2005

YESTERDAY'S SUMMARY: 1 mile swimming

YESTERDAY'S SUMMARY:
1 mile swimming (32 laps), 37:40
Avg heart rate = 163

I went for my first swim in a while last night, and it was surprisingly tough! The heater in the pool is certainly fixed, as the water was too warm -- a temperature that would be fine if one was just splashing around for fun, but uncomfortable for doing laps and exertion. The chemical content of the pool seemed better than the last time, but oddly, the water was more cloudy. Cloudy water, but I left without my lips burning. I really think they are having a hard time getting the balance right in the silly pool.

Since the weather is warming up and I went at 7:00, there were of course some kids using the lap pool as a play pool. Normally the kids I find there are good about staying to one side of the pool while I do laps, but last night there were two lap swimmers and three kids, and a three-lane pool isn't so great for that. The kids weren't helping matters by moving from side to side and often standing right in front of me as I swam down the middle lane. I think they were trying to see if I'd run into them...some sort of swimming version of Chicken to see who'd move first. I never moved. TAKE THAT KIDDIES.

The summary is that I got my laps in without a problem, but the kids-playing-in-the-lap-pool annoyance continues just like last year. There is another pool in the complex, but for the people who live next to the lap pool, I guess they find the two tenths of a mile too far to walk (I say sarcastically).

Anyway, as far as the actual swimming itself...it was tough! I don't know whether it was the kids splashing around and upsetting the water, or the warmth of the water sapping my energy, or me just being tired, but I got tired much faster than usual. It usually takes me 20-22 strokes to get from one end to the other, depending on how hard I pull and how much I kick, but last night it was taking me 23-25. I was really struggling and I'm not sure why. But I pushed through it and did 32 laps (~1 mile in my 25-yard or possibly 25-meter pool). I've got a month to do a bit more swimming before the Danskin triathlon in Austin. I'm probably not as prepared for it as I was last year, but I'm hoping to lower my time. In 2003 I did 1:58, last year I did 1:47, so this year I'm hoping for sub-1:45...

Tuesday, May 03, 2005

TODAY'S SUMMARY: 3.5 miles, 37:40

TODAY'S SUMMARY:
3.5 miles, 37:40 = 10:46 min/mile pace
Avg heart rate = 188

Last year when I started training for the marathon in September, it was painfully obvious that I hadn't done any running during the summer. Despite being in good cardiovascular shape from soccer, swimming, biking, and other things, there really is no exact substitute for running other than...running itself!

So this year, despite the fact that I have no official big race on the schedule, my goal is to get in a run at least twice a week all summer, even if it's only 3 miles. I just want to be able to maintain at least a base level of running fitness, even if it means running in the Houston summer heat. (UGH, UGH, DOUBLE UGH.)

I ran tonight after work, 1.75 miles out on the Gilruth trail then turned around and came back. My pace was inconsistent, to say the least. Covered the first mile in 10:30, walked for a moment, then hit 1.5 miles in 16:00. Walked a moment more. Passed 2 miles in 21:30, paused at 2.5 at ~27:10 for some water, then pushed myself to finish the last mile in close to 10:00 flat.

Anyway, a run is a run, and this one counts just as much as anything else!

Afterwards, I talked to a guy who'd been slowly gaining on me for the last 1.25 miles. He passed me with about a tenth of a mile left to go -- grr! I'd been trying to stay ahead of him, which probably explains my almost 10:00 flat final mile. ;) We chatted for a bit about marathon training and running in general. He was probably in his late 30s to early 40s, seemed nice enough, but I forgot to ask his name.

Thursday, April 28, 2005

YESTERDAY'S SUMMARY: 3.1 miles, 33:40

YESTERDAY'S SUMMARY:
3.1 miles, 33:40 = 10:51 min/mile pace
Avg heart rate = 186

I thought I was running well last night, and at ~2.1 miles I glanced at my watch to see 22:something, on pace to equal my run on Saturday. But maybe I saw wrong, or maybe I slowed down a lot in the last mile, or maybe I'm just measuring my route incorrectly!

I'd planned to run on the Gilruth trail, but ended up going home and running from my apartment complex instead. This means following a very boring route, since my street is a half mile semi-circle that intersects a very busy road on both ends, and the idea of running along the very busy road in the 5:30-6:30 timeframe doesn't really thrill me.

Anyway. One lap around my apartment complex is half a mile, one length of the semi-circle street is half a mile, and from my complex entrance to one end and back is ~0.6 miles, so in the right combination it adds up to a 5K. More or less. I'm not really sure, and it's probably not even accurate to compare my runs from one day to the other because I'll run a bit farther based on whether I'm waiting for a car to pass, etc. I should ride it on my bike and measure.

But it was good to get out running. The weather was nice enough, though it's starting to get a bit warm for my liking (which begs the question, how do I even attempt to run in Houston between May and September?). But the sun was bright and the breeze was cool, and I had my mp3 player going. I was wearing the knee brace, but my knee still ached a bit. The doctor said I could keep running, so I will continue to do so at least until I go back in 6 weeks for a followup. He said if it's not getting better at that point, we'll have to do something more aggressive...

Saturday, April 23, 2005

Running of the Bulls 5K

3.1 miles, 32:42 = 10:33 min/mile pace
Avg heart rate = 186

Well I went running this morning for the first time in a month. I know -- how bad am I!?

I didn't know how well the race would go, because it's not like I haven't been active with soccer and softball and oh, riding my bike from here to Austin (!!), but at the same time, none of those things equal running. And while they keep me in shape, they don't keep me in running shape.

So I was pleasantly surprised to pull off a 10.5 min/mile pace this morning without much trouble, in fact, I felt pretty good. I ran side by side with Debbie, who was running for the first time in a while and always has major knee trouble slowing her down. If her knees were normal, she'd leave me in the dust, but as it is, they slow her down to my pace. ;) We started off at a comfortable jog, and I was a bit surprised to see us go through the first mile at 10:45 (surprised because I thought we were slower, not faster). We kept the same pace, hitting mile 2 in 21:35, and then we obviously sped up in the last 1.1 miles to finish in 32:42. I felt good the whole way, even with my own knee brace on to counter to overuse injury I've developed.

So it was a good, encouraging run. Gotta get back to doing it regularly, even with the heat and humidity on its way...

Tuesday, April 12, 2005

1/10 of what I'll do this weekend

I went for a bike ride last night. 17 miles in just over an hour. Not a bad pace or distance...if it weren't for the fact that this weekend, somehow, I have to push through the MS150. And I haven't trained. And saying I haven't trained is probably an understatement.

I can't ride tonight because of the Yuri's Night party, but will hopefully get in another 15-20 miles tomorrow night. It won't prepare me for the distance, but I figure it's better than nothing.

On the bright side, I'm a bit more comfortable with my shoes and pedals and hopefully won't fall off (knock on wood) my bike.

Monday, March 28, 2005

that shook when he laughed like a bowl full of jelly

I've been running, biking, playing soccer, climbing, and engaging in all sorts of athletic pursuits on a regular basis for about three years now, and I'd never really experienced the "jelly legs" phenomenon. Until yesterday.

I had planned to do a 40-mile bike ride as part of my last-ditch efforts to get at least somewhat ready for the MS150, but I woke up to overcast skies, chilly weather, and tons of wind. I put off riding until about 4:00, at which point I realized that it wasn't going to warm up, the wind wasn't going to die down, and that if I didn't go for at least some sort of ride, then I would be totally shooting myself in the foot.

So out I went. Part of my hesitation in the morning was that I don't have long sleeve bike jerseys or long bike pants, and riding in mid-50s weather would be pretty chilly! I solved that problem by wearing a long sleeve shirt underneath a short sleeve top, and running tights underneath my bike shorts.

The wind was something I couldn't solve. It was so windy. It was so windy that there were a couple times I thought I might get blown off the road. So windy that the trees were swaying heavily. So windy that when I went over the Kemah Bridge twice, I coasted down one side at almost 40 mph feathering my brakes to keep from going any faster, and then coasted down on the return trip at 15 mph. On any normal, calm day it would be impossible to coast down that bridge at less than 30 mph, and yesterday the wind slowed me down to 15.

That is windy.

I ended up riding 25 miles, and it was a struggle. There were a couple times when, with the wind at my back, I cruised along at 25 mph on flat ground; that's pretty fast for me. But then coming home along NASA Road 1, it was all I could do to maintain 12 mph.

When I got home, I walked up the stairs to my apartment so that I could hit the garage opener and put my bike away. Walking up the stairs was fine, but when I started to go back down, strange things happened. I took one step. Hmm, that felt weird. I took another step. Whoa, what's wrong with my legs? I took a third step. Help!! I had to clutch the railing as my leg threatened to just crumple underneath me. They felt all rubbery, and sort of numb, and I went down the rest of the stairs very, very carefully.

I thought I'd had tired legs before, but it turns out that I'd never truly experienced jelly legs until yesterday.

Saturday, March 26, 2005

they say it's your birthday...!

Happy Birthday to me!

It only seemed fitting to go out and run a local 5K to celebrate turning 27, so I did the Resurrection Run over in Nassau Bay this morning. It went so-so. I finished in 33:24 (10:46 miles) which isn't bad, but isn't great. My knee hurt from the beginning, though the ache lessened as the race went on. I think it may be time to go see a doctor about it. I think I've mentioned this before... It doesn't affect me greatly, but it's had a fairly constant ache since sometime last fall in the middle of marathon training.

Afterwards, I met Gavin at Challenger Park to give our Yuri's Night 5K course a once-over. Looks good at the moment, a couple wet but avoidable spots. Here's hoping for a dry couple weeks! The race is April 9.

Now I'm off to soccer practice, followed by a birthday bath with the stuff I bought from that Lush store in Whistler. Then a lazy afternoon capped with a trip to the Cheesecake Factory tonight! Mmm.

Friday, March 25, 2005

4x400s

Buzz and Ron have been throwing in some speedwork on Thursday, so I decided to join them yesterday for the first time, along with Gavin and Jeremy. The trail out at the Gilruth Center here at work is marked every quarter-mile and has one particularly straight section between the 1 and 1 1/4 markers that's good for speedwork. We ran out to the 1 1/2 mark and then back to 1 for a two mile warmup at ~11:00 pace, then everyone split off to do 400 repeats. I ran from the 1 to 1 1/4 markers, then walked back. Everyone else was jogging the recovery stretch, but I decided I'd rather work up to that point.

I can run at pretty decent speed over short stretches, but I'm not actually very good at judging my pace. I did ok yesterday, doing 4x400 repeats in 2:08, 2:00, 1:56, and 2:05. After each, I walked back the 400 meters at a brisk pace such that each set of speed/recovery lasted 6 minutes -- ~2 minutes running, ~4 minutes walking recovery. For the last repeat I ran from 1 to 3/4 markers and then slowly jogged the 3/4 mile back to the parking lot.

All in all, the workout felt pretty good. Total distance covered including warmup, speed/recovery bits, and cooldown jog was 4.5 miles in just under an hour. Next week I'd like to up the count to 5 repeats. As long as I walk the recovery portion, I feel like I could do a lot more repeats; walking for 400 meters is plenty of time for my heart rate to drop by ~40 bpm and get back to a normal breathing/talking pattern. So in two weeks I'll start jogging recovery instead of walking.

The thought also occurred to me that 400 meter repeats, because they're not done at a full sprint but rather at just below that, are probably great soccer training as well. I find that my performance during a soccer game is directly to related to how "in soccer shape" I am, which is basically how quickly I can recover after having almost sprinted down the field or been juking back and forth defending someone. The quicker I can recover, the quicker I can be ready to get back into position and defend again.

I haven't really done any research on what type of speed workout is best for what I want to accomplish, so I should do that. I think my next goal is to run a sub-hour 10K. I've only done a sub-30:00 5K a couple times, and so the sub-hour 10K will be a significant challenge. I don't know how possible it is without some serious training time, so it may be a goal that I have to put off until next fall/winter, but we'll see.

Thursday, March 24, 2005

I dragged myself off the

I dragged myself off the couch last night to go swimming with Buzz and Jen. The heater in my apartment complex's lap pool has been broken for more than a month now, and despite all the recent sunny weather, the water was chilly. Jen and I got in slowly, and with the water at my waist I finally took the final plunge.

For some reason, swimming was tough last night. In my first few laps, I found myself gasping for air. I think it was because I was swimming feverishly in an attempt to warm up in the cold water, but it was different nonetheless. My breathing calmed down after a while, but overall my time in the pool was much harder than normal. I'm going to chalk it up to just being tired.

I was only going to do 20 laps but Buzz and Jen were still swimming when I finished my 20, so I just kept going until they were done. I ended up doing 27 laps (32 laps is ~1 mile). Not too bad.

(For reference, I count one lap as down and back, a complete "circuit" of the pool. Just going to the other end is a length.)

I have two different "patterns" I use while swimming. The first is to swim in sets of 6 laps/12 lengths: 5 lengths of freestyle, 1 length of breaststroke, 4 lengths of freestyle, 2 lengths of breaststroke. I rest for a minute or two at the end of each set, then do another. The second pattern is sets of 10 laps/20 lengths: 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1 length of freestyle, each followed by 1 length of breaststroke.

I did the second pattern last night (I just stopped the third set early); I tend to follow the second pattern on nights when I'm tired, since it offers more breaststroking lengths and breaststroke is something I could do for hours. To make up for the ease factor of additional breaststroke lengths, I try to swim progressively faster as the number of freestyle lengths decreases.

Oh -- the other thing to mention is that the lap pool is so far over-chemicalled (is that a word?) that it's not even funny. After getting out of the pool, my lips and tongue burned, and I can still smell chlorine a bit in my hair today after three shampoos.

Sunday, March 20, 2005

time to break out the SPF30

It's the first day of spring, and it's official -- I have my first sunburn of the year.

Despite not having run in two weeks (though to my credit, I've been playing soccer and skiing) I did my part of the Seabrook Marathon Relay today. I covered the ~6.5 mile out-and-back in ~1:12, for ~11:00 miles. I'm not totally sure on the time though because I forgot to start my watch until somewhere in the first mile and official results aren't up yet. 1:12 is a far cry from my great 10K of a month ago, but ah well. The point is to get out there and run.

My right knee is still bothering me a bit. Not enough to keep me from running; it's more of a pressure thing, as in, it only really hurts when I put pressure on it, like kneeling on the floor or something. Regardless, it's been nagging me since sometime in the middle of my marathon training. That was four months ago. It's probably time to go see a doctor about it. Boo.

Ron did the first leg for us in right about an hour, followed by me, Jess in ~1:03, and Gavin in slightly under an hour, I think. I didn't even see what our official time was, but it was in the 4:10 range. Heh -- I ran a 4:10 marathon! ;)

I was definitely the tortoise of our team, but c'est la vie. After my leg, I hung around until noon taking photos for Karen Thibodeaux. I went to both the Tsunami 5K and this race today helping her with photos as sort of a "tryout" for the future. I've never shot anything like a race before, and my skills are certainly on the level of an amateur, but I like races and I like photography -- what better way to combine two interests? Hopefully I got some good shots and can do it again. If nothing else, it's a great learning experience. I met another photographer today and learned a lot just chatting with him between race finishers.

Friday, March 04, 2005

I talked myself into a

I talked myself into a 5K run last night after work, and it turned out great. I'd taken my running clothes to work and planned to leave at 4:30 for at least one lap of the Gilruth trail, but ended up at work until 6:00 and don't like the run on the trail in twilight/darkness if I can avoid it. It's very poorly lit, i.e. not really any lights at all except for the headlights of cars going down Space Center Blvd.

I went home, and was feeling lousy, but thought about my plans for the weekend and realized that if I didn't go last night I might not run until at least next Tuesday. (Why? Because I usually don't run on Fridays as a rule, and tomorrow and Sunday I have a soccer games, as well as needing to fit in a good bike ride for MS150 prep, and Mondays I go climbing.) So I did my standard in-front-of-the-apartment-complex 5k, which is extremely boring but convenient. My complex, unfortunately, is right off a busy, heavily traveled road that has no sidewalks. I don't want to risk running that road at night, so I basically run one lap around my apartment complex combined with 2.5 repeats of the half mile crescent-shaped road out front. My complex is in the middle of the crescent, so I end up running to one end (where it meets the busy road) three times and the other end (where it also meets the busy road) twice. Like I said, it's extremely boring, but it works in a pinch and I'd still rather do it than run on a treadmill.

I did my 5k in 31:40, so I was very happy with the pace. I think I was able to keep it strong last night because I had so much to think about. Tiggs wrote about her thoughts while running, and I think I'll do the same.

I thought a lot about the possibility of becoming a race photographer, after exchanging a few emails yesterday with a local race photographer. She's always looking for photographers to help out, and I have the right equipment, and think I could be pretty decent at it. And earn a little extra money as well... I thought about my job, and my to-do list, and my frustrations over my own procrastination; it's like a deep hole that I just keep digging myself into, and I want to change that. I did math in my head (which, for the record, is one of the best ways I've found to distract myself if I need to do so while running). "I've done this many miles in this much time, that's a pace of this many minutes per mile or this many miles per hour..." That type of mental math. I often try to calculate my pace to the correct second, or my speed to the correct decimal place. It's more for the distraction than as an actual gauge of how my run is going.

Anyway. It was a good run. Afterwards, I didn't feel as guilty about watching TiVoed stuff and surfing the web for the rest of the night.

Wednesday, March 02, 2005

running to stand still

As has been our on-and-off Tuesday routine for more than a year now, I went running last night with Buzz. Gavin has been joining us lately as he tries to get back in shape. He's a natural runner, though, and now that he finally bought running shoes (which -- duh -- fixed the leg problems he was having running in cross-trainers), I think he will soon decide that I am far too slow for him.

We ran two big laps and one little lap, totalling probably 6.6-6.7 miles in all, in just over 1:16. It was a bit depressing to go so slowly after my great 10K on Saturday. I'd never experienced post-race sluggishness until last night! My legs were so incredibly heavy, and stayed that way for the first 5 miles. I didn't feel like I was running; it felt like I was merely slapping my feet against the ground in an effort to keep from stopping completely. Only at the very end of our run did they start to loosen up, and I felt better then.

A quick summary of last night's American Idol: I still think most of the girls are boring and out of tune. The guys are far better.

We had a Yuri's Night meeting last night. I am woefully behind on organizational stuff for the 5K, and I really need to catch up this week. However, at the least, I finally got registration open, so if you are in the Houston area and are interested in running a 5K on April 9, sign up!

Saturday, February 26, 2005

go speed racer

Isn't it funny how an event can turn out the total opposite of what you expected?

I headed downtown this morning for the Rodeo Run 10K, which I've done three years in a row now. I was alone, since Rich bailed on me (he's feeling sick). It was drizzling. It was cold. I almost stayed home, but figured I should at least drive downtown, after all, the weather can be totally different there since it's 20 miles away.

It wasn't. It was still rainy. It was still chilly. I'd left Clear Lake a bit late and then had to stop for gas and then I parked near the finish at Minute Maid Park and didn't realize how far away that was from the start line. As a result, I ended up having to jog at least half a mile to even make it to the start line in time. I quickly threw my sweatshirt in a bag, picked up my chip, and no sooner than had I jumped into the crowd, the horn sounded to start the race. I waved to Roger Clemens, who was the honorary starter, as I crossed under the banner.

Whew. After the hectic half hour leading up to it, I was finally doing the race. The jog to the start line had warmed me up so I wasn't cold, but it was still drizzly and generally yucky out. I was not enthused and not expecting to run a good race at all.

I was slightly surprised when I passed the first mile in 10:00 flat, not because I'd gone that fast (I have a bad tendency to start too fast) but because I still felt perfectly fine. Usually when I start too fast, I can tell by the first mile marker that I'll feel it later. But not today.

"Hmm," I thought. "Well, I'll just keep going." I walked through a water station and then passed mile 2 at 20:30, observing that I'd started to slow down, as expected. Did I mention I'm horrible at judging my pace?

The race leader passed me on his way back into town right before I hit mile 3, and I crossed the 5K mark in 31:30. Great so far, and I still felt decent, but I knew I had another 5K to go and I didn't see how I could possibly keep up the pace, especially since I knew I'd have to climb the incline of the Elysian viaduct again on the return leg. It's a slight hill, but still a hill, and come on -- I haven't finished a 10K in less than 1:05 since, well, my 1:03:12 personal record in the Rodeo Run last year.

After the water station at ~3.25 miles, I fell in behind a group of 4 runners. I thought they were running a pretty good pace, so I listened to their conversation for a while and hit mile 4 in 40:30. Whoa -- that was a fast 4th mile! I'd sped up. I started thinking that maybe I could keep up the pace till the end.

The 5th mile was hardest, and I fell behind the 4 runners I'd been following. I passed mile 5 in 51:30 for an 11-minute mile. "Ah, now that's more like me," I thought, but was a little irked that I'd slowed after such a great first 4 miles. I decided to push myself through the final 1.2 miles and see what happened.

I focused on Minute Maid Park, and passed mile 6 in 1:01:25. It wasn't until this point that I was sure that I had a chance to turn the rain and cold into a really good day for me. I held strong, turned the corner, and sprinted the last 100 meters to the finish line, crossing in...

1:03:10!

A new 10K personal record! Only by 2 seconds (my previous was 1:03:12) but still! A new PR! I'm very excited. This is just the thing I need to get me back in the saddle, and motivated again after being a (relative) slacker since the marathon. And it all happened on a nasty, cold, confusing, uninspiring day.

Monday, February 07, 2005

oh you drive me crazy / oh you just bring me down

I had a nice weekend -- half quiet, half busy.

I ran a local race on Saturday morning, the Galloway Gallop in Kemah. It didn't go as well as planned. I had signed up for the 10K, but an odd combination of starting too fast and being exhausted from not getting enough sleep lately got to me, and I stopped after one lap. (The 10K was simply two laps of the 5K course.) The race started well enough, but as I ran through mile 1 in under 10 minutes, I knew I'd started too fast and might pay for it. By mile 2, I was feeling incredibly sluggish; I felt like I wasn't even getting my feet off the ground, despite the fact that I still covered the mile in a good time, and hit the mile 2 marker at just over 20 minutes. By about the 2.5-mile point, I'd decided to cut my run from a 10K to a 5K and just go to the finish line instead of turning to begin another lap. I was disappointed, so I did push myself hard over the last bit to finish the 5K in a respectable 31:33. But for the rest of the day, I was mad that I hadn't done the 10. Grrr.

I did absolutely nothing for the rest of the day, and before I knew it, I was on my way to the Houston Auto Show on Sunday with Melanie, Jason, and Debbie. I'd never been to a car show before, and -- slightly surprisingly -- it was fun. I'd expected more really fancy expensive cars, and while there were some, it was mostly all the car makers just showing off their latest models. I checked out the 2005 Xterra, which has been redesigned, and actually found that I like my 2004 version better. They've changed the interior a lot, and I don't like it as much. We also checked out all the sports cars, of course. Everything was very, very shiny. I wonder how many coats of wax you have to put on cars to make them that shiny.

After the car show it was time for the Super Bowl, of course, which I watched at Matt and Stephanie's place. I didn't really care who won, and so I was glad that it was a close game, which kept it entertaining. There were some good commercials, as usual (loved the Volvo/Virgin Galactic one with the rocket, the one with the "don't judge too quickly" slogan and the guy with the knife, cat, and tomato sauce, and the one with the Diet Pepsi trucks). And after the "fiasco" of last year's halftime show, I really enjoyed Paul McCartney. I wasn't offended last year, in fact I thought everyone made way too big a deal out of it. But I also thought it was really nice to return to a more "normal" halftime performance. I would much rather see Paul McCartney sing multiple songs, songs that everybody knows and are fun to sing along with, than listen to 4 or 5 of the latest one-hit wonders sing a 2-minute montage of their "greatest hits."

So bravo, Super Bowl Halftime Show.

Saturday, March 06, 2004

creepy crawler

We ran the Bayou City Classic 10K this morning and it was awesome! Buzz and I were aliens, with Gavin, Ron, Jess and Mitzi as the NASA scientists chasing us. We finished in about 1:08:00, were the third centipede across the line, and won a prize for being the loudest centipede! The prize? A plaque, with a foot-long plastic gross-looking centipede on top of it. Awesome. :)

Here we are before the race:

And here we are afterward with our prize:

I'll post a few more pictures later.

Thursday, August 07, 2003

all my bags are packed / i'm ready to go

Last night I went over to the workout room to run on the treadmill (it's still too damn hot to run outdoors). I had just hopped on to the treadmill and was starting it up when a woman walked in and got on the other treadmill next to me. We chatted for a while, and watched the end of the Yankees-Rangers game. She got off, did a few weights, and started to leave.

That's when it happened. It finally happened!

She looked back at me as she was walking out and said "Have a nice evening...I wish I were in half as good shape as you!" Oh man, that made me feel so good. I've always been the out-of-shape, unfit one. It was so cool to have someone express the opinion that I am in pretty good shape. I mean, my friends have told me this, but it somehow means more coming from a complete stranger. Not that my friends' opinions don't matter, just that it sounds better coming from someone who has no vested interest in making you happy.

Anyway. Even though I still have a long way to go before I'm running marathons or climbing mountains, her off-handed comment totally made my night.

I'm off to Atlanta today for the James and Chrissy wedding weekend extravaganza. I'll be there until Sunday night, when I fly from Atlanta straight to Austin. I'll be in Austin with Becca for Monday and Tuesday attending the AIAA Atmospheric Flight Mechanics Conference and presenting our DPS Jettison Design paper. I'll be back in Houston next Wednesday around lunchtime.

So those are the plans, and now... the wild blue yonder awaits.