Ok, I'd like to write a full blog on my experience, but until I can get around to that, this will have to suffice: my photo album of the weekend!!
For those keeping track, I ran the marathon in 6:08:22.
Friday, October 12, 2007
Friday, October 5, 2007
getting closer...
So, only 2 more nights until the portland marathon. My mom is on an airplane on her way here already, she arrives at 3pm. We'll be going to the marathon expo today to pick up our packets, including our numbers and timing chips. This is all getting to be SO REAL all of a sudden.
Val, my running partner, has been sick all week. She was diagnosed with strep on monday and started on antibiotics. That night she got really ill, and while trying to throw up in her bathroom passed out on the floor where her housemates later found her.
Yesterday she went back to the doc who prescribed different antibiotics, since she still wasn't feeling better... so there is a real chance that she won't be feeling good enough to attempt the marathon on Sunday... which sucks for both of us really. I was looking forward to running with her.
I'm still not sure what the weather is planning on doing for the marathon. It right now looks like it's going to be crappy, wet, and cold. oh goody. First portland marathon in 30 years without sunshine. figures.
Me? I've been in a weird place I think. For the past 2 weeks I've been sorta hiding at home. I don't want to face the marathon. Well, 2 weeks ago I didn't even want to run it. That's changing now thankfully. The training schedule has this week as "do nothing" literally (which is why I haven't had anything to blog about recently, I skipped the 8 mile run on Saturday like Coach Joe advised), we should be well-rested and kinda antsy by Sunday... ready to run. My body is feeling good, my foot doesn't hurt anymore (besides the mild plantar fasciitis that is still there), I definitely have been getting a good amount of sleep.
And, the thing I was looking forward to the most this week? the eating? I'm not enjoying it like I hoped I would. I just eat and eat, and it's more a chore than anything else. I'm out of food at home AGAIN already. I've been drinking alot of water, juice and tea recently, eating alot of bananas, buttered toast, and eating spaghetti for nearly every meal, except when I'm more in the mood for soup. I'm trying to eat well, stay hydrated, and take my supplements (calcium & magnesium). Honestly tho, it's weeks like this one where I wish I had a housewife to help me eat well... it's so much work to feed myself this much food! ugh.
Anyway, I think having my mom in town will help focus me for race day. I've been avoiding thinking about it at all. Today I think I need to sort out what I'll be wearing on sunday.
That's everything from nervous runner chick for now...
Val, my running partner, has been sick all week. She was diagnosed with strep on monday and started on antibiotics. That night she got really ill, and while trying to throw up in her bathroom passed out on the floor where her housemates later found her.
Yesterday she went back to the doc who prescribed different antibiotics, since she still wasn't feeling better... so there is a real chance that she won't be feeling good enough to attempt the marathon on Sunday... which sucks for both of us really. I was looking forward to running with her.
I'm still not sure what the weather is planning on doing for the marathon. It right now looks like it's going to be crappy, wet, and cold. oh goody. First portland marathon in 30 years without sunshine. figures.
Me? I've been in a weird place I think. For the past 2 weeks I've been sorta hiding at home. I don't want to face the marathon. Well, 2 weeks ago I didn't even want to run it. That's changing now thankfully. The training schedule has this week as "do nothing" literally (which is why I haven't had anything to blog about recently, I skipped the 8 mile run on Saturday like Coach Joe advised), we should be well-rested and kinda antsy by Sunday... ready to run. My body is feeling good, my foot doesn't hurt anymore (besides the mild plantar fasciitis that is still there), I definitely have been getting a good amount of sleep.
And, the thing I was looking forward to the most this week? the eating? I'm not enjoying it like I hoped I would. I just eat and eat, and it's more a chore than anything else. I'm out of food at home AGAIN already. I've been drinking alot of water, juice and tea recently, eating alot of bananas, buttered toast, and eating spaghetti for nearly every meal, except when I'm more in the mood for soup. I'm trying to eat well, stay hydrated, and take my supplements (calcium & magnesium). Honestly tho, it's weeks like this one where I wish I had a housewife to help me eat well... it's so much work to feed myself this much food! ugh.
Anyway, I think having my mom in town will help focus me for race day. I've been avoiding thinking about it at all. Today I think I need to sort out what I'll be wearing on sunday.
That's everything from nervous runner chick for now...
Friday, September 28, 2007
send-off party
Total Distance So Far: 300.0 miles
Tuesday this week, we had the "send-off" party for the Portland Marathon by the TNT group. It was a potluck where we picked up our race-day jerseys, tickets to the spaghetti feed before the marathon, and victory party tickets for after the marathon. Coach Joe went over a number of things here... around what to expect of race day.
Some of the items of interest he discussed:
* go to the marathon expo and peruse (where we'll be picking up our official marathon packets, numbers, and timing chips). You can find cheap layering-clothes there for like $5 that would be good to wear before, or atleast at the beginning of the race while you're still cold. It's a long wait before the race begins, just standing around. The idea is to shed these clothes either at the beginning, or at the first aid station. The Portland Marathon will be collecting discarded clothes and donating it all to a non-profit charity like goodwill or something, so it won't end up in a landfill.
* it was suggested to wake up 2 hours early and get a good breakfast in you on race day. A good 4 hours atleast before you step off.
* on the week leading up to event day, try to get more sleep and drink more water than normal. Pretty much no one can sleep well on the night-before the marathon, so if you have a lot of sleep prior to that, you should still be in good shape. And, preparing your body for good-race-day hydration starts several days prior. Your body will already be "storing" most of the water it'll want to use on race day, and you will only absorb a small amount from the stuff you drink during the race. Better to have stored-up water.
* at the finish line, resist the urge to look at your watch as you cross it. There is a professional photographer there waiting to capture your photo, and it's amazing the number of these photos are ruined because the runner is looking down checking his or her time, and you can't see their face. Keep your head up, enjoy crossing the finish line, and strike an inspirational pose for the camera!
* After the marathon, DO NOT CURL UP INTO A BALL AND GO TO SLEEP. The previous marathon runners were stressing this. It is very important to stay awake and stay active afterwards. Your muscles will hurt a lot less if you force yourself to stay semi-mobile doing things. They said your legs will hurt twice as much if you skip the victory party and just sleep after the race.
That was pretty much most of the advice I walked away with. The potluck was fabulous. I stuffed myself silly. Oh, and Coach Joe asked me about my foot. I told him about the trouble I had on the 12 mile run... and he suggested I skip the 8 miler this weekend. He said better to be healed than anything else. Oh! Really? Skip the 8 miler? huh. I'm still mulling over this option. I feel like I need to stay active... but I'm also (I'll admit) getting a little burned out from training, and I'm ready for the marathon to be over.
I went swimming on Wednesday.
I started out with a more solid plan of what I was going to do, but then I got bored most of the way through the workout, and stopped swimming seriously... and was just playing around on a lap (doing a flip mid-pool) when my calf cramped up on me violently. It took everything I had to straighten my leg out mid-lap, and will my muscles to relax enough to allow me to get to the side. I vowed to drink more water and eat more bananas after that happened prior to the race. I need my muscles to work!!!
Anyway, I think this was my workout... I stopped keeping track after a while...
Warm-up: 400m breaststroke
Laps:
* 100m kickboard (flutter kick)
* 100m wait-for-it
* 250m breaststroke
* 100m crawl
* 300m breaststroke
Total: 1250 meters
Tuesday this week, we had the "send-off" party for the Portland Marathon by the TNT group. It was a potluck where we picked up our race-day jerseys, tickets to the spaghetti feed before the marathon, and victory party tickets for after the marathon. Coach Joe went over a number of things here... around what to expect of race day.
Some of the items of interest he discussed:
* go to the marathon expo and peruse (where we'll be picking up our official marathon packets, numbers, and timing chips). You can find cheap layering-clothes there for like $5 that would be good to wear before, or atleast at the beginning of the race while you're still cold. It's a long wait before the race begins, just standing around. The idea is to shed these clothes either at the beginning, or at the first aid station. The Portland Marathon will be collecting discarded clothes and donating it all to a non-profit charity like goodwill or something, so it won't end up in a landfill.
* it was suggested to wake up 2 hours early and get a good breakfast in you on race day. A good 4 hours atleast before you step off.
* on the week leading up to event day, try to get more sleep and drink more water than normal. Pretty much no one can sleep well on the night-before the marathon, so if you have a lot of sleep prior to that, you should still be in good shape. And, preparing your body for good-race-day hydration starts several days prior. Your body will already be "storing" most of the water it'll want to use on race day, and you will only absorb a small amount from the stuff you drink during the race. Better to have stored-up water.
* at the finish line, resist the urge to look at your watch as you cross it. There is a professional photographer there waiting to capture your photo, and it's amazing the number of these photos are ruined because the runner is looking down checking his or her time, and you can't see their face. Keep your head up, enjoy crossing the finish line, and strike an inspirational pose for the camera!
* After the marathon, DO NOT CURL UP INTO A BALL AND GO TO SLEEP. The previous marathon runners were stressing this. It is very important to stay awake and stay active afterwards. Your muscles will hurt a lot less if you force yourself to stay semi-mobile doing things. They said your legs will hurt twice as much if you skip the victory party and just sleep after the race.
That was pretty much most of the advice I walked away with. The potluck was fabulous. I stuffed myself silly. Oh, and Coach Joe asked me about my foot. I told him about the trouble I had on the 12 mile run... and he suggested I skip the 8 miler this weekend. He said better to be healed than anything else. Oh! Really? Skip the 8 miler? huh. I'm still mulling over this option. I feel like I need to stay active... but I'm also (I'll admit) getting a little burned out from training, and I'm ready for the marathon to be over.
I went swimming on Wednesday.
I started out with a more solid plan of what I was going to do, but then I got bored most of the way through the workout, and stopped swimming seriously... and was just playing around on a lap (doing a flip mid-pool) when my calf cramped up on me violently. It took everything I had to straighten my leg out mid-lap, and will my muscles to relax enough to allow me to get to the side. I vowed to drink more water and eat more bananas after that happened prior to the race. I need my muscles to work!!!
Anyway, I think this was my workout... I stopped keeping track after a while...
Warm-up: 400m breaststroke
Laps:
* 100m kickboard (flutter kick)
* 100m wait-for-it
* 250m breaststroke
* 100m crawl
* 300m breaststroke
Total: 1250 meters
Monday, September 24, 2007
swimming tonight
Total Distance So Far: 298.0 miles
Went lap swimming tonight only for about 35 minutes or so. I pushed myself a little, but didn't swim for very long. Just really got my heart rate up for a little bit.
Here is what I was up to:
* 300m breaststroke
* 6 x 50m crawl
* 300m kickboard (flutter kick)
* 100m paddles
* 100m breaststroke
Total distance: 1100 meters
Went lap swimming tonight only for about 35 minutes or so. I pushed myself a little, but didn't swim for very long. Just really got my heart rate up for a little bit.
Here is what I was up to:
* 300m breaststroke
* 6 x 50m crawl
* 300m kickboard (flutter kick)
* 100m paddles
* 100m breaststroke
Total distance: 1100 meters
my foot hurts
Total Distance So Far: 296.0 miles
Group run again on Saturday. We're tapering now, so the distance was supposed to be 12 miles for the Portland Marathon group. My foot has been sore since the 20 miler. Worse initially, but slowly getting less painful. Still, I was feeling it Saturday morning before we stepped off for the run.
This pain is not where my plantar fasciitis is located, but rather along the left side of my left foot (not on the bottom of my foot). Sometimes it feels like a cramp, sometimes it feels like sore ligaments or something, sometimes it hurts like my foot has a hairline fracture... but I do know: it doesn't hurt when I'm not moving my foot or standing on it, and it doesn't hurt when I swim.
On Saturday morning, I decided to just try running on it; See if the pain went away as it warmed up. It kinda sorta started feeling better after 1 mile. But then at around 3 miles it cramped up on me so that I had to walk for a while. Once that sensation went away, I tried running again. Val accompanied me as I ran/walk past the halfway point (where it painfully cramped up on me again). Finally I decided what I was experiencing was lame, and I should stop. Luckily I was able to get the message (via bicycle) to Karl, who came to get me in his car. That was sweet. I called it a day at 7.5 miles.
When I first told Karl I was having trouble with my foot (around 4 miles) he seemed to indicate that I should tough it out. When he rescued me at 7.5 miles he apologized and said the better advice was to avoid injurring yourself further. We are tapering right now, which means the purpose of the next couple of weeks is to recover from that 20 mile run, and heal, and be ready on Oct 7 to face 26.2 miles.
Hopefully I didn't hurt myself too bad. My foot still hurts, but I'd like to imagine it hurts less every day. I'll go lap swimming tonight, and probably also on Wednesday and Thursday evenings this week. Keep my activity level up and my impact on my foot down.
MARATHON IS IN LESS THAN 2 WEEKS!!!! AHHH!
Group run again on Saturday. We're tapering now, so the distance was supposed to be 12 miles for the Portland Marathon group. My foot has been sore since the 20 miler. Worse initially, but slowly getting less painful. Still, I was feeling it Saturday morning before we stepped off for the run.
This pain is not where my plantar fasciitis is located, but rather along the left side of my left foot (not on the bottom of my foot). Sometimes it feels like a cramp, sometimes it feels like sore ligaments or something, sometimes it hurts like my foot has a hairline fracture... but I do know: it doesn't hurt when I'm not moving my foot or standing on it, and it doesn't hurt when I swim.
On Saturday morning, I decided to just try running on it; See if the pain went away as it warmed up. It kinda sorta started feeling better after 1 mile. But then at around 3 miles it cramped up on me so that I had to walk for a while. Once that sensation went away, I tried running again. Val accompanied me as I ran/walk past the halfway point (where it painfully cramped up on me again). Finally I decided what I was experiencing was lame, and I should stop. Luckily I was able to get the message (via bicycle) to Karl, who came to get me in his car. That was sweet. I called it a day at 7.5 miles.
When I first told Karl I was having trouble with my foot (around 4 miles) he seemed to indicate that I should tough it out. When he rescued me at 7.5 miles he apologized and said the better advice was to avoid injurring yourself further. We are tapering right now, which means the purpose of the next couple of weeks is to recover from that 20 mile run, and heal, and be ready on Oct 7 to face 26.2 miles.
Hopefully I didn't hurt myself too bad. My foot still hurts, but I'd like to imagine it hurts less every day. I'll go lap swimming tonight, and probably also on Wednesday and Thursday evenings this week. Keep my activity level up and my impact on my foot down.
MARATHON IS IN LESS THAN 2 WEEKS!!!! AHHH!
Friday, September 21, 2007
another dip
Total Distance So Far: 288.5 miles
Since I ran really far on Tuesday, and I have our next group run on Saturday, I was only going to exercise one other time mid-week... and that was last night. I opted for lap swimming again. I've been achy since Tuesday's run (duh), so I thought the swim would feel really good, and I was right!
Here was the workout...
Warm-up: 300m kickboard (flutter kick)
Laps:
* 300m breaststroke
* 150m wait-for-it
* 300m breaststroke
* 100m paddles
* 300m breaststroke
* 150m crawl
* 300m breaststroke
Cool-down: 300m kickboard (flutter kick)
Total: 2200m in an hour.
The outside of my left foot is still very sore today, and still makes it hard to walk. I'm really hoping it heals quickly so I can run the 12 miles tomorrow....
Since I ran really far on Tuesday, and I have our next group run on Saturday, I was only going to exercise one other time mid-week... and that was last night. I opted for lap swimming again. I've been achy since Tuesday's run (duh), so I thought the swim would feel really good, and I was right!
Here was the workout...
Warm-up: 300m kickboard (flutter kick)
Laps:
* 300m breaststroke
* 150m wait-for-it
* 300m breaststroke
* 100m paddles
* 300m breaststroke
* 150m crawl
* 300m breaststroke
Cool-down: 300m kickboard (flutter kick)
Total: 2200m in an hour.
The outside of my left foot is still very sore today, and still makes it hard to walk. I'm really hoping it heals quickly so I can run the 12 miles tomorrow....
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
20 mile attempt 2
Total Distance So Far: 283.5 miles
Since I had to get my 20 mile run in by Wednesday if at all, Coach Joe had told me to try again on Tuesday. I was admittedly nervous about this: a solo run, a very long distance solo run. No aid stations, no running partners.
In preparation I used mapmyrun.com and came up with 3 loops that started and ended at my house that added up to 20 miles. I got my coworker/friend Paul to agree to come get me if I needed help, and he had the courses I was planning on running, and the approx times I thought I would be done with each. The weather forecast was cold and wet. I wasn't looking forward to that aspect, but I was prepared for it.
Tuesday morning, bright and early, I layered on the clothes: 1 pair of Hind running capris, my TNT training jersey covered by a long sleeve exercise top, my windwall vest covering this for heat retention, and ontop of everything else my motorcycling reflective vest so motorists can see me better.
I had all my gear: cap on my noggin, ipod, Garmin on my wrist, slathered on sunscreen (just incase), snacks in my pocket, cellphone & $20 bill in my arm wallet for emergencies, and my waterbottle in my hand. I was ready.
I set out just as the sun was rising.
My first out and back was a 9.07 mile (total) route north of my house. I was attempting to run the Discovery Trail, an area I'd never been to before. I had found an access point onto the trail that was less than 2 miles from my house, so that's what I was headed for. To get there I had to pass a Hospital, cross over I-5 into a nice residential area, and then cross a busy commuting intersection that was controlled by stop signs (that makes it easier for a runner, let me tell you!). Once past that intersection it was a half block onto the Discovery Trail in Leverich Park. Wow, what a neat route!
Leverich Park is a nice rolling green space with a creek running through it (burnt bridge creek). It had picnic tables, picnic shelters, a beautiful rock-masonry BBQ pit, big open grassy areas, large old trees covering it, and I swear I saw a baseball field up on a hill. It is a pretty and well-maintained park! The Discovery Trail just skirted along the park on the north side. Here is a link to the PDF trail map of the Discovery Trail section that I ran.
Once you go over I-5 on the dedicated pedestrian bridge, you cross into a pretty greenway area, and it's easy to forget you're in the middle of the city!
According to the blurb on the trail map, "This shared-use hard surface trail offers excellent opportunites for walking, biking, jogging, commuting, and viewing the Burnt Bridge Creek Greenway. It meanders east along the creek through thick forests and grass bottomlands, and crosses over two bridges to end at Hazel Dell Ave."
It was simply a lovely run, even at 7am. As I approached NW Fruit Valley Rd I passed about half a dozen dog walkers. Even tho I could see my breath fogging in front of me, I was really happy on this part of my run. Also, fall was in the air, and there were some newly fallen leaves covering the trail in parts. That really added to the charm of this place. Oh, I should mention that I got lost. I missed the trail on NW Hazel Dell Ave (it's up the street maybe a quarter mile from where you find yourself on the street), so I kept going... up this big ol' hill probably an additional quarter mile before it occurred to me that the elevation chart from mapmyrun.com didn't include a spike in elevation at this point in the run. I must have missed the trail somewhere at the bottom of the steep hill! I turned around and backtracked down the hill till I found the innocuous unmarked trail. Ugh.
On the way back to my house I found the Evergreen Chapter of Habitat for Humanity. It was in a humble little brick house. This really isn't relevant to anything, I just thought I'd mention it.
I found myself back at my house at about 9am. With the extra 1/2 mile "mistake" I made I had gone about 9.5 miles at this point.
I refilled my water bottle, took off my reflective vest, shoved some gummy bears in my mouth, and headed back out on the next stage of the journey.
This route was an easy 5.65 mile out and back to Vancouver's Waterfront Park on the Columbia River where I ran a stretch of the Waterfront Renaissance Trail.
According to the Parks & Recreation website blurb on this trail, "This 14-foot-wide, shared-use concrete trail is the crowning jewel of Vancouver's Columbia River Waterfront Renaissance, connecting the downtown area to the city's long-neglected shoreline. The trail follows the Columbia River, passing Vancouver Landing, the Captain Vancouver Monument and the plaza dedicated to Ilchee, a Native Indian chief's daughter."
The river was a little breezy, so I was glad I had my vest on. There were also a good deal more walkers on this stretch of my run. On the way out to the river I stopped at the Washington Department of Licensing to use the government building bathrooms. I also stopped to stretch a bit and enjoy some gummy bears at the turn around point on the riverside. On the way back to my house (a slight but constant uphill) my legs were starting to feel the burn (passing the 14 mile point I think). I also ALMOST witnessed a car accident when a silver SUV, altho stopped at a stop sign, thought it was a good idea to try to go directly in front of a red sports car who didn't have a stop sign. Both cars screeched to a halt (as I crossed the street quietly behind the silver SUV) and the two female drivers glared at each other for a moment before the red car moved on and the silver SUV finally was able to cross that intersection.
Around this part of my run I was noticing the SUN trying to break through the heavy cloud cover! GASP! Note, at this point I hadn't felt one raindrop. This is a good thing. I was getting a little hot by the time I got back to my house.
Back home, my legs were really feeling the run. My right calf was trying to cramp up on me so I took a longer stretch break, refilled my water bottle, changed into shorts and a shirt (and the windwall vest), and was ready for the last leg of my journey (even tho I'll admit I was tempted by the lure of just... staying home at this point, hee!).
The last route was a 5 mile loop that wandered past Clark College, Hudson Bay Highschool, Officer's Row (next to Fort Vancouver), up Columbia St to Carter Park, and then back to my house.
I was just dragging myself at this point. I think I was TRYING to go at a 13 minute mile pace, but sometimes I just slowed down to 15-16 minute miles on occasion. My foot that the shot was in was starting to ache on the side, but luckily my knees were both holding up pretty well.
I slogged past the newly renovated Marshall Community Center and Leupke Senior Center. There were construction crews installing the sprinkler system, and newly dusted green stuff on the dirt that will eventually become a lush community center lawn. I noticed a lot of the people I passed gave me a smile as they witnessed me creep past them.
Then I passed Clark College. It's hard to miss the college as it's well labelled.
Across the street from Clark College is Hudson Bay High School. I remember attending a few colorguard events here over a decade ago. It looks pretty much the same now from the street as then. School was in session, but even tho it was around 11am, there were a number of students just arriving to school in cars. I even got cat-called by some students pulling into the parking lot as I dragged myself down the street! I found this amusing considering I most likely was in high school the year they were born.
Finally, I looped around to head back to the downtown area, through Officer's Row.
Again, according to the Parks & Recreation website, "Located just north of Ft. Vancouver National Historic Site. Walk in the footsteps of presidents & generals along this tree-line land of 21 stately turn-of-the-century homes built for officers at Vancouver Barracks. It is the only entire row of officer's preserved historic homes in the nation."
Well, I slogged instead of walked. But I also enjoyed the trees and green lawns. This stretch home was probably the most challenging for me. I had to convince myself to keep going, and noticed when I took walking breaks for the pain, the pain continued. Thus, I might as well keep pushing myself to run as fast as I could manage. There really was no relief from the feeling of having gone this far, the kindest thing I could do for myself was not make it drag on longer than it had to. I DID notice here though that I broke my 18 mile time by about 10 minutes. So, I was doing fairly well all in all.
The last little detour before home on this route was a pass by my neighborhood park, Carter Park.
A slightly less bombastic blurb on the Parks & Recreation website, "This small, 0.7-acre park serves the residents of the Carter Neighborhood with facilities that include play equipment, benches, and picnic tables."
From here it's 1/2 mile to my house. It was good to be home.
Originally I planned a 4th excursion on a small 4 block loop to finish up the 20 miles, but with the mistaken 1/4 mile hill climb, and then the inevitable 1/4 mile descent looking for the trail I missed, I was satisfied that I had gone 20 miles total.
I ended my run with my Garmin showing 4:18:53 as my time. That comes out to 12:57 minute miles. I wouldn't have been able to manage that without the stretching breaks tho, so my time doesn't include any amount of time I wasn't progressing along the course. All in all it looks like it took me nearly 5 hours to run my 20 miles, but none of it was in the rain.
Today, I'm sore. But hey! I think 20 miles are SUPPOSED to hurt. I think it's a law.
A good run. An amazing effort. It's all tapering from here until event day!
Since I had to get my 20 mile run in by Wednesday if at all, Coach Joe had told me to try again on Tuesday. I was admittedly nervous about this: a solo run, a very long distance solo run. No aid stations, no running partners.
In preparation I used mapmyrun.com and came up with 3 loops that started and ended at my house that added up to 20 miles. I got my coworker/friend Paul to agree to come get me if I needed help, and he had the courses I was planning on running, and the approx times I thought I would be done with each. The weather forecast was cold and wet. I wasn't looking forward to that aspect, but I was prepared for it.
Tuesday morning, bright and early, I layered on the clothes: 1 pair of Hind running capris, my TNT training jersey covered by a long sleeve exercise top, my windwall vest covering this for heat retention, and ontop of everything else my motorcycling reflective vest so motorists can see me better.
I had all my gear: cap on my noggin, ipod, Garmin on my wrist, slathered on sunscreen (just incase), snacks in my pocket, cellphone & $20 bill in my arm wallet for emergencies, and my waterbottle in my hand. I was ready.
I set out just as the sun was rising.
My first out and back was a 9.07 mile (total) route north of my house. I was attempting to run the Discovery Trail, an area I'd never been to before. I had found an access point onto the trail that was less than 2 miles from my house, so that's what I was headed for. To get there I had to pass a Hospital, cross over I-5 into a nice residential area, and then cross a busy commuting intersection that was controlled by stop signs (that makes it easier for a runner, let me tell you!). Once past that intersection it was a half block onto the Discovery Trail in Leverich Park. Wow, what a neat route!
Leverich Park is a nice rolling green space with a creek running through it (burnt bridge creek). It had picnic tables, picnic shelters, a beautiful rock-masonry BBQ pit, big open grassy areas, large old trees covering it, and I swear I saw a baseball field up on a hill. It is a pretty and well-maintained park! The Discovery Trail just skirted along the park on the north side. Here is a link to the PDF trail map of the Discovery Trail section that I ran.
Once you go over I-5 on the dedicated pedestrian bridge, you cross into a pretty greenway area, and it's easy to forget you're in the middle of the city!
According to the blurb on the trail map, "This shared-use hard surface trail offers excellent opportunites for walking, biking, jogging, commuting, and viewing the Burnt Bridge Creek Greenway. It meanders east along the creek through thick forests and grass bottomlands, and crosses over two bridges to end at Hazel Dell Ave."
It was simply a lovely run, even at 7am. As I approached NW Fruit Valley Rd I passed about half a dozen dog walkers. Even tho I could see my breath fogging in front of me, I was really happy on this part of my run. Also, fall was in the air, and there were some newly fallen leaves covering the trail in parts. That really added to the charm of this place. Oh, I should mention that I got lost. I missed the trail on NW Hazel Dell Ave (it's up the street maybe a quarter mile from where you find yourself on the street), so I kept going... up this big ol' hill probably an additional quarter mile before it occurred to me that the elevation chart from mapmyrun.com didn't include a spike in elevation at this point in the run. I must have missed the trail somewhere at the bottom of the steep hill! I turned around and backtracked down the hill till I found the innocuous unmarked trail. Ugh.
On the way back to my house I found the Evergreen Chapter of Habitat for Humanity. It was in a humble little brick house. This really isn't relevant to anything, I just thought I'd mention it.
I found myself back at my house at about 9am. With the extra 1/2 mile "mistake" I made I had gone about 9.5 miles at this point.
I refilled my water bottle, took off my reflective vest, shoved some gummy bears in my mouth, and headed back out on the next stage of the journey.
This route was an easy 5.65 mile out and back to Vancouver's Waterfront Park on the Columbia River where I ran a stretch of the Waterfront Renaissance Trail.
According to the Parks & Recreation website blurb on this trail, "This 14-foot-wide, shared-use concrete trail is the crowning jewel of Vancouver's Columbia River Waterfront Renaissance, connecting the downtown area to the city's long-neglected shoreline. The trail follows the Columbia River, passing Vancouver Landing, the Captain Vancouver Monument and the plaza dedicated to Ilchee, a Native Indian chief's daughter."
The river was a little breezy, so I was glad I had my vest on. There were also a good deal more walkers on this stretch of my run. On the way out to the river I stopped at the Washington Department of Licensing to use the government building bathrooms. I also stopped to stretch a bit and enjoy some gummy bears at the turn around point on the riverside. On the way back to my house (a slight but constant uphill) my legs were starting to feel the burn (passing the 14 mile point I think). I also ALMOST witnessed a car accident when a silver SUV, altho stopped at a stop sign, thought it was a good idea to try to go directly in front of a red sports car who didn't have a stop sign. Both cars screeched to a halt (as I crossed the street quietly behind the silver SUV) and the two female drivers glared at each other for a moment before the red car moved on and the silver SUV finally was able to cross that intersection.
Around this part of my run I was noticing the SUN trying to break through the heavy cloud cover! GASP! Note, at this point I hadn't felt one raindrop. This is a good thing. I was getting a little hot by the time I got back to my house.
Back home, my legs were really feeling the run. My right calf was trying to cramp up on me so I took a longer stretch break, refilled my water bottle, changed into shorts and a shirt (and the windwall vest), and was ready for the last leg of my journey (even tho I'll admit I was tempted by the lure of just... staying home at this point, hee!).
The last route was a 5 mile loop that wandered past Clark College, Hudson Bay Highschool, Officer's Row (next to Fort Vancouver), up Columbia St to Carter Park, and then back to my house.
I was just dragging myself at this point. I think I was TRYING to go at a 13 minute mile pace, but sometimes I just slowed down to 15-16 minute miles on occasion. My foot that the shot was in was starting to ache on the side, but luckily my knees were both holding up pretty well.
I slogged past the newly renovated Marshall Community Center and Leupke Senior Center. There were construction crews installing the sprinkler system, and newly dusted green stuff on the dirt that will eventually become a lush community center lawn. I noticed a lot of the people I passed gave me a smile as they witnessed me creep past them.
Then I passed Clark College. It's hard to miss the college as it's well labelled.
Across the street from Clark College is Hudson Bay High School. I remember attending a few colorguard events here over a decade ago. It looks pretty much the same now from the street as then. School was in session, but even tho it was around 11am, there were a number of students just arriving to school in cars. I even got cat-called by some students pulling into the parking lot as I dragged myself down the street! I found this amusing considering I most likely was in high school the year they were born.
Finally, I looped around to head back to the downtown area, through Officer's Row.
Again, according to the Parks & Recreation website, "Located just north of Ft. Vancouver National Historic Site. Walk in the footsteps of presidents & generals along this tree-line land of 21 stately turn-of-the-century homes built for officers at Vancouver Barracks. It is the only entire row of officer's preserved historic homes in the nation."
Well, I slogged instead of walked. But I also enjoyed the trees and green lawns. This stretch home was probably the most challenging for me. I had to convince myself to keep going, and noticed when I took walking breaks for the pain, the pain continued. Thus, I might as well keep pushing myself to run as fast as I could manage. There really was no relief from the feeling of having gone this far, the kindest thing I could do for myself was not make it drag on longer than it had to. I DID notice here though that I broke my 18 mile time by about 10 minutes. So, I was doing fairly well all in all.
The last little detour before home on this route was a pass by my neighborhood park, Carter Park.
A slightly less bombastic blurb on the Parks & Recreation website, "This small, 0.7-acre park serves the residents of the Carter Neighborhood with facilities that include play equipment, benches, and picnic tables."
From here it's 1/2 mile to my house. It was good to be home.
Originally I planned a 4th excursion on a small 4 block loop to finish up the 20 miles, but with the mistaken 1/4 mile hill climb, and then the inevitable 1/4 mile descent looking for the trail I missed, I was satisfied that I had gone 20 miles total.
I ended my run with my Garmin showing 4:18:53 as my time. That comes out to 12:57 minute miles. I wouldn't have been able to manage that without the stretching breaks tho, so my time doesn't include any amount of time I wasn't progressing along the course. All in all it looks like it took me nearly 5 hours to run my 20 miles, but none of it was in the rain.
Today, I'm sore. But hey! I think 20 miles are SUPPOSED to hurt. I think it's a law.
A good run. An amazing effort. It's all tapering from here until event day!
Monday, September 17, 2007
20 mile attempt 1
Total Distance So Far: 263.6 miles
Woke up bright and early on Saturday morning to attempt our one and only 20 mile run. We were going to do it on part of the actual Portland Marathon course too, which was exciting.
Val and I stepped off. Val asked how my foot felt. I told her I wanted to wait a bit before commenting on it. About a mile in tho, I said, yeah. This is nice being able to run for once without constant pain in my foot. REALLY nice. I guess I spoke too soon.
At 2.25 miles I started experiencing little stabbing pains in my heel right about where I had the shot. I stopped running. I encouraged Val to continue with the others instead of running alone (she offered to walk with me back to the start, but that didn't make any sense, plus I was SO CLOSE to the start so it was no big deal to walk it), and I took myself out of the run for the day.
On the 1.7 mile walk back to the start I had 2 more more acute stabbing pain experiences that passed after a couple seconds. The coaches all said I made the right decision to not continue running.
See, my doctor didn't want me running on Saturday. He said it was too soon, and 20 miles was too much. He was adamant, and I told him I'd play it by ear. The coaches just before the run told me that I should really pay attention to how my foot felt for the beginning of the run in particular. So all in all, they were all right. I think my foot wasn't done recovering from the shot just yet.
Once I had taken myself out of the run, I had some breakfast and coffee, then went home and had a little nap, then got up and put my dog in the car, and went back to the meeting point at around 11:30am to pick up Val. She came in all smiles, she had a very strong run. I'm proud of her!
Coach Joe wants me to attempt the 20 miles again on Tuesday morning by myself. I was considering 5 laps on a 4-mile loop from my house, but he suggested doing something a touch more interesting than that so the run is more fun (and not miserable). He also told me Wednesday was the latest I should attempt the 20 miler... any later than that and I'd be hurting my chances for running the marathon successfully. Also, Karl and Joe both told me that since I was able to run the 18 mile run, I SHOULD be ok for the marathon even without this last group run.
Nonetheless, I'd LOVE to have a 20 miler under my belt before attempting 26.2.
So since things went the way they did on Saturday, I went lap swimming on Sunday afternoon.
Same workout as last time:
Warm-up: 300m kickboard (flutter kick)
Workout:
* 300m breaststroke
* 100m wait-for-it
* 300m breaststroke
* 100m paddles
* 300m breaststroke
* 150m crawl
Cool-down: 300m kickboard (flutter kick)
Total: 1850m
After this I was playing around with mapmyrun.com trying to figure out a good course to run on Tuesday morning. I think I have a good candidate. I'll be running with a waterbottle in hand (because no aid stations) and a cell phone in my pocket. My friend Paul knows the routes I intend to run and in what order, so if I get into trouble I'll call him for a pick-up.
Unfortunately, it also looks like it's going to be cold and raining tomorrow morning.
poo.
Woke up bright and early on Saturday morning to attempt our one and only 20 mile run. We were going to do it on part of the actual Portland Marathon course too, which was exciting.
Val and I stepped off. Val asked how my foot felt. I told her I wanted to wait a bit before commenting on it. About a mile in tho, I said, yeah. This is nice being able to run for once without constant pain in my foot. REALLY nice. I guess I spoke too soon.
At 2.25 miles I started experiencing little stabbing pains in my heel right about where I had the shot. I stopped running. I encouraged Val to continue with the others instead of running alone (she offered to walk with me back to the start, but that didn't make any sense, plus I was SO CLOSE to the start so it was no big deal to walk it), and I took myself out of the run for the day.
On the 1.7 mile walk back to the start I had 2 more more acute stabbing pain experiences that passed after a couple seconds. The coaches all said I made the right decision to not continue running.
See, my doctor didn't want me running on Saturday. He said it was too soon, and 20 miles was too much. He was adamant, and I told him I'd play it by ear. The coaches just before the run told me that I should really pay attention to how my foot felt for the beginning of the run in particular. So all in all, they were all right. I think my foot wasn't done recovering from the shot just yet.
Once I had taken myself out of the run, I had some breakfast and coffee, then went home and had a little nap, then got up and put my dog in the car, and went back to the meeting point at around 11:30am to pick up Val. She came in all smiles, she had a very strong run. I'm proud of her!
Coach Joe wants me to attempt the 20 miles again on Tuesday morning by myself. I was considering 5 laps on a 4-mile loop from my house, but he suggested doing something a touch more interesting than that so the run is more fun (and not miserable). He also told me Wednesday was the latest I should attempt the 20 miler... any later than that and I'd be hurting my chances for running the marathon successfully. Also, Karl and Joe both told me that since I was able to run the 18 mile run, I SHOULD be ok for the marathon even without this last group run.
Nonetheless, I'd LOVE to have a 20 miler under my belt before attempting 26.2.
So since things went the way they did on Saturday, I went lap swimming on Sunday afternoon.
Same workout as last time:
Warm-up: 300m kickboard (flutter kick)
Workout:
* 300m breaststroke
* 100m wait-for-it
* 300m breaststroke
* 100m paddles
* 300m breaststroke
* 150m crawl
Cool-down: 300m kickboard (flutter kick)
Total: 1850m
After this I was playing around with mapmyrun.com trying to figure out a good course to run on Tuesday morning. I think I have a good candidate. I'll be running with a waterbottle in hand (because no aid stations) and a cell phone in my pocket. My friend Paul knows the routes I intend to run and in what order, so if I get into trouble I'll call him for a pick-up.
Unfortunately, it also looks like it's going to be cold and raining tomorrow morning.
poo.
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
an apple a day...
So, some of you know, I've been dealing with a bout of plantar fasciitis since I began training for the Portland Marathon back at the beginning of summer.
I've tried all sorts of things to make it better, but I decided today to finally take that last drastic measure: I went to the doctor to get a corticosteroid injection.
hehehe, and yes, I photo-documented it. Because I could.
Here is my foot all prepped for the procedure:
Ok, this looks pretty blah and doesn't really tell you much, does it? I took some time to fill in some information so that you have a little more context as to what you are viewing.
There. Does that make more sense now? I whipped out my camera while I was sitting on the exam room table with my foot covered in iodine or whatever (prepped by nurse), waiting for the doctor to come in and give me the injection. There was a mirror on the far side of the room, so I thought I'd capture a little self-portrait while I was at it.
There, on the counter on the other side of the room was the needle the nurse had prepared...
What too small to make heads or tails out of that picture? Ok, I've put together another situational primer to help you see better what you should be noticing.
See, after this the doctor came in and stuck the pointy end into the evil plantar fasciitis bit.
Yeah. It did kinda hurt initially, but since there was a numbing agent mixed in with the corticosteroids, I quickly stopped feeling anything. I was surprised to notice that the doctor had the needle in to my heel almost 2 inches. I only really felt the first inch of it I think.
Sorry, didn't mean to get so graphic. No worries, I didn't photograph the shot.
Anyway, I was surprised it hurt less than I was anticipating. After the shot, the doc cleaned my foot with an alcohol wipe, and then put on the band-aid.
Ta da!
So that was my morning, how was your's?
I've tried all sorts of things to make it better, but I decided today to finally take that last drastic measure: I went to the doctor to get a corticosteroid injection.
hehehe, and yes, I photo-documented it. Because I could.
Here is my foot all prepped for the procedure:
Ok, this looks pretty blah and doesn't really tell you much, does it? I took some time to fill in some information so that you have a little more context as to what you are viewing.
There. Does that make more sense now? I whipped out my camera while I was sitting on the exam room table with my foot covered in iodine or whatever (prepped by nurse), waiting for the doctor to come in and give me the injection. There was a mirror on the far side of the room, so I thought I'd capture a little self-portrait while I was at it.
There, on the counter on the other side of the room was the needle the nurse had prepared...
What too small to make heads or tails out of that picture? Ok, I've put together another situational primer to help you see better what you should be noticing.
See, after this the doctor came in and stuck the pointy end into the evil plantar fasciitis bit.
Yeah. It did kinda hurt initially, but since there was a numbing agent mixed in with the corticosteroids, I quickly stopped feeling anything. I was surprised to notice that the doctor had the needle in to my heel almost 2 inches. I only really felt the first inch of it I think.
Sorry, didn't mean to get so graphic. No worries, I didn't photograph the shot.
Anyway, I was surprised it hurt less than I was anticipating. After the shot, the doc cleaned my foot with an alcohol wipe, and then put on the band-aid.
Ta da!
So that was my morning, how was your's?
Monday, September 10, 2007
swim swim swim swim swim
Total Distance So Far: 256.3 miles
Swimming again. I wasn't sure if I was going to make it actually, when I got home from work I found myself napping on my couch. Luckily the cheap lap session is from 8-9:30pm at night. The price went up starting today tho, a crushing $0.25. Heh, so now it's $2.25 to go swimming there on week nights. Still the cheapest deal in the greater Portland area I believe, and this pool is luckily only 2 minutes drive from my house (timed it today driving home).
Today, unlike last week, I got into the zone. Maybe it was that there were less people in the pool, or the lights were dimmer today, or the mustachioed lifeguard or something... but I was able to just swim, and swim. No worries. This is the way lap swimming should be.
My workout today...
Warm-up: 300m kickboard (flutter kick)
Laps:
* 300m breast stroke
* 100m wait-for-it
* 300m breast stroke
* 100m paddles
* 300m breast stroke
* 150m crawl
Cool-down: 300m kickboard (flutter kick)
Total: 1850m in about an hour... possibly a little less.
A good workout. I'm glad I got off the couch to go swimming tonight.
Swimming again. I wasn't sure if I was going to make it actually, when I got home from work I found myself napping on my couch. Luckily the cheap lap session is from 8-9:30pm at night. The price went up starting today tho, a crushing $0.25. Heh, so now it's $2.25 to go swimming there on week nights. Still the cheapest deal in the greater Portland area I believe, and this pool is luckily only 2 minutes drive from my house (timed it today driving home).
Today, unlike last week, I got into the zone. Maybe it was that there were less people in the pool, or the lights were dimmer today, or the mustachioed lifeguard or something... but I was able to just swim, and swim. No worries. This is the way lap swimming should be.
My workout today...
Warm-up: 300m kickboard (flutter kick)
Laps:
* 300m breast stroke
* 100m wait-for-it
* 300m breast stroke
* 100m paddles
* 300m breast stroke
* 150m crawl
Cool-down: 300m kickboard (flutter kick)
Total: 1850m in about an hour... possibly a little less.
A good workout. I'm glad I got off the couch to go swimming tonight.
smile for the camera!
Total Distance So Far: 251.3 miles
Once again, I took the week off from further training last week following my swim. I was saving my energy for the group run on Saturday. I was pretty sure the group run would go well, but at the same time I was nervous because I hadn't had 3 successful group runs on consecutive weekends since we were running less than 6 miles! This run was a milestone for me, even if it is a distance I've gone twice before and exceeded once.
Our run on Saturday started at OMSI, went over the Steele Bridge and up into NW Portland, or more specifically, up Thurston all the way to Leif Erickson Drive in Forest Park... and then ran 2 miles into Forest Park. Then we simply turned around and went back the way we came.
5 miles to the gate at Leif Erickson Drive, 4 miles in Forest Park, 5 miles back to OMSI = another 14 miler.
Val wanted to attempt to run this 14 miler nonstop, so we gave it a good go. I personally felt like we had a really strong run, but our time came out to... oh 3 hours almost on the dot. Which means we did about the same as the last two 14 mile runs! However, I have to keep in mind that this run went up Thurston.... which is a serious hill. Infact it's probably a bigger hill than anything we'll be seeing on the marathon course, truth be told. The fact that my knee held out for this run was brilliant.
Also, I should mention, to make sure we were being smart, Val and I walked down the steep bits. Our knees just weren't going to be able to cushion our descent if we tried it any faster.
Oh yes, and as an added bonus, I brought my camera along... just to see what it was like to run with it in my hand. Turned out, it wasn't really inconvenient at all. I totally didn't mind carrying it with me! So, for once... I have pictures of this run!!!
Not many mind you, we were just goofing around with the camera cause I had it.
Here is coach Joe addressing the runners before the run (it was really cold at that point in the morning... approx 7am). I believe he was talking on the topic of what to expect from the marathon course, how the aid stations are setup, and more on the fact that food isn't really going to be provided at the aid stations like we had grown accustomed to in our TNT training.
Not being fed is a serious subject.
Oh, also it's about time I've shown you who Val is! Here is an action shot of her running next to me.
Ok ok, here are some better pictures of us... one including Coach Joe even!
Once we were down the Thurston hill and heading back to OMSI, I had to stop for a bit to adjust my ace bandage wrap on my knee... it had been slipping a touch, and I was having trouble getting it back on in the right place with the right amount of constriction.
Here you can see me struggling with it, and then posing for a pic. Val was trying to get a different pic earlier, but then the bandage decided to hold me tight around my ankle and not let go, so I'm actually wrestling the thing in the first photo...
Whew! Isn't it nice when inanimate objects don't outsmart you?
So yeah, only a couple photos, but maybe you'll feel more like you've been on the run with us now!
Once again, I took the week off from further training last week following my swim. I was saving my energy for the group run on Saturday. I was pretty sure the group run would go well, but at the same time I was nervous because I hadn't had 3 successful group runs on consecutive weekends since we were running less than 6 miles! This run was a milestone for me, even if it is a distance I've gone twice before and exceeded once.
Our run on Saturday started at OMSI, went over the Steele Bridge and up into NW Portland, or more specifically, up Thurston all the way to Leif Erickson Drive in Forest Park... and then ran 2 miles into Forest Park. Then we simply turned around and went back the way we came.
5 miles to the gate at Leif Erickson Drive, 4 miles in Forest Park, 5 miles back to OMSI = another 14 miler.
Val wanted to attempt to run this 14 miler nonstop, so we gave it a good go. I personally felt like we had a really strong run, but our time came out to... oh 3 hours almost on the dot. Which means we did about the same as the last two 14 mile runs! However, I have to keep in mind that this run went up Thurston.... which is a serious hill. Infact it's probably a bigger hill than anything we'll be seeing on the marathon course, truth be told. The fact that my knee held out for this run was brilliant.
Also, I should mention, to make sure we were being smart, Val and I walked down the steep bits. Our knees just weren't going to be able to cushion our descent if we tried it any faster.
Oh yes, and as an added bonus, I brought my camera along... just to see what it was like to run with it in my hand. Turned out, it wasn't really inconvenient at all. I totally didn't mind carrying it with me! So, for once... I have pictures of this run!!!
Not many mind you, we were just goofing around with the camera cause I had it.
Here is coach Joe addressing the runners before the run (it was really cold at that point in the morning... approx 7am). I believe he was talking on the topic of what to expect from the marathon course, how the aid stations are setup, and more on the fact that food isn't really going to be provided at the aid stations like we had grown accustomed to in our TNT training.
Not being fed is a serious subject.
Oh, also it's about time I've shown you who Val is! Here is an action shot of her running next to me.
Ok ok, here are some better pictures of us... one including Coach Joe even!
Once we were down the Thurston hill and heading back to OMSI, I had to stop for a bit to adjust my ace bandage wrap on my knee... it had been slipping a touch, and I was having trouble getting it back on in the right place with the right amount of constriction.
Here you can see me struggling with it, and then posing for a pic. Val was trying to get a different pic earlier, but then the bandage decided to hold me tight around my ankle and not let go, so I'm actually wrestling the thing in the first photo...
Whew! Isn't it nice when inanimate objects don't outsmart you?
So yeah, only a couple photos, but maybe you'll feel more like you've been on the run with us now!
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
more swimming
Total Distance So Far: 237.3 miles
Eh, I was in the water for 45 minutes, so I'll just add 4 miles to my "running total." I decided to try out a new pool today, the one near my house that offers $2 lap swimming from 8-9:30pm. A good deal!
I'm between soccer sessions right now, so I didn't have anything else going on tonight. Also I opted to not swim last night cause my stomach wasn't feeling too great. I blame the leftover sushi I deemed suitable for dinner.
So, tonight I was in this pool:
It was alright. There were kids playing at one end, other lap swimmers present (impressive for being kinda late at night), and the pool was certainly clean and well lit, and most certainly near my house (less than 5 minutes away by car). It just didn't have to same energy as the other pool did tho. I'm not sure how to describe it... I think I was painfully aware of the laps I was swimming tonight, where in the other pool I've been going to, I kinda lost myself in the pool and just was swimming.
I tend to not like it when I'm aware of the exercise I'm getting. That's why I like soccer. Oh well... I think my body is benefiting from the swimming sessions (or more specifically my bad foot and knee), so I'll keep it up anyway, even if I do find it tedious. Only what? 5 more weeks to go?
Yes... about 4.5 weeks until event day! Oof... this is kinda getting real, isn't it?
Eh, I was in the water for 45 minutes, so I'll just add 4 miles to my "running total." I decided to try out a new pool today, the one near my house that offers $2 lap swimming from 8-9:30pm. A good deal!
I'm between soccer sessions right now, so I didn't have anything else going on tonight. Also I opted to not swim last night cause my stomach wasn't feeling too great. I blame the leftover sushi I deemed suitable for dinner.
So, tonight I was in this pool:
It was alright. There were kids playing at one end, other lap swimmers present (impressive for being kinda late at night), and the pool was certainly clean and well lit, and most certainly near my house (less than 5 minutes away by car). It just didn't have to same energy as the other pool did tho. I'm not sure how to describe it... I think I was painfully aware of the laps I was swimming tonight, where in the other pool I've been going to, I kinda lost myself in the pool and just was swimming.
I tend to not like it when I'm aware of the exercise I'm getting. That's why I like soccer. Oh well... I think my body is benefiting from the swimming sessions (or more specifically my bad foot and knee), so I'll keep it up anyway, even if I do find it tedious. Only what? 5 more weeks to go?
Yes... about 4.5 weeks until event day! Oof... this is kinda getting real, isn't it?
Saturday, September 1, 2007
lovely lake oswego
Total Distance So Far: 233.8 miles
Can you believe it? I've finally succeeded at 2 long group runs on 2 consecutive weekends!!! It's the first time since before my knee started locking up!! This makes me optimistic for event day. Maybe everything I've been doing for the knee/foot issues I've been having is paying off!!
Today's run was out in Lake Oswego. As an added treat, my mom is in town for the weekend, and she is training to walk the Portland Marathon, and I was able to bring her to the TNT group run to walk with the walkers. She was really nervous about the prospect of walking with people who have been training (up till now she's been training on her own out in Eastern Washington, and she had no idea how she was doing compared to how she should be doing). Everyone agreed though, my mom is looking strong. She was averaging faster than a 15 minute mile pace, and she went 20 miles today!!! I think she'll do great on event day.
It was kinda cold when we all convened. Coach Joe was giving us a pep talk about the end of the training, and what to expect as the sun rose behind him in George Rogers Park. What a pretty park, situated pleasantly on the Willamette River just off downtown Lake Oswego.
After the review of the route (the short-hand directions that they gave the runners were very cryptic and difficult to parse), we set off. The first bit was an out and back south of the park along the Willamette River, a 4 mile length. Very pretty! Val and I were practicing the 8 minute run and then a 1 minute walk for this first bit. We continued to take regular walk breaks throughout the rest of our run too, but not as often as during this first bit.
The second bit was through a residential area around the lake (Lake Oswego itself... you know all this time it never occurred to me that the town Lake Oswego was situated on a Lake named Oswego... but it makes alot of sense). This loop (with some additional little loops to up the mileage somewhat) was supposed to be 9 miles back to the park. However, the directions, as I mentioned before, were hard to follow. Several times Val and I questioned where we were supposed to go next, and whether we were hopelessly lost or not. For the most part we were actually correctly on the route, but there was one right turn onto A Street that wasn't marked as a turn. Infact the directions said "straight", so we crossed A Street and went straight. We were on 10th Street at this time... and as we got further in (B Street and 10th, C Street and 10th, etc) I started questioning our decision to go straight so I asked some guy working on his front yard whether we were indeed headed to State Street like we were supposed to be. He said nope. Infact we were going the exact wrong way. oh. He gave us directions back to A Street, insisting that we go his way instead of back track the way we came, so we followed his directions and approached A Street from several blocks further away from State Street than where we were before when we missed the turn... all in all when we got back on the route, according to my Garmin, it was about a 1 mile detour... so our loop around the Lake took Val and I 10 miles... and also allowed a good amount of the faster walkers to pass us. Oof.
While running along A Street toward State Street tho, we came across a large SUV stalled halfway onto the street. There were 2 large guys trying to push it, altho it didn't seem like they were getting anywhere, and a woman behind the wheel turning it in whatever direction the guys told her to. Val and I took one look at eachother, and got infront of the car on the outsides of the guys and helped push. It was mostly uphill, and that SUV was big, so it took a good amount of effort. Finally tho we got the vehicle into the parking lot over the highest bit, and the rest of the parking lot looked downhill or flat, so Val and I decided to continue on our way and leave them to finish taking care of their stalled car. We had about 5 and 1/2 or 6 miles left to go at this point.
The last bit was an out and back along the same course (but supposedly 1/2 mile further up) to round out the last 5 miles... but since Val and I had gained 1 mile through a missed turn, we repeated the first out and back of 4 miles to round out our run.
I was starting to experience noticeably aching knees and feet with about 6 miles left to go in our run... which is about the same distance from the end that my knees and feet started aching last week... so I was able to get 4 miles further this week before my joints started complaining! That was an interesting revelation. They ached so much tho that I was having trouble continuing running, and Val decided to walk with me everytime I declared that I needed yet another walk break. On the final out and back, we walked nearly all of the 2 miles out. At the turn around point I encouraged Val to go ahead and run back if she wanted to, so she took off (mind you, when we turned around I found my mom marching up the hill about 50 feet behind us!). Before she left me, Val encouraged me to try running if the mood struck me, and then took off at a good clip down the hill.
I walked for a little while, and then decided I was bored and wanted the 18 miles over, so I was going to try running again, and took off down the hill after Val, altho I could no longer see her. And, I actually managed to run the entire way back to George Rogers Park at about an 11:30 minute mile! Granted it was mostly downhill, but still it felt good to know I had that in me, even with sore knees and feet.
According to Carl, who was hanging out at the aid station in the parking lot, I was only about 6 minutes behind Val too. She apparently put nearly everything she had left into that 2 mile run back to the parking lot. She hauled butt! heh.
By the time we were done, the sun was high, it was approaching 1pm, and the day CLEARLY was a hot one. My knees were having trouble bending once I stopped running, and Coach Joe urged me to ice them. I am.... right now actually. But hey! I made it! It was a really pretty route too, with beautiful neighborhoods, great water views, challenging hills, and even functioning water fountains along the run! What a charming run today!
My stats from this run:
DISTANCE: 18 miles TIME: 4:04:20 PACE: 13:34 minute miles
Pretty sweet!
Can you believe it? I've finally succeeded at 2 long group runs on 2 consecutive weekends!!! It's the first time since before my knee started locking up!! This makes me optimistic for event day. Maybe everything I've been doing for the knee/foot issues I've been having is paying off!!
Today's run was out in Lake Oswego. As an added treat, my mom is in town for the weekend, and she is training to walk the Portland Marathon, and I was able to bring her to the TNT group run to walk with the walkers. She was really nervous about the prospect of walking with people who have been training (up till now she's been training on her own out in Eastern Washington, and she had no idea how she was doing compared to how she should be doing). Everyone agreed though, my mom is looking strong. She was averaging faster than a 15 minute mile pace, and she went 20 miles today!!! I think she'll do great on event day.
It was kinda cold when we all convened. Coach Joe was giving us a pep talk about the end of the training, and what to expect as the sun rose behind him in George Rogers Park. What a pretty park, situated pleasantly on the Willamette River just off downtown Lake Oswego.
After the review of the route (the short-hand directions that they gave the runners were very cryptic and difficult to parse), we set off. The first bit was an out and back south of the park along the Willamette River, a 4 mile length. Very pretty! Val and I were practicing the 8 minute run and then a 1 minute walk for this first bit. We continued to take regular walk breaks throughout the rest of our run too, but not as often as during this first bit.
The second bit was through a residential area around the lake (Lake Oswego itself... you know all this time it never occurred to me that the town Lake Oswego was situated on a Lake named Oswego... but it makes alot of sense). This loop (with some additional little loops to up the mileage somewhat) was supposed to be 9 miles back to the park. However, the directions, as I mentioned before, were hard to follow. Several times Val and I questioned where we were supposed to go next, and whether we were hopelessly lost or not. For the most part we were actually correctly on the route, but there was one right turn onto A Street that wasn't marked as a turn. Infact the directions said "straight", so we crossed A Street and went straight. We were on 10th Street at this time... and as we got further in (B Street and 10th, C Street and 10th, etc) I started questioning our decision to go straight so I asked some guy working on his front yard whether we were indeed headed to State Street like we were supposed to be. He said nope. Infact we were going the exact wrong way. oh. He gave us directions back to A Street, insisting that we go his way instead of back track the way we came, so we followed his directions and approached A Street from several blocks further away from State Street than where we were before when we missed the turn... all in all when we got back on the route, according to my Garmin, it was about a 1 mile detour... so our loop around the Lake took Val and I 10 miles... and also allowed a good amount of the faster walkers to pass us. Oof.
While running along A Street toward State Street tho, we came across a large SUV stalled halfway onto the street. There were 2 large guys trying to push it, altho it didn't seem like they were getting anywhere, and a woman behind the wheel turning it in whatever direction the guys told her to. Val and I took one look at eachother, and got infront of the car on the outsides of the guys and helped push. It was mostly uphill, and that SUV was big, so it took a good amount of effort. Finally tho we got the vehicle into the parking lot over the highest bit, and the rest of the parking lot looked downhill or flat, so Val and I decided to continue on our way and leave them to finish taking care of their stalled car. We had about 5 and 1/2 or 6 miles left to go at this point.
The last bit was an out and back along the same course (but supposedly 1/2 mile further up) to round out the last 5 miles... but since Val and I had gained 1 mile through a missed turn, we repeated the first out and back of 4 miles to round out our run.
I was starting to experience noticeably aching knees and feet with about 6 miles left to go in our run... which is about the same distance from the end that my knees and feet started aching last week... so I was able to get 4 miles further this week before my joints started complaining! That was an interesting revelation. They ached so much tho that I was having trouble continuing running, and Val decided to walk with me everytime I declared that I needed yet another walk break. On the final out and back, we walked nearly all of the 2 miles out. At the turn around point I encouraged Val to go ahead and run back if she wanted to, so she took off (mind you, when we turned around I found my mom marching up the hill about 50 feet behind us!). Before she left me, Val encouraged me to try running if the mood struck me, and then took off at a good clip down the hill.
I walked for a little while, and then decided I was bored and wanted the 18 miles over, so I was going to try running again, and took off down the hill after Val, altho I could no longer see her. And, I actually managed to run the entire way back to George Rogers Park at about an 11:30 minute mile! Granted it was mostly downhill, but still it felt good to know I had that in me, even with sore knees and feet.
According to Carl, who was hanging out at the aid station in the parking lot, I was only about 6 minutes behind Val too. She apparently put nearly everything she had left into that 2 mile run back to the parking lot. She hauled butt! heh.
By the time we were done, the sun was high, it was approaching 1pm, and the day CLEARLY was a hot one. My knees were having trouble bending once I stopped running, and Coach Joe urged me to ice them. I am.... right now actually. But hey! I made it! It was a really pretty route too, with beautiful neighborhoods, great water views, challenging hills, and even functioning water fountains along the run! What a charming run today!
My stats from this run:
DISTANCE: 18 miles TIME: 4:04:20 PACE: 13:34 minute miles
Pretty sweet!
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
driven to the drink
Total Distance So Far: 215.8 miles
Hehehe, by "driven to the drink" I simply mean I had the yen to go swimming again this Monday.
I showed up to the Columbia Pool again after work, this time by myself, and claimed a lap swimming lane. In the shallower water area there were a bunch of little children (3yrs-4yrs?) doing a first swimming lesson kind of class... involving the singing of songs and lots of laughing while their young parents watched from the side of the pool with large smiles and digital cameras poised.
In the deeper end of the pool there was some sort of senior water aerobics class taking place. I couldn't see what the ladies were particularly doing, but they were hovering in a circle following the instructions of a younger lady. They also seemed to be rather enjoying themselves too.
I like the pool.
I ended up doing the same workout as last time, but found it went faster and was notably easier this week. I might need to up the lap count in order to keep my heart rate nice and elevated for the workout tho.
Warm-up: 4 laps with a kickboard (flutter kick)
Intervals: 2 laps non-stop with a 1 minute break between (x 5, alternating between crawl and breast stroke)
Cool-down: 4 laps with a kickboard (switch between flutter and frog kick)
Hmm... maybe I should consider timing my laps too? That could make things interesting. I'll try that next week perhaps.
Hehehe, by "driven to the drink" I simply mean I had the yen to go swimming again this Monday.
I showed up to the Columbia Pool again after work, this time by myself, and claimed a lap swimming lane. In the shallower water area there were a bunch of little children (3yrs-4yrs?) doing a first swimming lesson kind of class... involving the singing of songs and lots of laughing while their young parents watched from the side of the pool with large smiles and digital cameras poised.
In the deeper end of the pool there was some sort of senior water aerobics class taking place. I couldn't see what the ladies were particularly doing, but they were hovering in a circle following the instructions of a younger lady. They also seemed to be rather enjoying themselves too.
I like the pool.
I ended up doing the same workout as last time, but found it went faster and was notably easier this week. I might need to up the lap count in order to keep my heart rate nice and elevated for the workout tho.
Warm-up: 4 laps with a kickboard (flutter kick)
Intervals: 2 laps non-stop with a 1 minute break between (x 5, alternating between crawl and breast stroke)
Cool-down: 4 laps with a kickboard (switch between flutter and frog kick)
Hmm... maybe I should consider timing my laps too? That could make things interesting. I'll try that next week perhaps.
Sunday, August 26, 2007
another half marathon!
Total Distance So Far: 211.3 miles
YES! I've passed the 200 mile mark, and completed my second half-marathon distance this month!! Who'd have thunk I could travel that far on foot!?!
The group run this weekend started and ended in Vancouver, WA's Marine Park. I'd never been here before even though it's a very short drive from my house. I found beautiful beaches right on the Columbia River that are very accessible from the trail in the park, and I need to bring my pups back here to go swimming.
The route started with an out and back across the park (3 miles round trip), and then from there in the other direction (west) along Columbia Way to Columbia Shores Blvd over to the trail along the waterfront (access between Beaches and McMenamins restaurants). This trail ends on the sidewalk of Columbia St, and which then curves northward past Esther Short Park (all fenced up for the Wine and Jazz Festival). From there we (the 14 milers) had 2 out and backs... one along Columbia to 20th St and back, and then out along Evergreen over I-5 to Grand (in the historical Vancouver Fort area) and back to Columbia. After these we turned around and retraced our waterfront route back to the Marine Park parkinglot.
Today we also were doing the same route as the walkers. This way we could share aid stations. I understand this will be the case for all our remaining group runs until our event days. It's nice to see how large our team really is.
The weather was low 60's and overcast, but not raining like previously forecasted. I wrapped my knee again, which seems to work in my favor, and headed out on the run with Val. The run was a lot easier than our first 14 miler in the St. John's area. However my knees and hips did begin to ache from the run around mile 8 or 9. We were following a suggestion from Val which she read in the book Marathon by Galloway, that we should take a 1 minute walk break every 8 minutes of running. This was supposed to give us more energy for later in the run, and I think it worked!
Stats...
DISTANCE: 14.0 miles TIME: 3:00:08 minutes AVG PACE: 12:51 minute miles
A pretty good pace considering the frequent walk breaks actually!
YES! I've passed the 200 mile mark, and completed my second half-marathon distance this month!! Who'd have thunk I could travel that far on foot!?!
The group run this weekend started and ended in Vancouver, WA's Marine Park. I'd never been here before even though it's a very short drive from my house. I found beautiful beaches right on the Columbia River that are very accessible from the trail in the park, and I need to bring my pups back here to go swimming.
The route started with an out and back across the park (3 miles round trip), and then from there in the other direction (west) along Columbia Way to Columbia Shores Blvd over to the trail along the waterfront (access between Beaches and McMenamins restaurants). This trail ends on the sidewalk of Columbia St, and which then curves northward past Esther Short Park (all fenced up for the Wine and Jazz Festival). From there we (the 14 milers) had 2 out and backs... one along Columbia to 20th St and back, and then out along Evergreen over I-5 to Grand (in the historical Vancouver Fort area) and back to Columbia. After these we turned around and retraced our waterfront route back to the Marine Park parkinglot.
Today we also were doing the same route as the walkers. This way we could share aid stations. I understand this will be the case for all our remaining group runs until our event days. It's nice to see how large our team really is.
The weather was low 60's and overcast, but not raining like previously forecasted. I wrapped my knee again, which seems to work in my favor, and headed out on the run with Val. The run was a lot easier than our first 14 miler in the St. John's area. However my knees and hips did begin to ache from the run around mile 8 or 9. We were following a suggestion from Val which she read in the book Marathon by Galloway, that we should take a 1 minute walk break every 8 minutes of running. This was supposed to give us more energy for later in the run, and I think it worked!
Stats...
DISTANCE: 14.0 miles TIME: 3:00:08 minutes AVG PACE: 12:51 minute miles
A pretty good pace considering the frequent walk breaks actually!
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
back on the elliptical
Total Distance So Far: 197.3 miles
Just a little note that I spent about 30 minutes in my fitness center again today on the elliptical machine. I'm really getting much better at using it. In the 30 minutes I was on it today it said I went 3.54 miles! That boils down to an 8:28 minute mile pace. I was "running" at over 200 paces per minute for nearly the entire time I was on the thing. I also tried varying the height of the ramp and increasing the resistance for the first time. That made things interesting.
Just a little note that I spent about 30 minutes in my fitness center again today on the elliptical machine. I'm really getting much better at using it. In the 30 minutes I was on it today it said I went 3.54 miles! That boils down to an 8:28 minute mile pace. I was "running" at over 200 paces per minute for nearly the entire time I was on the thing. I also tried varying the height of the ramp and increasing the resistance for the first time. That made things interesting.
Monday, August 20, 2007
splish splash
Total Distance So Far: 193.8 miles
Alright alright... I'm not sure the total mileage meter is completely accurate with the latest mileage addition. See, I'm back home again finally, and tonight since my foot is aching quite a bit I opted to go lap swimming with Val in place of running fast around a track. It was one of the low-to-no-impact alternatives Coach Joe suggested to me to get my heart rate up.
When I suggested to Val that I didn't think I should run tonight due to a particularly unhappy foot, she eagerly suggested we try swimming. She even knew where we could find a public pool that was open afterwork! I was up for it.
I met her at her house, and we carpooled over to the Columbia Pool. It was something like $6.25/person to get in. They had 3 lanes setup for lap swimming in the center of the pool. I took a quick tentative lap to see how it "felt" in comparison to our laps on the track. Surprisingly, one lap in the pool seemed to be the same exertion for me as one lap around the track. I shared this with Val and suggested we do 4 laps (i.e. a 200 meter swim) in place of the 10 minute warm-up, and then since the training tonight was 5x 800's on the track (800 = 2 laps around the track) we would replace that with 5x 100's in the pool (surprisingly also 2 laps), then another 200m cool-down. Also, to make the warm-up and cool-down more approachable, I suggested we use kickboards.
So that's what I did for my training tonight. I switched out between breast stroke and crawl stroke, and even threw in a 50m of backstroke for variety. It was a nice change of venue, and man did my arms get tired from crawl stroke! I guess I don't use my arms much when I run. Go figure! hehehe.
Anyway, I think this is a great option for me to get my heart rate up and not put stress on my feet. I might continue to do lap swimming on Mondays.
Alright alright... I'm not sure the total mileage meter is completely accurate with the latest mileage addition. See, I'm back home again finally, and tonight since my foot is aching quite a bit I opted to go lap swimming with Val in place of running fast around a track. It was one of the low-to-no-impact alternatives Coach Joe suggested to me to get my heart rate up.
When I suggested to Val that I didn't think I should run tonight due to a particularly unhappy foot, she eagerly suggested we try swimming. She even knew where we could find a public pool that was open afterwork! I was up for it.
I met her at her house, and we carpooled over to the Columbia Pool. It was something like $6.25/person to get in. They had 3 lanes setup for lap swimming in the center of the pool. I took a quick tentative lap to see how it "felt" in comparison to our laps on the track. Surprisingly, one lap in the pool seemed to be the same exertion for me as one lap around the track. I shared this with Val and suggested we do 4 laps (i.e. a 200 meter swim) in place of the 10 minute warm-up, and then since the training tonight was 5x 800's on the track (800 = 2 laps around the track) we would replace that with 5x 100's in the pool (surprisingly also 2 laps), then another 200m cool-down. Also, to make the warm-up and cool-down more approachable, I suggested we use kickboards.
So that's what I did for my training tonight. I switched out between breast stroke and crawl stroke, and even threw in a 50m of backstroke for variety. It was a nice change of venue, and man did my arms get tired from crawl stroke! I guess I don't use my arms much when I run. Go figure! hehehe.
Anyway, I think this is a great option for me to get my heart rate up and not put stress on my feet. I might continue to do lap swimming on Mondays.
Friday, August 17, 2007
not exactly the Boston Marathon...
Total Distance So Far: 189.3 miles
Still in Boston, still running around the pretty reservoir. I've been dragging my dad out to help me go running (i.e. be my aid station and make sure I have water at the ready) at 7am both days I've attempted longer runs. Today was a little more overcast than Sunday, and a little more humid... but a pleasant running temperature all in all, maybe mid 70's?
I've spent the greater part of the week on trains and in Philadelphia actually, much of that wearing my foot splint to keep my bad foot stretched appropriated, but my feet have been more sore than usual all week long. I wasn't entirely sure what that would do for my next run. One thing was for sure: I stayed off my feet as much as I could manage this week, even deciding not to play Dance Dance Revolution on my brother's amazing hard pad controller. What can I say? Marathon training is sacrifice.
So Friday finally is here. Since I (once again) am on a plane tomorrow morning to head back to P-town, Friday was the chosen day to attempt the longer run. The TNT group run on Saturday is going 16 miles... so that's what I was shooting for today. Yeah, I didn't make it.
Here is how I did:
(lap 1) DISTANCE: 1 mile TIME: 10:29 minutes
(lap 2) DISTANCE: 1 mile TIME: 10:38 minutes
(lap 3) DISTANCE: 1 mile TIME: 10:48 minutes
(lap 4) DISTANCE: 1 mile TIME: 11:01 minutes
(lap 5) DISTANCE: 1 mile TIME: 11:11 minutes
(lap 6) DISTANCE: 1 mile TIME: 11:54 minutes
(lap 7) DISTANCE: 1 mile TIME: 11:37 minutes
(lap 8) DISTANCE: 1 mile TIME: 11:57 minutes
(lap 9) DISTANCE: 1 mile TIME: 13:09 minutes
total: DISTANCE: 9 miles TIME: 01:42:44 minutes AVG PACE: 11:25 minute mile
Around lap 6 I was starting to ache quite a bit in both my knees. Every step was an effort following this. During lap 9 though, I decided to take a walking break... and noticed as I did so an overwhelming sensation of fatigue, and blackness creeping into my peripheral vision. That seemed VERY wrong, so I decided to cut my run short right there. Sure enough back at the house I weighed myself, and found I had lost approx 3.5 lbs during this run (even though I was drinking water).
That's a dangerous amount of dehydration, and it was a good thing I stopped when I did.
I blame the humidity out here. I should do better once back in Portland. I'm as exhausted and sore right now as I suspect I would be if I had made it all 16 miles in Portland.
It's amazing how hard the humidity hit me. Both of my runs out here ended up being approximately 1/2 of my goal distance. Go figure.
Still in Boston, still running around the pretty reservoir. I've been dragging my dad out to help me go running (i.e. be my aid station and make sure I have water at the ready) at 7am both days I've attempted longer runs. Today was a little more overcast than Sunday, and a little more humid... but a pleasant running temperature all in all, maybe mid 70's?
I've spent the greater part of the week on trains and in Philadelphia actually, much of that wearing my foot splint to keep my bad foot stretched appropriated, but my feet have been more sore than usual all week long. I wasn't entirely sure what that would do for my next run. One thing was for sure: I stayed off my feet as much as I could manage this week, even deciding not to play Dance Dance Revolution on my brother's amazing hard pad controller. What can I say? Marathon training is sacrifice.
So Friday finally is here. Since I (once again) am on a plane tomorrow morning to head back to P-town, Friday was the chosen day to attempt the longer run. The TNT group run on Saturday is going 16 miles... so that's what I was shooting for today. Yeah, I didn't make it.
Here is how I did:
(lap 1) DISTANCE: 1 mile TIME: 10:29 minutes
(lap 2) DISTANCE: 1 mile TIME: 10:38 minutes
(lap 3) DISTANCE: 1 mile TIME: 10:48 minutes
(lap 4) DISTANCE: 1 mile TIME: 11:01 minutes
(lap 5) DISTANCE: 1 mile TIME: 11:11 minutes
(lap 6) DISTANCE: 1 mile TIME: 11:54 minutes
(lap 7) DISTANCE: 1 mile TIME: 11:37 minutes
(lap 8) DISTANCE: 1 mile TIME: 11:57 minutes
(lap 9) DISTANCE: 1 mile TIME: 13:09 minutes
total: DISTANCE: 9 miles TIME: 01:42:44 minutes AVG PACE: 11:25 minute mile
Around lap 6 I was starting to ache quite a bit in both my knees. Every step was an effort following this. During lap 9 though, I decided to take a walking break... and noticed as I did so an overwhelming sensation of fatigue, and blackness creeping into my peripheral vision. That seemed VERY wrong, so I decided to cut my run short right there. Sure enough back at the house I weighed myself, and found I had lost approx 3.5 lbs during this run (even though I was drinking water).
That's a dangerous amount of dehydration, and it was a good thing I stopped when I did.
I blame the humidity out here. I should do better once back in Portland. I'm as exhausted and sore right now as I suspect I would be if I had made it all 16 miles in Portland.
It's amazing how hard the humidity hit me. Both of my runs out here ended up being approximately 1/2 of my goal distance. Go figure.
Sunday, August 12, 2007
Hello, Boston!
Total Distance So Far: 180.3 miles
I had long-standing plans to visit family on the East Coast this week, so surprise! I'm in Boston this week.
Since it seems to be taking me about 2 weeks to recover from the longer runs... I've decided to attempt running 10 miles on Sunday instead of the 12 miles the TNT Oregon team did on Saturday morning. I missed that group run because I had a flight to catch.
My dad (Massachussets resident) had found a location near his house that seemed pretty good to do my runs at. It's a reservoir with a flat running trail around it, banked with pretty boston-esque benches and lots of trees. He sat down on a bench and happily read a book with a pile of water bottles next to him... I began running around the reservoir in laps. Turned out, one lap was 1 mile!
... so here is how I did:
(lap 1) DISTANCE: 1 mile TIME: 10:03 minutes
(lap 2) DISTANCE: 1 mile TIME: 9:47 minutes
(lap 3) DISTANCE: 1 mile TIME: 10:40 minutes
(lap 4) DISTANCE: 1 mile TIME: 10:37 minutes
(lap 5) DISTANCE: 1 mile TIME: 14:27 minutes
total: DISTANCE: 5 miles TIME: 55:34 minutes AVG PACE: 11:07 minute miles
During lap 5, my knee (surprise) locked up. That was it for me for the day. After that happened, I walked back to my dad's bench and we went home.
Not my best run, by any means. I do believe it was the humidity or something that messed with my knee. That's just no good. I did just get here the night before at midnight, so it's also possible I was really worn out from sitting on an airplane and in airports for 14 hours. I'll get as much rest as possible this week and try for a long run again on Friday...
I had long-standing plans to visit family on the East Coast this week, so surprise! I'm in Boston this week.
Since it seems to be taking me about 2 weeks to recover from the longer runs... I've decided to attempt running 10 miles on Sunday instead of the 12 miles the TNT Oregon team did on Saturday morning. I missed that group run because I had a flight to catch.
My dad (Massachussets resident) had found a location near his house that seemed pretty good to do my runs at. It's a reservoir with a flat running trail around it, banked with pretty boston-esque benches and lots of trees. He sat down on a bench and happily read a book with a pile of water bottles next to him... I began running around the reservoir in laps. Turned out, one lap was 1 mile!
Here is a picture of the reservoir:
... so here is how I did:
(lap 1) DISTANCE: 1 mile TIME: 10:03 minutes
(lap 2) DISTANCE: 1 mile TIME: 9:47 minutes
(lap 3) DISTANCE: 1 mile TIME: 10:40 minutes
(lap 4) DISTANCE: 1 mile TIME: 10:37 minutes
(lap 5) DISTANCE: 1 mile TIME: 14:27 minutes
total: DISTANCE: 5 miles TIME: 55:34 minutes AVG PACE: 11:07 minute miles
During lap 5, my knee (surprise) locked up. That was it for me for the day. After that happened, I walked back to my dad's bench and we went home.
Not my best run, by any means. I do believe it was the humidity or something that messed with my knee. That's just no good. I did just get here the night before at midnight, so it's also possible I was really worn out from sitting on an airplane and in airports for 14 hours. I'll get as much rest as possible this week and try for a long run again on Friday...
Thursday, August 9, 2007
35 elliptical minutes
Total Distance So Far: 175.3 miles
I seem to have managed to work up to a "10 minute mile" on the elliptical. I decided to just ride the elliptical today until the Distance meter got up to 3.5 miles.... and somehow today that only took 35 minutes... so... weird. I must be getting better at using the thing.
I seem to have managed to work up to a "10 minute mile" on the elliptical. I decided to just ride the elliptical today until the Distance meter got up to 3.5 miles.... and somehow today that only took 35 minutes... so... weird. I must be getting better at using the thing.
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
60 minutes on an elliptical
Total Distance So Far: 171.8 miles
Perhaps I overdid it today... doing 60 minutes (+3-4 minutes cool-down) where probably 45 minutes would have sufficed. But, I did 60 minutes. That + the cool-down took me 6.02 miles, and supposedly I also burned a little over 600 calories in the process.
It was a surreal workout as I had the ENTIRE fitness center to myself for the entire hour. I've never had that before!
I was really hungry when I finished exercising... and then as I waited for my late lunch of tunafish sandwich to absorb into my body, I was pretty sleepy. I'm normal again now tho.
Perhaps I overdid it today... doing 60 minutes (+3-4 minutes cool-down) where probably 45 minutes would have sufficed. But, I did 60 minutes. That + the cool-down took me 6.02 miles, and supposedly I also burned a little over 600 calories in the process.
It was a surreal workout as I had the ENTIRE fitness center to myself for the entire hour. I've never had that before!
I was really hungry when I finished exercising... and then as I waited for my late lunch of tunafish sandwich to absorb into my body, I was pretty sleepy. I'm normal again now tho.
Monday, August 6, 2007
happiness runs in a circular motion...
Total Distance So Far: 165.8 miles
Another Monday track session... I'm still on the beginner option thanks to my bad foot.
A little cooler and overcast, but a good day to be running. Lincoln High School's track is more enjoyable when the sun isn't beating down. I think it's fortunate that Lincoln High School is in Portland. heheheh...
Ok, the stats:
Warm-up...
DISTANCE: 1.18 miles TIME: 10:31 minutes PACE: 8:55 minute/miles
Laps..
(1) DISTANCE: 0.26 miles TIME: 1:44 minutes PACE: 6:40 minute/miles
(2) DISTANCE: 0.26 miles TIME: 1:47 minutes PACE: 6:41 minute/miles
(3) DISTANCE: 0.26 miles TIME: 1:49 minutes PACE: 7:03 minute/miles
(4) DISTANCE: 0.26 miles TIME: 1:54 minutes PACE: 7:23 minute/miles
Cool-down...
DISTANCE: 0.90 miles TIME: 11:05 minutes PACE: 12:20 minute/miles
Another Monday track session... I'm still on the beginner option thanks to my bad foot.
A little cooler and overcast, but a good day to be running. Lincoln High School's track is more enjoyable when the sun isn't beating down. I think it's fortunate that Lincoln High School is in Portland. heheheh...
Ok, the stats:
Warm-up...
DISTANCE: 1.18 miles TIME: 10:31 minutes PACE: 8:55 minute/miles
Laps..
(1) DISTANCE: 0.26 miles TIME: 1:44 minutes PACE: 6:40 minute/miles
(2) DISTANCE: 0.26 miles TIME: 1:47 minutes PACE: 6:41 minute/miles
(3) DISTANCE: 0.26 miles TIME: 1:49 minutes PACE: 7:03 minute/miles
(4) DISTANCE: 0.26 miles TIME: 1:54 minutes PACE: 7:23 minute/miles
Cool-down...
DISTANCE: 0.90 miles TIME: 11:05 minutes PACE: 12:20 minute/miles
Sunday, August 5, 2007
half marathon anyone?
Total Distance So Far: 162.7 miles
Saturday's group run this week was 14 miles long. We were meeting at Pier Park in St. Johns, a new route for the TNT team. Val and I carpooled there. The route, as it was explained to us, entailed 2 laps around a hilly trail-running trail in Pier Park, then out onto Lombard heading west, a left turn onto Columbia, and out to Kelly Point Park... all the way to the back parking lot there. Once in Kelly Point park we again run 2 laps around their pretty paved waterfront trails, and then head back the way we came to Pier Park. TNT had set up aid stations in the parking lots of each park.
It was roughly a 4 mile run between the parks, on roads which frankly lacked... a sidewalk, a shoulder, or any protection from the semi trucks barreling to and from the industrial area that the parks share the space out there with. It was a little uncomfortable, and coach joe admitted he didn't think the traffic was going to be as bad as it was, but he patrolled that stretch in his subaru outback constantly to make sure everyone was ok. It was reassuring to see him every once in a while drive by and wave at us.
Ever worried about my knee, I opted to try something new out. I loosely wrapped my left knee in an ace bandage to keep it warm. I figured it was having trouble when it cooled off too much. Sure enough, the wrap helped keep my knee toasty warm, and I had no problem with my knee freezing up on this run!! That was a relief! The weather was also not humid, and rather sunny on occasion. I was glad that alot of our run (the laps in the park at least) were under some beautiful old growth evergreens, nicely shaded. Oh, I should also mention we saw a decent number of people walking their dogs out at Kelly Point park. It seemed like a wonderful place to let Fido romp in the water.
Val and I made sure to take all the steep downhills walking (I learned my lesson on that 12 mile run), and eventually took some walk breaks on the way back to the first park. Val's toe was killing her, she suspects she might have broken it in one of our soccer games last week. Still we made it all 14 miles in approximately 3 hours.
I say approximately because I forgot to put on my Garmin initially, and snagged it out of Val's truck once we had finished the 2 laps in the first park, before we headed to the other park. The first 3.26 miles of data was effectively lost, and I have no clue how fast we ran it.
The stats I did capture say that we ran the last 10.74 miles in 2:21:41, giving us an average pace of 13:09 minute miles.
Assuming 3 hours for 14 miles though, that would give Val and I an average pace of 12:51 minute miles. That sounds about right actually. We were intentionally taking it slow (for the last 6 miles or so I don't think I could go any faster than I was actually)... but it worked! we made it!!
And, it occurs to me, that we had just ran our first 1/2 marathon distance too! Amazing!!
After the run, Val and I had to prepare for our BBQ fundraiser. We went to Farpost and picked up some donated items for her raffle. After that we went our seperate ways to shower and nap, and then met back up again at Val's house around 2:30pm to setup for the BBQ.
The fundraising BBQ (dubbed "BBQ to Save Lives"), went really well. It was a good time, we had a keg of Coors Light donated by Coors Brewing Company and a load of steak and chicken donated from Albertsons to grill. I even won some soccer gear in the raffle! We drew on the sidewalk with sidewalk chalk, hung around, and had a great time. The weather was perfect too.
Altogether a successful day!
Saturday's group run this week was 14 miles long. We were meeting at Pier Park in St. Johns, a new route for the TNT team. Val and I carpooled there. The route, as it was explained to us, entailed 2 laps around a hilly trail-running trail in Pier Park, then out onto Lombard heading west, a left turn onto Columbia, and out to Kelly Point Park... all the way to the back parking lot there. Once in Kelly Point park we again run 2 laps around their pretty paved waterfront trails, and then head back the way we came to Pier Park. TNT had set up aid stations in the parking lots of each park.
It was roughly a 4 mile run between the parks, on roads which frankly lacked... a sidewalk, a shoulder, or any protection from the semi trucks barreling to and from the industrial area that the parks share the space out there with. It was a little uncomfortable, and coach joe admitted he didn't think the traffic was going to be as bad as it was, but he patrolled that stretch in his subaru outback constantly to make sure everyone was ok. It was reassuring to see him every once in a while drive by and wave at us.
Ever worried about my knee, I opted to try something new out. I loosely wrapped my left knee in an ace bandage to keep it warm. I figured it was having trouble when it cooled off too much. Sure enough, the wrap helped keep my knee toasty warm, and I had no problem with my knee freezing up on this run!! That was a relief! The weather was also not humid, and rather sunny on occasion. I was glad that alot of our run (the laps in the park at least) were under some beautiful old growth evergreens, nicely shaded. Oh, I should also mention we saw a decent number of people walking their dogs out at Kelly Point park. It seemed like a wonderful place to let Fido romp in the water.
Val and I made sure to take all the steep downhills walking (I learned my lesson on that 12 mile run), and eventually took some walk breaks on the way back to the first park. Val's toe was killing her, she suspects she might have broken it in one of our soccer games last week. Still we made it all 14 miles in approximately 3 hours.
I say approximately because I forgot to put on my Garmin initially, and snagged it out of Val's truck once we had finished the 2 laps in the first park, before we headed to the other park. The first 3.26 miles of data was effectively lost, and I have no clue how fast we ran it.
The stats I did capture say that we ran the last 10.74 miles in 2:21:41, giving us an average pace of 13:09 minute miles.
Assuming 3 hours for 14 miles though, that would give Val and I an average pace of 12:51 minute miles. That sounds about right actually. We were intentionally taking it slow (for the last 6 miles or so I don't think I could go any faster than I was actually)... but it worked! we made it!!
And, it occurs to me, that we had just ran our first 1/2 marathon distance too! Amazing!!
After the run, Val and I had to prepare for our BBQ fundraiser. We went to Farpost and picked up some donated items for her raffle. After that we went our seperate ways to shower and nap, and then met back up again at Val's house around 2:30pm to setup for the BBQ.
The fundraising BBQ (dubbed "BBQ to Save Lives"), went really well. It was a good time, we had a keg of Coors Light donated by Coors Brewing Company and a load of steak and chicken donated from Albertsons to grill. I even won some soccer gear in the raffle! We drew on the sidewalk with sidewalk chalk, hung around, and had a great time. The weather was perfect too.
Altogether a successful day!
Thursday, August 2, 2007
40 more minutes on the elliptical
Total Distance So Far: 148.7 miles
Just a quick addition to my "running total" to include my 40 minute workout on the elliptical today... 40 minutes came out to 3.72 miles today, so I was pedaling at a slightly higher rate today.
Cheers!
Just a quick addition to my "running total" to include my 40 minute workout on the elliptical today... 40 minutes came out to 3.72 miles today, so I was pedaling at a slightly higher rate today.
Cheers!
Wednesday, August 1, 2007
elliptical workout
Total Distance So Far: 145.0 miles
Wednesdays are supposed to be timed runs according to our workout schedule. I'm, however, not really supposed to be doing anything high-impact between group runs, so I'm banished to the fitness center machines for now.
This was my first time to the fitness center when there was a free elliptical machine. Our fitness center only has 2 of them, and they are a popular device as they provide a decent aerobic workout with low to no impact. The way it achieves this is there are 2 footpads that are cleverly fixed on an elliptical track. A workout motion on an elliptical is something of a combination of a bicycle pedal motion, and a running stride. Your feet never leave the foot pads.
My personal problem with them is I have trouble maintaining my balance on them, and always nearly fall off. Plus there is the added element of feeling like a weirdo, being the girl that is flailing around on the elliptical machine, nearly falling off. No one else seems to have this problem. I must be unique.
Since my feet are a little sore today from my 2 games of indoor soccer last night (shhhh... don't tell anyone I'm still playing soccer this much. Or, um... it's low-impact indoor soccer, yeah!) I wasn't sure how comfortable the elliptical would be, but to my surprise it was very comfortable.
After about 20 minutes on the device I stopped lurching about at strange angles and got more into the rhythm of the machine... however I still had to hold on to the handle bars to keep my balance.
The NICE thing about the elliptical is I learned I'm able to read a book while using it. This helps the time go by wonderfully, as I've got a nice backlog of reading I'm trying to catch up on... not the least of which is Harry Potter book 7... DO NOT TELL ME WHAT HAPPENS IN IT, I'VE YET TO CRACK IT OPEN.
Anyway, I comfortably worked up a good sweat in my 40 minute workout, and the display informed me that my workout was the equivalent of traveling 3.52 miles (if I were pounding pavement I would expect to go 4 miles in that timeframe, so clearly the elliptical doesn't provide you with an equivalent workout as straight up unreconstructed running). I'm supposed to do a 35 minute timed workout tomorrow... altho I'm thinking of doing 40 minutes again, and in the future pumping my 40 minute workout up to maybe 50 minutes?
The interesting thing was stepping off the machine. My legs felt exercised.... which was rather pleasant. However, I also noticed that my feet were still sore. You see, I didn't feel my feet at all while I was on the elliptical, so that tells me that EVEN WITH unhappy feet, I can get a workout on the elliptical. That's good to know!!
Wednesdays are supposed to be timed runs according to our workout schedule. I'm, however, not really supposed to be doing anything high-impact between group runs, so I'm banished to the fitness center machines for now.
This was my first time to the fitness center when there was a free elliptical machine. Our fitness center only has 2 of them, and they are a popular device as they provide a decent aerobic workout with low to no impact. The way it achieves this is there are 2 footpads that are cleverly fixed on an elliptical track. A workout motion on an elliptical is something of a combination of a bicycle pedal motion, and a running stride. Your feet never leave the foot pads.
My personal problem with them is I have trouble maintaining my balance on them, and always nearly fall off. Plus there is the added element of feeling like a weirdo, being the girl that is flailing around on the elliptical machine, nearly falling off. No one else seems to have this problem. I must be unique.
Since my feet are a little sore today from my 2 games of indoor soccer last night (shhhh... don't tell anyone I'm still playing soccer this much. Or, um... it's low-impact indoor soccer, yeah!) I wasn't sure how comfortable the elliptical would be, but to my surprise it was very comfortable.
After about 20 minutes on the device I stopped lurching about at strange angles and got more into the rhythm of the machine... however I still had to hold on to the handle bars to keep my balance.
The NICE thing about the elliptical is I learned I'm able to read a book while using it. This helps the time go by wonderfully, as I've got a nice backlog of reading I'm trying to catch up on... not the least of which is Harry Potter book 7... DO NOT TELL ME WHAT HAPPENS IN IT, I'VE YET TO CRACK IT OPEN.
Anyway, I comfortably worked up a good sweat in my 40 minute workout, and the display informed me that my workout was the equivalent of traveling 3.52 miles (if I were pounding pavement I would expect to go 4 miles in that timeframe, so clearly the elliptical doesn't provide you with an equivalent workout as straight up unreconstructed running). I'm supposed to do a 35 minute timed workout tomorrow... altho I'm thinking of doing 40 minutes again, and in the future pumping my 40 minute workout up to maybe 50 minutes?
The interesting thing was stepping off the machine. My legs felt exercised.... which was rather pleasant. However, I also noticed that my feet were still sore. You see, I didn't feel my feet at all while I was on the elliptical, so that tells me that EVEN WITH unhappy feet, I can get a workout on the elliptical. That's good to know!!
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
a new track
Total Distance So Far: 141.5 miles
So, the track we'd been going to for the monday faster-run sessions is being re-surfaced now for the rest of the summer. We have been looking for a new track permanently, but in the mean time we met up at Lincoln HS's track (right smack in downtown Portland... I didn't even know there was a highschool there!). It's a nice track, and when we arrived we were informed that we didn't ACTUALLY have permission to be there, so we were supposed to not appear to be an organized running team. The only other occupants of the area was a cheerleading squad painstakingly practicing lifts and throws of their smaller members. It was kinda interesting to watch actually.
It was a nice sunny late-afternoon, and Lincoln HS is not under the looming presence of a large hill like Duniway Track, so my Garmin satellite reception was much more ideal. It is a bit of a shame that the football field the track runs around is actually turf. It made the entire sport field radiate more heat. I think grass goes a long way to cool an area down in direct sunlight. Note to self: plants are good to fight against global warming.
We have ditched the hill ascents for now, and have gone back to the faster laps. I'm still following the "beginner runner" option due to my injuries.
Here are my stats:
Warm-up...
DISTANCE: 1.09 miles TIME: 10:23 minutes PACE: 9:34 minute mile
Laps...
(1) DISTANCE: 0.24 miles TIME: 1:39 minutes PACE: 6:57 minute mile
(2) DISTANCE: 0.24 miles TIME: 1:46 minutes PACE: 7:34 minute mile
(3) DISTANCE: 0.24 miles TIME: 1:54 minutes PACE: 7:45 minute mile
(4) DISTANCE: 0.24 miles TIME: 1:51 minutes PACE: 7:41 minute mile
Cool-down...
DISTANCE: 0.93 miles TIME: 12:20 minutes PACE: 13:19 minute mile
I once again opted to walk the remainder of my cool-down due to my foot situation.
So, the track we'd been going to for the monday faster-run sessions is being re-surfaced now for the rest of the summer. We have been looking for a new track permanently, but in the mean time we met up at Lincoln HS's track (right smack in downtown Portland... I didn't even know there was a highschool there!). It's a nice track, and when we arrived we were informed that we didn't ACTUALLY have permission to be there, so we were supposed to not appear to be an organized running team. The only other occupants of the area was a cheerleading squad painstakingly practicing lifts and throws of their smaller members. It was kinda interesting to watch actually.
It was a nice sunny late-afternoon, and Lincoln HS is not under the looming presence of a large hill like Duniway Track, so my Garmin satellite reception was much more ideal. It is a bit of a shame that the football field the track runs around is actually turf. It made the entire sport field radiate more heat. I think grass goes a long way to cool an area down in direct sunlight. Note to self: plants are good to fight against global warming.
We have ditched the hill ascents for now, and have gone back to the faster laps. I'm still following the "beginner runner" option due to my injuries.
Here are my stats:
Warm-up...
DISTANCE: 1.09 miles TIME: 10:23 minutes PACE: 9:34 minute mile
Laps...
(1) DISTANCE: 0.24 miles TIME: 1:39 minutes PACE: 6:57 minute mile
(2) DISTANCE: 0.24 miles TIME: 1:46 minutes PACE: 7:34 minute mile
(3) DISTANCE: 0.24 miles TIME: 1:54 minutes PACE: 7:45 minute mile
(4) DISTANCE: 0.24 miles TIME: 1:51 minutes PACE: 7:41 minute mile
Cool-down...
DISTANCE: 0.93 miles TIME: 12:20 minutes PACE: 13:19 minute mile
I once again opted to walk the remainder of my cool-down due to my foot situation.
Sunday, July 29, 2007
stupid knee
Total Distance So Far: 138.5 miles
My legs and feet were in pretty bad shape following that 12 miles. They were VERY sore, regardless of me icing them, and using topical anti-inflamatory/analgesic cream, etc. I did no further training all week besides my indoor soccer double-header on Tuesday evening (won 1 game, lost 1 game). Go Team Brown Dog! ahem.
Friday I went to the fitness center at work to perhaps work on an elliptical trainer for 30-35 minutes or so (any earlier in the week and my feet were too much in pain to even consider standing for very long, let alone exercising on them), but when I arrived both of the elliptical trainers were being used, and I had no idea how long I'd have to wait to use them... so I just left.
Finally on Saturday our next group run rolls around. Once again Val and I carpool to OMSI at 7:20am. We are supposed to go 10 miles. I was thinking, sure, if I can do 12 I can do 10! Right? Wrong. I was noticing even before we stepped off in the mid-60 degree, misty morning that my bad knee was feeling a little suspect. I massaged it a little, and decided to try my best anyway.
The course took us along the esplanade, over the Steele bridge, up towards NW 23rd, and beyond that up Thurston all the way to the gate to Leif Erickson Dr in Forest Park (where we started our first 6 mile run). It is a SERIOUS uphill to that point. And then down hill again back to about 19th and Raleigh. Then south on 18th to Everette, then east to the waterfront park... and then finally over the Hawthorne bridge back to OMSI.
Things were going swimmingly up till we were doing the uphill to Forest Park. Then, out of the blue at 4.56 miles my runners knee froze my knee up again. Val slowed down and walked with me (dealing with a pulled muscle herself, so she wasn't feeling great). We walked to the gate, turned around, walked back down the hill to the aid station. About 1.5 miles total. There were still 4 more miles to go to get back to OMSI though. I really didn't think it was a good idea for me to walk it (plus walking that would take over an hour). The aid station lady started making phone calls to try to get me a ride back.
Val left with the run/walkers (run 3 minutes, walk 1, repeat) to finish the course cause she didn't feel done yet. I hung around at the aid station snacking on jelly beans until my ride showed up.
It was disappointing, but I'm not surprised my body wasn't done "resting" yet after the 12 mile run the weekend before. I stayed off my feet the rest of the day, and iced my knee a couple of times. By Sunday my knee felt fine. Heck, all of me felt fine (ok, feet still a little injurred, but that's normal for me anymore). I felt better Sunday morning than I did Friday morning, so I've decided to focus on the next group run instead of dwelling on the last one. Whether it was the colder/humid weather inflaming scar tissue in my knee, or my still-healing sport injuries, or the fact that I got smacked in my bad knee by a warp-speed soccer ball on Tuesday, who knows?
All I know is that my stupid knee isn't cooperating right now.
My legs and feet were in pretty bad shape following that 12 miles. They were VERY sore, regardless of me icing them, and using topical anti-inflamatory/analgesic cream, etc. I did no further training all week besides my indoor soccer double-header on Tuesday evening (won 1 game, lost 1 game). Go Team Brown Dog! ahem.
Friday I went to the fitness center at work to perhaps work on an elliptical trainer for 30-35 minutes or so (any earlier in the week and my feet were too much in pain to even consider standing for very long, let alone exercising on them), but when I arrived both of the elliptical trainers were being used, and I had no idea how long I'd have to wait to use them... so I just left.
Finally on Saturday our next group run rolls around. Once again Val and I carpool to OMSI at 7:20am. We are supposed to go 10 miles. I was thinking, sure, if I can do 12 I can do 10! Right? Wrong. I was noticing even before we stepped off in the mid-60 degree, misty morning that my bad knee was feeling a little suspect. I massaged it a little, and decided to try my best anyway.
The course took us along the esplanade, over the Steele bridge, up towards NW 23rd, and beyond that up Thurston all the way to the gate to Leif Erickson Dr in Forest Park (where we started our first 6 mile run). It is a SERIOUS uphill to that point. And then down hill again back to about 19th and Raleigh. Then south on 18th to Everette, then east to the waterfront park... and then finally over the Hawthorne bridge back to OMSI.
Things were going swimmingly up till we were doing the uphill to Forest Park. Then, out of the blue at 4.56 miles my runners knee froze my knee up again. Val slowed down and walked with me (dealing with a pulled muscle herself, so she wasn't feeling great). We walked to the gate, turned around, walked back down the hill to the aid station. About 1.5 miles total. There were still 4 more miles to go to get back to OMSI though. I really didn't think it was a good idea for me to walk it (plus walking that would take over an hour). The aid station lady started making phone calls to try to get me a ride back.
Val left with the run/walkers (run 3 minutes, walk 1, repeat) to finish the course cause she didn't feel done yet. I hung around at the aid station snacking on jelly beans until my ride showed up.
It was disappointing, but I'm not surprised my body wasn't done "resting" yet after the 12 mile run the weekend before. I stayed off my feet the rest of the day, and iced my knee a couple of times. By Sunday my knee felt fine. Heck, all of me felt fine (ok, feet still a little injurred, but that's normal for me anymore). I felt better Sunday morning than I did Friday morning, so I've decided to focus on the next group run instead of dwelling on the last one. Whether it was the colder/humid weather inflaming scar tissue in my knee, or my still-healing sport injuries, or the fact that I got smacked in my bad knee by a warp-speed soccer ball on Tuesday, who knows?
All I know is that my stupid knee isn't cooperating right now.
Monday, July 23, 2007
Gabriel
Following our 12 mile run, we had our honored teammate breakfast at the Buffalo Gap.
It was a bit of a cruel joke, but our "reserved room" for our buffet breakfast was the second floor. If you have ever ran beyond 6 miles before in your life, you'd know that stairs are the most evil thing to traverse after running. You just don't have the leg control, and every stair hurts.
After my 2 and a half hour run, and the liberation of a handful more of gummy bears from the aid station, I hopped in my car and drove the 2 blocks to the restaurant.. and pulled my way up the stairs using the banister.
There up top we were asked to put on name tags "Hello, my name is..." and then we were allowed to get a plate of food. The food REALLY hit the spot. Assorted fruits, fried potatoes, and scrambled eggs with melted cheese. There were also assorted mini-muffins to choose from, but I'm not much of a "bread" person.
I sat at a table occupied by one lady, and shortly after I got my seat, the other 2 empty seats at our table were claimed. I ended up sitting with 3 experienced marathon runners, who had great stories about the various events they've competed in. I learned about the Disney World marathon, and the Honolulu Marathon. Really interesting.
Eventually (when I was mostly done with my plate of food) we started the proceedings, where 2 honored teammates were invited to share their stories. The first honored teammate (I'm sorry, I no longer remember his name. Perhaps he's the Nike Women's Marathon honored teammate?) got up and talked about how we, the TNT runners, were the real heroes to go through the pain and effort of training for endurance events to raise money and awareness for their cause. It was inspirational, and made me feel good about what we were doing.
When he was done, Gabriel's family went up.
Gabriel's mom Tami did all the talking, and Gabriel angelically and shyly stood by while his mom told their story.
There were a couple moments when Tami was describing the hard times, and she was on the verge of tears: when they relied on all their neighbors and friends to help them get through the days. The type of blood cancer that Gabriel has requires 4 years of treatment (including several rounds of chemo), and at this point Gabriel is about halfway through. It's been rough this far, but they aren't out of the woods yet.
And, I guess there is A LOT to know about the cancer. The hospital gives you a large binder on your way out the door after the first hospital stay with information on the condition/treatments/etc, and you have to read and know this information. Tami said this is where organizations like LLS are invaluable. LLS provides something like 87 informational classes and provide a support community for patients and their families, not to mention assisting families in need with medical costs.
Tami said that she could just about be an RN right now from amount she knows about blood cancers at the moment. She has to read Gabriel's charts and stay ontop of his various levels of everything. SHE has to know what's normal for Gabriel. It clearly has been a terrifying experience for Gabriel's entire family, and as his mom told us about it she absently clung to Gabriel, periodically petting his head. He patiently stood by and listened as we all took in his story.
It really was moving to hear Gabriel's story. His shyness in addressing the room of 50+ strangers all individually interested, and partially emotionally invested in his well-being was also really endearing. But, shy as he may have been, he indulged me in a photo of the two of us...
Yeah, alright. My headshot in that photo isn't the best but Gabriel sure looks good, so I cropped myself out. But look at the nametag, you can see it's me!
After this photo, it was time for me to go home and take a well-deserved hot shower. I went down the stairs carefully, in a procession of other unhappy runners also trying to reach the ground floor... one step at a time. It seemed hauntingly appropriate.
It was a bit of a cruel joke, but our "reserved room" for our buffet breakfast was the second floor. If you have ever ran beyond 6 miles before in your life, you'd know that stairs are the most evil thing to traverse after running. You just don't have the leg control, and every stair hurts.
After my 2 and a half hour run, and the liberation of a handful more of gummy bears from the aid station, I hopped in my car and drove the 2 blocks to the restaurant.. and pulled my way up the stairs using the banister.
There up top we were asked to put on name tags "Hello, my name is..." and then we were allowed to get a plate of food. The food REALLY hit the spot. Assorted fruits, fried potatoes, and scrambled eggs with melted cheese. There were also assorted mini-muffins to choose from, but I'm not much of a "bread" person.
I sat at a table occupied by one lady, and shortly after I got my seat, the other 2 empty seats at our table were claimed. I ended up sitting with 3 experienced marathon runners, who had great stories about the various events they've competed in. I learned about the Disney World marathon, and the Honolulu Marathon. Really interesting.
Eventually (when I was mostly done with my plate of food) we started the proceedings, where 2 honored teammates were invited to share their stories. The first honored teammate (I'm sorry, I no longer remember his name. Perhaps he's the Nike Women's Marathon honored teammate?) got up and talked about how we, the TNT runners, were the real heroes to go through the pain and effort of training for endurance events to raise money and awareness for their cause. It was inspirational, and made me feel good about what we were doing.
When he was done, Gabriel's family went up.
Gabriel's mom Tami did all the talking, and Gabriel angelically and shyly stood by while his mom told their story.
There were a couple moments when Tami was describing the hard times, and she was on the verge of tears: when they relied on all their neighbors and friends to help them get through the days. The type of blood cancer that Gabriel has requires 4 years of treatment (including several rounds of chemo), and at this point Gabriel is about halfway through. It's been rough this far, but they aren't out of the woods yet.
And, I guess there is A LOT to know about the cancer. The hospital gives you a large binder on your way out the door after the first hospital stay with information on the condition/treatments/etc, and you have to read and know this information. Tami said this is where organizations like LLS are invaluable. LLS provides something like 87 informational classes and provide a support community for patients and their families, not to mention assisting families in need with medical costs.
Tami said that she could just about be an RN right now from amount she knows about blood cancers at the moment. She has to read Gabriel's charts and stay ontop of his various levels of everything. SHE has to know what's normal for Gabriel. It clearly has been a terrifying experience for Gabriel's entire family, and as his mom told us about it she absently clung to Gabriel, periodically petting his head. He patiently stood by and listened as we all took in his story.
It really was moving to hear Gabriel's story. His shyness in addressing the room of 50+ strangers all individually interested, and partially emotionally invested in his well-being was also really endearing. But, shy as he may have been, he indulged me in a photo of the two of us...
Yeah, alright. My headshot in that photo isn't the best but Gabriel sure looks good, so I cropped myself out. But look at the nametag, you can see it's me!
After this photo, it was time for me to go home and take a well-deserved hot shower. I went down the stairs carefully, in a procession of other unhappy runners also trying to reach the ground floor... one step at a time. It seemed hauntingly appropriate.
doctors, slings, and accomplishment
Total Distance So Far: 133.9 miles
I've got a back log of information to lay out... so sorry for the long blog. Let's get started.
On Monday, July 16 I went to the track session, and continued to do the hill ascents with a lap around the track before trucking up the hill each time... walking downhill, no rest between laps. Since I am still nursing a sport injury from over-use, I did 4 laps again instead of the 6 my teammates were doing.
Stats:
Warm-up...
DISTANCE: 1.26 miles TIME: 10:38 minutes PACE: 8:26 minute/mile
Laps...
(1) DISTANCE: 0.45 miles TIME: 4:11 minutes PACE: 9:22
(2) DISTANCE: 0.46 miles TIME: 4:17 minutes PACE: 9:20
(3) DISTANCE: 0.51 miles TIME: 4:17 minutes PACE: 8:25
(4) DISTANCE: 0.45 miles TIME: 4:11 minutes PACE: 9:22
Cool-down...
DISTANCE: 0.77 miles TIME: 10:01 minutes PACE: 13:02
It was a pretty humid day, and I was sweating buckets. I opted to walk the second 5 minutes of my cool-down, which accounts for the slow pace.
***********************
Wednesday I went to see the orthopedic specialist. I was given a large padded plastic contraption to strap to my foot every night when I sleep to stretch my foot at a greater than 90 degree angle. The doc also told me to pick up a pair of good insoles from a sporting good store (he recommended Spenco Polysorbs).
The doctor emphasized my need to stretch my achilles tendon out regularly. That the lack of flexibility on the back of my leg was what caused this condition. I have to admit, I am pretty stiff and inflexible right now. Currently if I stand straight-legged and try to touch the floor, I'm about 3 inches shy of reaching the ground. This is the least flexible I think I've ever been.
The doctor also suggested I do low and no impact activities whenever I can. Replacing the timed run with the same time on an elliptical, stuff like that. I'll see what I can do.
When he first came in and suggested "no running for 2 months" that's when I originally panicked, and realized I needed to take all his suggestions very seriously.
***********************
Due to an extremely busy work schedule and a suggestion to take about 2-3 weeks off of training atleast from the Doctor, I didn't do any of my training for the remainder of the week. I did, however, email coach joe the information from the doctor. I was asking for training schedule recommendations. Joe got back to me and said all the week-day training stuff can be substituted for other things with low to no impact, but he'd still like me to participate in the group runs every saturday. Those were the most important thing and there was no substitute for them.
I was hesitant, but planned on participating.
In the mean time I started wearing the nighttime sling. I quickly learned it's actually more like a medieval torture device. The position it holds your foot in is neither natural nor comfortable. Inevitably I wake up in the middle of the night with my foot in pain, and rip the sling off. The foot, nonetheless, seems to be getting better. My morning symptoms have really reduced. It's amazing the difference the sling is making! I'm guessing one night in the future I'll be able to wear the sling all night long, but right now it's not happening.
Oh yes, and I got the polysorb insoles. The fancy ones for $35. They seem to really help too. I'm optimistic finally!
***********************
Saturday July 21
We met up at Willamette Park for the TNT group run at 7:30am. We're running 12 miles. (btw, Val did her 12 miles on Friday and didn't come to this run). The weather was overcast and humid, around 70 degrees or so.
The course was north from the park along the Willamette Greenway Trail to the Hawthorne Bridge. Over the bridge, and then south on the Springwater Corridor to the Sellwood bridge. Over that bridge and then north on the Greenway Trail again back to the park. At this point we'll have gone 8.3 miles. After that is a 2 mile out and back north again along the Greenway Trail to complete the 12 miles. Only, the course laid out was actually more like 13.3 miles. A half-marathon!
I also have to mention, this course is BEAUTIFUL! The scenery of the Willamette River is quite wonderful, and I was very much enjoying the wild flowers, the great blue herons, and the charmingly situated houses you can see along this course.
I intentionally decided to go slow as molasses so that I could increase my chances of making it through the run. I also opted to spend 30 seconds or less at the aid stations, just long enough to down 8oz of Gleukos sports drink and grab a handful of gummi bears. I didn't want to let my body cool down too much (another theory of mine as to why my previous 2 weekends failed).
It WAS NOT easy. Every step past 6 miles meant that I had healed significantly since last week. Hell, every step past 8 miles was a new record for me. I honestly thought I was doomed at about 9 miles when my GOOD knee started to have problems. Going over the Sellwood bridge was interesting. It's alot steeper than I realized. So coming down off of it there was a decent slope. I was babying my bad left leg, so was absorbing all my downward momentum with my right leg. Approx 1 mile later the right knee started aching... so I'm pretty sure it was my careless use of my good leg to help me down off the bridge. I should have just walked down the bridge in hindsight. blah.
At 9 miles my right knee was hurting and starting to stiffen up... to the point I was wondering if I should just call it good, but I REALLY wanted to go the full 12, so I did something weird. I started running a different way. To me, with slightly numbed legs and sore muscles, it felt like I was leaning forward, keeping my legs straight and kinda behind me, and wiggling my hips up and down in a shimmy... and somehow I was propelled forward! And... it didn't hurt. And... I couldn't seem to do this any slower than a 12 minute mile pace. I was forced to take these teeny tiny steps, and I realized I probably looked like those experienced marathon women that I've noticed at practice who run with tiny steps and not bending their knees much.
So, when I thought at 9 miles I might have to give up, I started running this different way, and I was just propelled the final 3 miles at a faster speed than I even crossed the Sellwood bridge at!! It was amazing.
and... I DID IT!!!
I had my garmin, so as soon as it read 12 miles, I stopped running and started walking.
Mind you, my right knee just stayed very unhappy the rest of the day. But it feels much better today. I think it'll heal. I just need to be careful on downhills.
Stats...
DISTANCE: 12.09 miles TIME: 2:23:00 minutes PACE: 11:50 minute/mile
After the run we had our honored teammate brunch, but I'll blog about that in a seperate blog.
Anyways, looks like I'm back on track! Yay!
I've got a back log of information to lay out... so sorry for the long blog. Let's get started.
On Monday, July 16 I went to the track session, and continued to do the hill ascents with a lap around the track before trucking up the hill each time... walking downhill, no rest between laps. Since I am still nursing a sport injury from over-use, I did 4 laps again instead of the 6 my teammates were doing.
Stats:
Warm-up...
DISTANCE: 1.26 miles TIME: 10:38 minutes PACE: 8:26 minute/mile
Laps...
(1) DISTANCE: 0.45 miles TIME: 4:11 minutes PACE: 9:22
(2) DISTANCE: 0.46 miles TIME: 4:17 minutes PACE: 9:20
(3) DISTANCE: 0.51 miles TIME: 4:17 minutes PACE: 8:25
(4) DISTANCE: 0.45 miles TIME: 4:11 minutes PACE: 9:22
Cool-down...
DISTANCE: 0.77 miles TIME: 10:01 minutes PACE: 13:02
It was a pretty humid day, and I was sweating buckets. I opted to walk the second 5 minutes of my cool-down, which accounts for the slow pace.
***********************
Wednesday I went to see the orthopedic specialist. I was given a large padded plastic contraption to strap to my foot every night when I sleep to stretch my foot at a greater than 90 degree angle. The doc also told me to pick up a pair of good insoles from a sporting good store (he recommended Spenco Polysorbs).
The doctor emphasized my need to stretch my achilles tendon out regularly. That the lack of flexibility on the back of my leg was what caused this condition. I have to admit, I am pretty stiff and inflexible right now. Currently if I stand straight-legged and try to touch the floor, I'm about 3 inches shy of reaching the ground. This is the least flexible I think I've ever been.
The doctor also suggested I do low and no impact activities whenever I can. Replacing the timed run with the same time on an elliptical, stuff like that. I'll see what I can do.
When he first came in and suggested "no running for 2 months" that's when I originally panicked, and realized I needed to take all his suggestions very seriously.
***********************
Due to an extremely busy work schedule and a suggestion to take about 2-3 weeks off of training atleast from the Doctor, I didn't do any of my training for the remainder of the week. I did, however, email coach joe the information from the doctor. I was asking for training schedule recommendations. Joe got back to me and said all the week-day training stuff can be substituted for other things with low to no impact, but he'd still like me to participate in the group runs every saturday. Those were the most important thing and there was no substitute for them.
I was hesitant, but planned on participating.
In the mean time I started wearing the nighttime sling. I quickly learned it's actually more like a medieval torture device. The position it holds your foot in is neither natural nor comfortable. Inevitably I wake up in the middle of the night with my foot in pain, and rip the sling off. The foot, nonetheless, seems to be getting better. My morning symptoms have really reduced. It's amazing the difference the sling is making! I'm guessing one night in the future I'll be able to wear the sling all night long, but right now it's not happening.
Oh yes, and I got the polysorb insoles. The fancy ones for $35. They seem to really help too. I'm optimistic finally!
***********************
Saturday July 21
We met up at Willamette Park for the TNT group run at 7:30am. We're running 12 miles. (btw, Val did her 12 miles on Friday and didn't come to this run). The weather was overcast and humid, around 70 degrees or so.
The course was north from the park along the Willamette Greenway Trail to the Hawthorne Bridge. Over the bridge, and then south on the Springwater Corridor to the Sellwood bridge. Over that bridge and then north on the Greenway Trail again back to the park. At this point we'll have gone 8.3 miles. After that is a 2 mile out and back north again along the Greenway Trail to complete the 12 miles. Only, the course laid out was actually more like 13.3 miles. A half-marathon!
I also have to mention, this course is BEAUTIFUL! The scenery of the Willamette River is quite wonderful, and I was very much enjoying the wild flowers, the great blue herons, and the charmingly situated houses you can see along this course.
I intentionally decided to go slow as molasses so that I could increase my chances of making it through the run. I also opted to spend 30 seconds or less at the aid stations, just long enough to down 8oz of Gleukos sports drink and grab a handful of gummi bears. I didn't want to let my body cool down too much (another theory of mine as to why my previous 2 weekends failed).
It WAS NOT easy. Every step past 6 miles meant that I had healed significantly since last week. Hell, every step past 8 miles was a new record for me. I honestly thought I was doomed at about 9 miles when my GOOD knee started to have problems. Going over the Sellwood bridge was interesting. It's alot steeper than I realized. So coming down off of it there was a decent slope. I was babying my bad left leg, so was absorbing all my downward momentum with my right leg. Approx 1 mile later the right knee started aching... so I'm pretty sure it was my careless use of my good leg to help me down off the bridge. I should have just walked down the bridge in hindsight. blah.
At 9 miles my right knee was hurting and starting to stiffen up... to the point I was wondering if I should just call it good, but I REALLY wanted to go the full 12, so I did something weird. I started running a different way. To me, with slightly numbed legs and sore muscles, it felt like I was leaning forward, keeping my legs straight and kinda behind me, and wiggling my hips up and down in a shimmy... and somehow I was propelled forward! And... it didn't hurt. And... I couldn't seem to do this any slower than a 12 minute mile pace. I was forced to take these teeny tiny steps, and I realized I probably looked like those experienced marathon women that I've noticed at practice who run with tiny steps and not bending their knees much.
So, when I thought at 9 miles I might have to give up, I started running this different way, and I was just propelled the final 3 miles at a faster speed than I even crossed the Sellwood bridge at!! It was amazing.
and... I DID IT!!!
I had my garmin, so as soon as it read 12 miles, I stopped running and started walking.
Mind you, my right knee just stayed very unhappy the rest of the day. But it feels much better today. I think it'll heal. I just need to be careful on downhills.
Stats...
DISTANCE: 12.09 miles TIME: 2:23:00 minutes PACE: 11:50 minute/mile
After the run we had our honored teammate brunch, but I'll blog about that in a seperate blog.
Anyways, looks like I'm back on track! Yay!
Sunday, July 15, 2007
sad run
Total Distance So Far: 118.0 miles
Saturday morning we had an 8 mile run scheduled starting at OMSI and wandering into the NW 23rd area and back to OMSI.
Val and I met up there, and started our run strong... all the way up to the Steele Bridge. We got to it just the same time the bridge was being raised to let a barge through. We opted to wait around for 15 minutes for the bridge instead of going up and over the Steele Bridge like a lot of the other TNT runners. Eventually the bridge was lowered again, and we continued on our way.
We had a little trouble with some of the directions, I kept forgetting to look at the streets, so, for instance, we turned on 19th instead of 15th to go from Thurman to Raleigh, and we went up to NW 24th St before turning right instead of turning on 23rd. We were giggling about it, as were the other runners who were actually following the directions correctly and we kept popping back up on the correct course. All in all I think the distance was the same since NW portland is pretty much on a standard grid.
We turned around at Thurman and NW 28th back the way we came, and did MUCH better at following the directions on the way back.... however at approximately 6 miles into the run, my knee painfully froze up on me again, and my run was effectively finished for me. Sad. Val walked back to OMSI with me. She was doing this 5.5 mile extreme scurry race (race over rough terrain, across streams, etc) on Mt Hood today and wanted to save her energy for that, so she didn't mind not doing the full 8 miles.
The good (I hope) news is, I FINALLY have my first orthopedic specialist appointment scheduled for Wednesday this week (it's taken over a month to get it), so HOPEFULLY things are just going to get better with my foot/knee from here. I'm super intimidated by my running injury now, cause if I can't even go 8 miles, there is NO WAY I'll be able to do the next group run (12 miles), let alone 26.2 miles in Oct.
sad. frustrated. disappointed in myself right now.
I think the worst part was when my knee seized up yesterday morning, I wasn't even breathing hard. I wasn't exhausted, I wasn't done running yet.
stupid knee.
Saturday morning we had an 8 mile run scheduled starting at OMSI and wandering into the NW 23rd area and back to OMSI.
Val and I met up there, and started our run strong... all the way up to the Steele Bridge. We got to it just the same time the bridge was being raised to let a barge through. We opted to wait around for 15 minutes for the bridge instead of going up and over the Steele Bridge like a lot of the other TNT runners. Eventually the bridge was lowered again, and we continued on our way.
We had a little trouble with some of the directions, I kept forgetting to look at the streets, so, for instance, we turned on 19th instead of 15th to go from Thurman to Raleigh, and we went up to NW 24th St before turning right instead of turning on 23rd. We were giggling about it, as were the other runners who were actually following the directions correctly and we kept popping back up on the correct course. All in all I think the distance was the same since NW portland is pretty much on a standard grid.
We turned around at Thurman and NW 28th back the way we came, and did MUCH better at following the directions on the way back.... however at approximately 6 miles into the run, my knee painfully froze up on me again, and my run was effectively finished for me. Sad. Val walked back to OMSI with me. She was doing this 5.5 mile extreme scurry race (race over rough terrain, across streams, etc) on Mt Hood today and wanted to save her energy for that, so she didn't mind not doing the full 8 miles.
The good (I hope) news is, I FINALLY have my first orthopedic specialist appointment scheduled for Wednesday this week (it's taken over a month to get it), so HOPEFULLY things are just going to get better with my foot/knee from here. I'm super intimidated by my running injury now, cause if I can't even go 8 miles, there is NO WAY I'll be able to do the next group run (12 miles), let alone 26.2 miles in Oct.
sad. frustrated. disappointed in myself right now.
I think the worst part was when my knee seized up yesterday morning, I wasn't even breathing hard. I wasn't exhausted, I wasn't done running yet.
stupid knee.
Thursday, July 12, 2007
independent running
Total Distance So Far: 112.0 miles
So, as you probably noticed, I've not blogged since June 28. The reason is because I was happily vacationing for the whole Independence Day week on Whidbey Island.
Needless to say, it was a doggy haven on the water. BEAUTIFUL weather all week long too.
I attempted to stay ontop of my training also...
The day I got there, Sat June 30, I did the 6 mile long run.
See? There I am running with my mom's whippet, Michiko.
Stats...
DISTANCE: 6 miles TIME: 59:44 minutes PACE: 9:59 minute/mile
My mom agreed to play the role of a mobile aid station for me, driving by at 30 minutes with my water bottle. It worked out great! The funny bit about this run was when I was happily chugging along, when out of nowhere a miniature dachsund came charging at me. Not knowing how serious the little dog was, I leapt over the little dog and looked back, the dog was still after me, so I sprinted away from it. Man that was alot of work after running 4 miles.
**************
On Monday, July 2 I did hill ascents up a grassy slope here at Fort Casey
I did 8 nonstop laps of hard runs up the slope and jogging back down the slope. Ofcourse I also did a 10 minute warmup run to the fort from our rental house, and a 10 minute run back home again.
Stats...
warm-up
DISTANCE: 0.91 miles TIME: 10:04 minutes PACE: 11:02 minute/miles
laps
1) DISTANCE: 0.11 miles TIME: 0:50 minutes PACE: 7:45 minute/miles
2) DISTANCE: 0.11 miles TIME: 0:52 minutes PACE: 8:18 minute/miles
3) DISTANCE: 0.11 miles TIME: 0:56 minutes PACE: 8:57 minute/miles
4) DISTANCE: 0.11 miles TIME: 0:56 minutes PACE: 8:57 minute/miles
5) DISTANCE: 0.11 miles TIME: 0:59 minutes PACE: 8:55 minute/miles
6) DISTANCE: 0.11 miles TIME: 0:59 minutes PACE: 8:55 minute/miles
7) DISTANCE: 0.11 miles TIME: 0:57 minutes PACE: 9:05 minute/miles
8) DISTANCE: 0.11 miles TIME: 1:00 minutes PACE: 9:40 minute/miles
cool-down
DISTANCE: 0.98 miles TIME: 10:03 minutes PACE: 10:15 minute/miles
**************
Happy Independence Day!!
Stats...
DISTANCE: 3.52 miles TIME: 35:02 minutes PACE: 10:01 minute/miles
**************
Saturday, July 7 was a little disappointing for me. I was supposed to do a 10 mile run... and had determined the day before that the lake our rental house was next to was circumvented by a ~5.5 mile road. I was going to circle the lake twice, and walk back to the house in a cool down over the final mile after I hit the 10 mile mark... once again my mom was going to play the mobile aid station and drive by every 30 minutes to allow me a drink of water.
Unfortunately, after a strong start (first 5 miles I was going faster than a 10 minute mile pace and feeling great), at approx 7.2 miles I found my knee suddenly and painfully stiffening up on me, just like on that 6 mile run about a month ago.
I tried walking it out, and then running again, which allowed me to run about 20 more feet before the knee seized up again. I continued the run/walking for about .5 more miles before the mobile aid station came by again... and I admitted if I kept it up I'd be doing more harm than good. I gave up at about 7.8 miles and climbed into the car.
So sad.
Stats...
DISTANCE: 7.8 miles TIME: 1:25:15 PACE: 10:46 minute/miles
After the run, we packed up and headed home.
**************
Sunday, July 8 my mom helped me run another garage sale with the remaining items I still had in my garage, and we did really really well!! About twice as well as my first (rained out) garage sale. THANKS MOM!
**************
Monday, July 9 track session again. We were doing slightly different hill ascents. It involved a lap around the track, and then a hard run up the hill, and then a walk downhill to begin the next lap. Coach Joe was telling me to take it a little easy due to my inability to run 10 miles the previous weekend. I only had to do 4 laps of this course instead of the 6 my fellow inexperienced marathon runners were doing.
Stats...
warm-up
DISTANCE: 1 mile TIME: 10 minutes PACE: 10:00 minute/mile
laps
DISTANCE: 1.83 miles TIME: 18:54 minutes PACE: 10:22 minute/miles
cool-down
DISTANCE: 1 mile TIME: 10 minutes PACE: 10:00 minute/mile
**************
Wednesday, July 11 another 35 minute run. I have to mention my plantar fasciitis plagued foot was KILLING me this morning. I decided to run anyway. I tried to take it easy though.
Stats...
DISTANCE: 3.29 miles TIME: 35:04 minutes PACE: 10:40 minute/miles
AND... that's all folks! We're all caught up! I was supposed to do a 30 minute run today, but I'm going to attempt that tomorrow night instead to give my foot a little more time off to heal.
So, as you probably noticed, I've not blogged since June 28. The reason is because I was happily vacationing for the whole Independence Day week on Whidbey Island.
Needless to say, it was a doggy haven on the water. BEAUTIFUL weather all week long too.
I attempted to stay ontop of my training also...
The day I got there, Sat June 30, I did the 6 mile long run.
See? There I am running with my mom's whippet, Michiko.
Stats...
DISTANCE: 6 miles TIME: 59:44 minutes PACE: 9:59 minute/mile
My mom agreed to play the role of a mobile aid station for me, driving by at 30 minutes with my water bottle. It worked out great! The funny bit about this run was when I was happily chugging along, when out of nowhere a miniature dachsund came charging at me. Not knowing how serious the little dog was, I leapt over the little dog and looked back, the dog was still after me, so I sprinted away from it. Man that was alot of work after running 4 miles.
**************
On Monday, July 2 I did hill ascents up a grassy slope here at Fort Casey
I did 8 nonstop laps of hard runs up the slope and jogging back down the slope. Ofcourse I also did a 10 minute warmup run to the fort from our rental house, and a 10 minute run back home again.
Stats...
warm-up
DISTANCE: 0.91 miles TIME: 10:04 minutes PACE: 11:02 minute/miles
laps
1) DISTANCE: 0.11 miles TIME: 0:50 minutes PACE: 7:45 minute/miles
2) DISTANCE: 0.11 miles TIME: 0:52 minutes PACE: 8:18 minute/miles
3) DISTANCE: 0.11 miles TIME: 0:56 minutes PACE: 8:57 minute/miles
4) DISTANCE: 0.11 miles TIME: 0:56 minutes PACE: 8:57 minute/miles
5) DISTANCE: 0.11 miles TIME: 0:59 minutes PACE: 8:55 minute/miles
6) DISTANCE: 0.11 miles TIME: 0:59 minutes PACE: 8:55 minute/miles
7) DISTANCE: 0.11 miles TIME: 0:57 minutes PACE: 9:05 minute/miles
8) DISTANCE: 0.11 miles TIME: 1:00 minutes PACE: 9:40 minute/miles
cool-down
DISTANCE: 0.98 miles TIME: 10:03 minutes PACE: 10:15 minute/miles
**************
Happy Independence Day!!
Wednesday, July 4 was a 35 minute run. It was getting a little late in the day, but I was planning on running late cause it was a really warm day. The only thing I didn't count on was the wind picking up. I simply did a 17:30 minute run away from the house, and then turned around and headed back. The return run was directly into the wind... it was pretty intense.
Stats...
DISTANCE: 3.52 miles TIME: 35:02 minutes PACE: 10:01 minute/miles
**************
Saturday, July 7 was a little disappointing for me. I was supposed to do a 10 mile run... and had determined the day before that the lake our rental house was next to was circumvented by a ~5.5 mile road. I was going to circle the lake twice, and walk back to the house in a cool down over the final mile after I hit the 10 mile mark... once again my mom was going to play the mobile aid station and drive by every 30 minutes to allow me a drink of water.
Unfortunately, after a strong start (first 5 miles I was going faster than a 10 minute mile pace and feeling great), at approx 7.2 miles I found my knee suddenly and painfully stiffening up on me, just like on that 6 mile run about a month ago.
I tried walking it out, and then running again, which allowed me to run about 20 more feet before the knee seized up again. I continued the run/walking for about .5 more miles before the mobile aid station came by again... and I admitted if I kept it up I'd be doing more harm than good. I gave up at about 7.8 miles and climbed into the car.
So sad.
Stats...
DISTANCE: 7.8 miles TIME: 1:25:15 PACE: 10:46 minute/miles
After the run, we packed up and headed home.
**************
Sunday, July 8 my mom helped me run another garage sale with the remaining items I still had in my garage, and we did really really well!! About twice as well as my first (rained out) garage sale. THANKS MOM!
**************
Monday, July 9 track session again. We were doing slightly different hill ascents. It involved a lap around the track, and then a hard run up the hill, and then a walk downhill to begin the next lap. Coach Joe was telling me to take it a little easy due to my inability to run 10 miles the previous weekend. I only had to do 4 laps of this course instead of the 6 my fellow inexperienced marathon runners were doing.
Stats...
warm-up
DISTANCE: 1 mile TIME: 10 minutes PACE: 10:00 minute/mile
laps
DISTANCE: 1.83 miles TIME: 18:54 minutes PACE: 10:22 minute/miles
cool-down
DISTANCE: 1 mile TIME: 10 minutes PACE: 10:00 minute/mile
**************
Wednesday, July 11 another 35 minute run. I have to mention my plantar fasciitis plagued foot was KILLING me this morning. I decided to run anyway. I tried to take it easy though.
Stats...
DISTANCE: 3.29 miles TIME: 35:04 minutes PACE: 10:40 minute/miles
AND... that's all folks! We're all caught up! I was supposed to do a 30 minute run today, but I'm going to attempt that tomorrow night instead to give my foot a little more time off to heal.
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