Tuesday, August 31, 2010

august 2010

week in review (8/23 - 8/29)
total miles: 39.15 (40 planned)
time spent running: ~ 6 hrs 28 mins
avg hr: 165.20
avg pace: 9:42/mile
off days: 2

for the record, saturday's 17-miler put me at just shy of 40-miles and i didn't know it until later. i was not going to go out for a .85mile run on sunday just to round it up and i did not really need to push the mileage seeing as how i ran 29 miles last week and 15 miles the week before that. i'm already pushing the 10% rule.

i did, however, get out for a short bike ride on sunday with josh. i got a flat around mile 2.5 and my tire was finicky and didn't want to be repaired, but it cooperated eventually. i wore my recently-purchased pair of cycling shorts which just felt like a big cushion-y diaper. seriously that pad thingamajigger could not be any bigger.

sunday (8/29) bike ride: 10.70 miles, 44:45 (~14.2mph), avg hr 156, hot and sunny

overall, august was a slight improvement from july, but then again it didn't take much. i thought i'd done better with consistency but i guess i'll have to work a little harder in september.

august 2010
total mileage: 88.65
time spent running: 14:10:24
days off: 15 (a week less than july? guess that's semi-improvement)
abs/yoga: 10 ab workouts/1 yoga session
avg resting hr: dunno
avg max hr: 190.58
avg temp: 80.18*

august 2009
total mileage: 200.92 (aug '08 i ran ~145mi)
time spent running: 29:09:50
days off: 8
avg resting hr: 50.60
avg max hr: 176.57

oh how i've slipped and slided in a year...

Monday, August 30, 2010

bright ideas

sometimes i get these brilliant ideas that seem fun, until it's actually time to do them. like once i talked my best friend into getting up at 2am to drive to the beach to watch the sunrise*, or the few times i talked her into running a marathon without sufficiently training, or most recently - this past friday afternoon when we decided to meet up with her bootcamp class at 4am on saturday morning for a long run. her bootcamp class that meets a good 30-40 minutes away from my house...

good morning to me!

needless to say when i went to bed around 12:30 and woke up at 3, i wasn't quite thinking that this idea was that fun anymore. i made it to the meetup spot and we were off on the run. about two miles in i needed a pit stop, the only thing open at that hour is waffle house... yeah. we overheard some cops discuss setting up a perimeter and scoping out a place before they took off with their siren wailing (we're assuming a drug bust of sorts).

about a mile after the waffle house stop, we regrouped and played touch football (this was a bootcamp class after all). it was 4:45am and dark, so that was interesting. no one got whacked in the face with the ball but we did all leave with wet socks and shoes, which is always good when you still have 13 miles or so to go. we ran by a bar that was still open (most bars here close at 2am) and drunkards were stumbling out, pointing their keys in the air to find their car. why yes, we'd love to run on the road with you behind the wheel. we had a stop for snacks/water at a (manmade) waterfall, and didn't follow the directions properly around mile 13 so we ran our own route back to tack on some extra miles.

quick stop for bananas, oranges and grapes
my brain wasn't operating well enough at 3am to remember to grab gu's

in the end, a long, slow 17-miles done. slower than i would have liked, but the last time i ran double digits was 5/29 (12 miles), a solid three months ago, i'm sure i haven't lost any stamina since then right?

saturday (8/28) am run: 17 miles (2:56:12), avg pace (10:21), avg/max hr (149/173)
there were two walk breaks in there; at least i got my "easy" heart rate back under control

7/17: 8 miles
8/22: 8.15 miles
8/28: 17 miles

this is totally normal long-run progression, right?

*the sunrise trip (2007)

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

how to get a six-pack

forget endless situps, hours of cardio, and watching what i eat - this is so much easier!

Monday, August 23, 2010

grounded

week in review (8/16 - 8/22)
total miles: 28.89 (33 planned)
time spent running: ~ 4 hrs 26 mins
avg hr: 171, aka through the roof
avg pace: 9:06/mile
off days: 1! victory.

the michelin 5k went pretty well on saturday. i've lost a lot of speed, but hopefully it'll come back... it was warm (low 80's) and humid. i was a solid 2 minutes off (slower than) my pr, but surprisingly i had consistent splits. i caught up to a kid as tall as my hip and we sprinted in to the finish. we passed all the adults in the last .1-mile and he was pushing hard; i didn't have the heart to beat him at the last second.

there were over 800 people in the race - i finished 10th female overall and 1st female for my company (it was a "corporate shield" event). too bad they don't give out raises for this. josh pr'd by about a minute, i guess he just needed a rabbit to chase. :o)

saturday (8/21) michelin 5k: 23:02 (avg pace 7:25), avg/max hr (185/209)
for some perspective/grounding - i've run a half-marathon at faster pace than that, haha. i have a long way to go.

with fresno a short 11-weeks away, i need to get a lot of time on my legs. i haven't ran longer than an hour in over a month though, so i have a bit of building to do there as well. on sunday i got a late start on my long run, and the heat (+ my out-of-shapeness) cut the run a little shorter than planned. about halfway through the run i *finally* hit 1,000 miles for the year, only 6-weeks behind last year.

sunday (8/22) am run: 8.15 miles, 1:17:30 (avg pace 9:30), 80*/79% humid

Sunday, August 22, 2010

cookie monster


i did really well with counting my calories for two days, and then friday josh and i made these awful, awful banana-oatmeal-chocolate-chip-cookies (thanks to some inspiration from jess). they were so awful they only lasted until saturday. i know, my self-control is out of this world. i think i would have still liked them even if they were just banana-oatmeal cookies.

later on saturday i went home for my sister's birthday and my mom had homemade ice cream. hello, you can't turn that down. you just can't.

needless to say i blimped right back up...

plastic surgery courtesy of fatbooth

Friday, August 20, 2010

committed

unlike all you crazy racing addicts (ahem aron and marlene!), i've run in a whopping three races this year. three! i wasn't even remotely near my a-game for any of them either.

it's time to pull my head out of the sand and (wo)man up. i've been very slack at running races for months now because a) i don't want to register in advance and wind up injured/unable to run and b) i end up not-training because i'm not signed up for anything and don't want to race because i know i won't do well (oh the dilemma i put myself in). needless to say i'm working on teaching myself that racing doesn't always have to be "racing"; i need to let it be fun too. well, i also ought to get back to training regularly...

i usually suck at putting together a prospective race calendar because it's tough to find races around here, except in the fall. good thing fall is around the corner:

  • 8/21 - some dude's memorial 5k - this race will probably be worse than my high school cross country times; i did practically take all of july off remember. it's only a $5 piece of humble pie though. (registered)
  • 9/3 - midnight flight 1mile, 5k and 10k - i'm going for the trifecta, three races in one night. presumably by then i will have been running consistently for a month...(registered)
  • 9/24 - bmw 2-mile - well, this one i may wuss out on. last time i ran it i placed 3rd overall. i don't know if my ego can handle that blow.
  • 10/9 - a local half-marathon - mostly because there are never half marathons within an hour's drive, but also because in theory i will have some long runs in my legs again and could use this as a speedy training run.
  • 11/7 - fresno 50k - you know, that bright idea i had after running boston+derby... (registered)
  • 12/11 - charlotte marathon - all my other 2010 goals may be shot but dangit i will run three marathons this year.
  • 1/7 - ragnar relay florida keys!!! hello, why wouldn't you run this one. miami to key west, in january. yes please. (registered)
i feel like i'm on intervention. first my diet is whipped into shape and then i put together a plan for 9 races of various lengths. granted most of these races are being run "for fun"/training as i am well aware i'm not in pr shape. saturday's 5k is gonna be interesting, to say the least...

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

calories schmalories

sometimes being in denial is just plain easier. this morning i stepped on the scale and caused an earthquake over near the philippines. i know i've been all "i need to get back on track" for an eternity now, and today's weigh-in was more than enough of a wakeup call. hello ten pounds, it is sooo nice to see you again. i certainly can't hide behind denial anymore.

like glenn, i use "lose it" on my iphone to track my calories in/out. by "use" i mean sporadically of course, but this is going to change. today i successfully tracked each and every morsel that crossed my lips, and even utilized restraint when i was "hungry". per the lose it app and my stats, i'm allotted 1600 net calories/day and unfortunately that number is not hard to rack up. no wonder i gained weight - i'm sure i was eating at least twice that much most days. i know i'm married and all now, but i do not need to let myself go that much...

on the running front - things are slightly better. i've been off the 'scripts for two days and *so far so good*. i'm still not sweating normally, but that's the least of my concerns compared to everything else. hopefully things won't relapse and i can continue running.

sunday i surprised myself with a little progression run. granted, this "speed" used to be my easy pace, but that's just how it is. i need to rebuild.

sunday (8/15) am run: 3.40 miles, 29:26 (avg pace 8:39), avg/max hr (173/197), 75*/96% humidity
[8:57, 8:41, 8:15]

today i went "long". boy do i have a long way to go in the stamina department. five-miles are not supposed to be so hard!

wednesday (8/18) pm run: 5.06 miles (i'm counting every inch), 47:41 (avg pace 9:25), avg/max hr (165/188), 82*/80% humidity

Sunday, August 15, 2010

moonin' my honey: tahitian run

we awoke thursday to a slightly overcast day. we lounged around until lunch, walked over to tupuna pizza for a tahitian pizza, only 1500xpfs (~$17US). i learned the word “maururu” (thank you, pronounced mau-ru-ru) from the pizza guy. josh called me a dork for learning "hello" and "thank you". more bungalow-lounging after lunch, laid out on the deck, had afternoon coffee, and went for a run around 4pm. i have no idea what the temp was, i’d guess low 80’s? but it was breezy and not-humid (and i didn't sweat back then either, while josh was dripping).

Friday, August 13, 2010

trouble in my zones

i recently bought jillian michaels' "no more trouble zones" dvd because i needed to spend a few more bucks at drugstore.com to qualify for free shipping. logical, i know.

when the package arrived, i popped the dvd in and noticed "recommendations" on the menu, before the workouts. hmm, recommendations? what could that be... oh just a warning for newbies: "beginners, complete as many circuits as you can and build up to doing the entire workout".

psssssssssssssssssssh, i thought. these warnings for beginners are always lame. how hard can this be? who can't do a 40-minute dvd? i'm only using 5lb weights.

warm-up: no biggie. some marching in place and jumping jacks.
the circuits: ohh. emm. gee.

each circuit is 2 sets of 5 moves; nothing complicated or requiring much coordination (as even i can do them).

halfway through the first circuit jillian said "ok now remember, this is only our first circuit so you should be feeling fresh right now".

fresh?!!? fresh??!?! i don't think so. at this point i was already taking slower reps, pausing, and feeling like i might throw up. i didn't even finish the stupid dvd! i only made it 5 of 7 circuits before collapsing on my mat, gasping for air. pathetic. forget about the doms, this workout gave me ioms.

apparently you can get reallllly out of shape in one measly month, fyi.

thanks, jillian, for handing my ass to me. i still can't walk two days later.

(while this workout was tough for me and my out-of-shape self, i still did not sweat. and no, the a/c was not cranked up.)

Thursday, August 12, 2010

square one

after those gruesome 23 days off in july, i decided i needed another 8 9 days off for good measure (i promise, it wasn't complete laziness, my health had a bigger say in the matter).

on tuesday, after 32 days off (with 3 whopping days of running sprinkled in there), i finally made it out for a run. i now know how people on "biggest loser" feel when they first start working out; i even had the urge to puke a few times (but didn't).

tuesday (8/10) pm run: 3.21 miles, 30:55 (avg pace 9:39), avg/max hr (174/193), 88*/81% humid
you'd think i did a speed workout based on my hr stats. my tested-max is 203-ish! i should point out that while it was 88 degrees and 81% humid, i did not break a sweat. yeah that's normal right? supposedly my inability to sweat is not life-threatening, but from what i've read on anhidrosis i'm not so sure. i thought this was going to be my starting block for getting back in a routine, but we'll have to wait and see.

i know i am partly only able to run because i'm medicated, but i may as well run this week since these are only 10-day 'scripts (and duh, of course i hope that one day -sooner rather than later- i will be able to run/live life normally again). my 19,473 doctors and i are investigating my messed up, out of control immune system.

which speaking of, i'm soon going to hit my deductible (and i'm on the "catastrophic" plan, so it's a nice, high deductible). soon all my medical junk will be free for the rest of the year! anyone know if health insurance covers liposuction?

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Sunday, August 8, 2010

moonin' my honey: paradise

i'm (still) waiting on our pro pics to come in so i can include some in the wedding recap. since i'm (still) not running, we'll just skip ahead to the honeymoon pics for now.

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

practice makes perfect

[i feel kind of weird recapping my wedding/honeymoon memories like a race report, but i know i will want to re-read about these days in the future. plus, most of you want pictures for some reason.]

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

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