green muffins?

Tonight I caught the baking bug again. I made a double batch of green tea muffins w/ chocolate chips. I know, it's a slightly non-traditional baked good, but I assure you they're quite good.

I think I'll take them to soccer tomorrow evening and try to hand them out with slips of paper I've made with my donation url. Let's see if this works!



Muffins are DEFINITELY easier than pie to hand out at a sporting event. Come to think of it, this pretty much reinforces my mom's question the other day as to what the heck "easy as pie" means. It's a phrase that really doesn't make much sense.

holy hot asphalt, batman!

Total Distance So Far: 35.6 miles

Today's workout was a 25 minute run. No set pace or distance. Due to my work/afterwork schedule, the only time I could get around to this run was over lunch time. Problem was, we seem to be having some super-summer weather today. oof.

84 degrees out, at noon, I donned my running kit and headed out. Slathered up slick with sunblock, adorned with my running hat, sunglasses, garmin forerunner and ipod shuffle, I stepped out into the beating sun.

Dang it is hot today. Even the breeze was hot.

I knew this morning today was going to be a warm one when my house only cooled down to 70 degrees overnight with all my windows open.

Today's stats...
DISTANCE: 2.6 miles TIME: 25:04 minutes PACE: 9:39 minute mile

I think there was one moment where I nearly over-exerted myself around mile 2, but I pulled out of it ok. I need to make sure to be careful this summer when it's this warm and warmer. Perhaps I should consider doing my runs in the air conditioned fitness center on a treadmill instead of being an asphalt trooper.

week 2 of my TNT training underway

Total Distance So Far: 33.0 miles

Last evening we had another track session. I got there in time to do the 10 minute warm-up run too (at approx a 9 minute mile pace), so I was able to run 3 miles total last night instead of the 2 I got in last Monday.

As for my faster laps around the 400 meter track, here is how I did:
Lap 1) TIME: 1:41 PACE: 6:44 minute mile
Lap 2) TIME: 1:44 PACE: 6:56 minute mile
Lap 3) TIME: 1:37 PACE: 6:28 minute mile
Lap 4) TIME: 1:41 PACE: 6:44 minute mile

Faster than last week! I really enjoy running these laps, but I'm not sure why. It seems everyone else hates running these. I think it's loads better than the weight room at least (which is something I need to go do today, come to think of it).

For our cool down, Val and I ran together at an approximate 9:23 minute mile pace, and we both agreed that was a pretty comfortable pace to run at.

In other news, my first fund-raising garage sale is coming up in 2 weeks. I've got SOME stuff collected for it at this point, but I think I could use a good deal more. This upcoming weekend, I'm picking up some large tables from my friend Sheri, and also getting some things that she has collected from some of her friends for the sale.

My mom was in town this weekend and helped me to clean out my garage, so it's ready for larger items now. It looks so amazingly clean and organized, I hardly recognize it as my own garage! Moms are great.

I need to start working on advertising for it this week (figuring out what papers to post it in, etc). I'll need to make some signs, and continue to price the items I've already received. It's a little overwhelming, but I've also got some friends who said they'd come out and help me run the event. Here's hoping everything goes well!!

I'm not a morning person

Total Distance So Far: 30.0 miles

When I say I'm not a morning person, I REALLY mean it. I'm practically non-functional most mornings. Might as well hang a hat on me and call me a coat rack. Normally that's all I'm suited for.

This morning, for instance, I had lofty plans of getting up at 7:30am, and meeting up with Val at her house around 8:10am to carpool to the TNT group run starting at 8:30am.

At roughly 8:15am I got a phone call from Val, waking me up. CRAP!
I sprung out of bed and threw on my running kit, and flew out the door. SOMEHOW I made it to the TNT group run only 10 minutes late, and they hadn't even left for the run yet. They were finishing up a clinic on proper stretching led by coach Joe.

Val and I met up, signed in, and started on our run within a minute or so of me getting there. I am SO glad Val called me this morning!!!

Today's run was 4 miles along the Willamette esplanade. I was having a hard time getting into some kind of warmed-up rhythm. I didn't FEEL like I had my running-mojo today. I think perhaps being deep asleep only 30 minutes prior to starting the run had something to do with that though.

My Garmin was again having trouble finding a signal under the big Portland bridges (like always on the Willamette esplanade), but I know it was a 4 mile run. The run took Val and I 42:29 minutes, which gives us roughly a 10:37 minute mile or so.

Also made some friends today on the TNT group run. I met Sherman and Amber. Both of them joined TNT by themselves, both very nice people, and both seeming to be currently running at a pace similar to Val and mine. I'll be seeing a lot of them over the next couple of months, so that will be cool.

resting

Today is an official "rest" day according to our workout schedule. I'm really looking forward to doing nothing. I think I'll exceed at it even! I've got a couple rental DVDs too, just to ensure complete sedentary behavior after work tonight.

Yesterday I went back to my fitness center to lift more weights. I went a little easier on the amount of weight I lifted though (especially the bench press, and opted for hand weights instead of the nautilus bench press machine). It went better, and slightly quicker, than my first time in the gym. Probably I wasted a lot of time looking for the best mechanism available in the gym to do each listed exercise, whereas this time I knew where all the machines were that I needed.

In conclusion, I feel MUCH less sore today than on Wednesday. Hurray!

Tomorrow morning is our second group run. Looking forward to it!

run stats

Total Distance So Far: 26.0 miles

I wanted to add the stats from today's little run.
DISTANCE: 2.48 miles TIME: 25:01 minutes AVG PACE: 10:05 minute mile


The run was easier than I was expecting. I'm still sore though.

oof, I'm sore today

Yesterday I spent 2 hours in my work's fitness center lifting weights according to the strength-training workout schedule laid out for us by the TNT head coach. It honestly took more time than I was expecting. I thought I would be lifting weights for maybe an hour? But no. 2 hours.

I like the idea of being true to the weight lifting aspect of my training because otherwise everything I'm working on is all lower body, and I know it's better for me to focus a similar amount of effort on my upper body and core muscle groups. Plus, I was surprised how difficult I found the bench press! I remember being decent at bench presses back in high school, so when I was having trouble with my 3rd set of 20 reps at 30 lbs, I was actually quite surprised.

Man am I feeling it today too. Last time my full body was this sore with muscle aches, I think I had just done a full day or so of heavy lifting either moving into my house, or helping a friend move into their's.

Todays workout is a simple 25 minute run, and I think I'll find that refreshing, and helpful with the muscle aches. Tomorrow I have another 2 hours in the weight room tho.

I think, so far, I'm enjoying the weight training the least of this whole experience. heh. I know I know, weight lifting will get easier as I stick with it. Don't worry, I'm not planning on cutting any corners.

run yer butt off!

Total Distance So Far: 23.5 miles

Tonight we had a training session at a track in Portland near OHSU.
As explained to us by the TNT Running head coach, Joe English, these track sessions are to challenge ourselves for short distances. We are supposed to push our pace on the track sessions for 400 meters, and then recover for 2 minutes. Repeat. These aren't sprints, just challenging our running pace.

Right now we're only doing this 4 times (1 mile), but we'll be upping the reps later on. The idea is, if we push ourselves for a short amount of time, we'll be stronger the next time we try to run a longer distance. Or as Joe put it, our "gas mileage" gets better from these sessions.

So I strapped on my Garmin and tried out my 400M run. I was getting average paces of 7:13 and 7:14 minute miles during my 400M runs. Not bad! I was nice and winded after each 400M lap. Joe made sure we knew we should be breathing pretty hard after each lap. He even came up to me and said, "YES! This is exactly what I want to hear!" when I was trying to catch my breath after one of my laps. He said he was going to hold me up as his model for how to run these laps. Nice. Good job, me!

The funny thing was ALL the TNT runners were at the track session, and as soon as we set off it became clear who were the experienced marathon runners, who were the first time marathon runners, and who were the first time half-marathon runners. The experienced runners took off like an arrow! I heard one of them saying their pace on a 400M run was around a 5 minute mile (this guy also had a Garmin Forerunner). That's quite a pace! heh. The half-marathon runners had the beginner option of running for 100M and then walking 100M repeat for 1 lap, and then resting at the end of the lap. The people who chose to do this were the ones who didn't think they could run hard for 400M. So these runners are really really starting from scratch! It shouldn't make a difference, the TNT info session claimed they could get anyone ready to run a marathon in the 4.5 months we have, so I believe even the 100/100 runners will be able to make the final run. It'll be interesting to watch all of our progress!

It was a really short session, about 15 minutes total (for me), and then a 10 minute run cool down.

1st group run!

Total Distance So Far: 21.75 miles

This morning was our first TNT group run. We met up at the Portland Running Company at 9am and first had a small clinic on proper footwear. It sounds like in total while training for this marathon I'm actually going to be running something like 750 miles (originally I thought the figure was going to be 250 miles, seems I was off by a factor of 3!). Holy cow. I'll probably need a new pair of shoes this summer, as a good pair of running shoes should only last you 400 miles. They said every runner wear's their shoes too long, but try not to, cause that's one way you can injure yourself. I'll try to keep that in mind!

During the clinic Val answered a question correctly (she named the movie a quote was from) and won a nice high-tech polyester running cap. She told me after the clinic that she really wasn't ever going to wear it, would I like it? SURE! I swapped out my bandana (that I had chosen this morning to hide my wild bed hair) for the cap pronto! I think it suits me. THANKS VAL!!!

After this we (the TNT runners) split up into 3 running groups: first time marathon runners, first time half-marathon runners, and experienced marathon runners. Each of these groups had a different distance to run today. After we grouped up, we headed out.

Our (first time marathon runners) 3 mile run this morning was going to be along the Willamette esplanade... however there was a cystic fibrosis walk also using the Willamette esplanade this morning at the same time, which meant the walkway was jammed pack full of people supporting a good cause wearing matching T-shirts and holding signs, walking dogs and pushing baby strollers, and this left very little room to try to run in. We started our first 1/2 mile or so walking with the group, desperately trying to go faster whenever possible. After a while we organized and formed a single file line, and the front man wove a snaking trek through the walkers as we attempted to make our first run "aerobic" in some way. It was actually quite a workout, as we ended up jumping up and down cement benches and walls, and dancing round stray children or curious dogs. Once we decided to form a line, the running was much more continuous. Even after the turn around point and then running headlong back into the oncoming walkers, they atleast had learned to clear a run-way for us by then as the TNT running group isn't a small group of people (50 or more?).

After the first half mile I remembered to turn on my Garmin (oops). I'm pretty sure the run was indeed 3 miles tho. The TNT coaches seemed to have measured it out exactly for us. I don't know how long the total outing took, but I suppose the data would be flawed since we were forced to walk a nontrivial amount of it. Anyway, from the data I DID collect, we (Val and I) averaged a 10:39 minute mile. Not bad!

Once done running, I was absolutely soaked with sweat, and felt pretty darned good about the run.

It's pretty neat to be running in a large group who are all wearing the same training jerseys. It makes you feel... I dunno... like you're really a part of something bigger than yourself. Then again, this may just be nostalgia for my marching band days. hehehehe.

P.S. Also this morning there was some ado around Val locking her car keys in her car by mistake. We managed to fix it without any real drama tho after the run. No worries.

just cause

Total Distance So Far: 18.75 miles

Went on a little run afterwork today just to make sure my ankle could hold up to tomorrow morning, and to make sure I didn't lose my ability to run over a mile this week.

I'd never just gone on a random run around my neighborhood before. I'd figured out a couple years ago that a run from my house to a park nearby and back was roughly 1 mile, so whenever I went on a run from home that was the route I'd always take. Since I wanted to go on a longer run today, and didn't feel much like doing 2 laps of that route, I just strapped my Garmin on my wrist and headed out the opposite direction from the park.

I wove around the residential blocks admiring the various old and well-kept houses in my neighborhood and appreciating all the blooming flowers. When I hit half a mile I started making my way in the opposite direction towards that park. At the park my Garmin told me I was at 1.5 miles, so I knew that once back at my house I would be at 2 miles exactly. Sure enough, that's how it worked out. That was a pretty cool impromptu route run. Neat that I can do that kind of thing with my Garmin and run exact distances at the same time!

Today's run stats:
DISTANCE: 2 miles TIME: 21:25 minutes AVG PACE: 10:43 minute mile

That was fun. I should do runs like this more often! I live in a good neighborhood for it, might as well take advantage, right?

TNT Kick-Off!

Last night we had our TNT Kick-off party at the Double Tree hotel. It was a large group containing TNT participants for a number of endurance events: The Nike Women's Marathon, Nike Women's half-marathon, The Peach of a Century (cycling event?), The Triathalon at Pacific Grove, and of course, the Portland Marathon. Many of the marathon participants were training to walk the marathon. I hadn't even considered that it'd take training to walk 26.2 miles, but come to think of it, I suppose it would!

We got to meet our team coaches, mentors, and all the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Oregon Chapter officers and contacts. We've been getting emails from our mentors for a while now, so it was nice to put a face to the names.

Also, part of the evening was dedicated to our honored teammates. These are a group of people we'll get to meet and talk with... who are intended to inspire our efforts at both fund-raising for LLS and for training towards our respective events.

As I learned earlier this week, my honored teammate is a 9-year-old boy named Gabriel. Gabriel is currently undergoing treatment for Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. I'm not sure what that is, or what Gabriel has gone through so far since he was diagnosed, but I now have 5 months to get to know him and hear all about his experiences fighting his disease.

Here is a picture of Gabriel I was sent. He wasn't able to make it to the kickoff meeting, so I haven't met him in person yet, but according to the time stamp, this picture was taken on St. Patrick's Day weekend roughly 2 months ago.



He looks like he has loads of personality, doesn't he? I think I'm going to enjoy getting to know him. It's weird to think that 5 months is a lifetime for people being treated for a blood cancer. Sometimes months is all you have after being diagnosed. Gabriel is doing good though, he was diagnosed back in December of 2005, back when he was 7 years old. He's put up a great fight for 1.5 years so far! It's going to be interesting knowing him through his current treatment for his blood cancer. Here's hoping for remission!

Anyway, everything gets to officially start now. My first group run is Saturday. My 6-days a week training begins Saturday... it's all very exciting!

... oh yeah, and by the way, my ankle is perhaps slightly stiff late at night and early in the morning, but for the most part it feels fine now. I'm glad I didn't seriously hurt myself this week!!!

metal grates and other harmless objects

Total Distance So Far: 16.75 mi

So, today the fitness center at my work was hosting a "fun run/walk" at lunch time. I was all excited to participate and was trying to decide how many laps I wanted to do today....


I thought 3 might be a good number, so was getting ready to try that....

on my first lap, about 0.25 miles out, I stepped funny on a metal drainage grate and rolled my ankle.

ow.

I had to sit down for a bit.
After my ankle stopped throbbing, I decided to try walking at least. Since plenty of my coworkers were walking the "fun run/walk" I had some friends to walk with. That was also nice.

After about 1/2 the lap walking, I decided to try running again, and finished up the rest of the lap at a decent pace. The ankle feels perhaps a little stiff, and a little "delicate" but it's functional and not in pain currently... so that's good. I roll my ankles easily anymore after spraining both repeatedly when I played basketball in elementary/middle school. I've had the curse of the weak ankles all my adult life. When I play soccer or ultimate I wear ankle braces to prevent injury, but for some reason I didn't think they were necessary for distance running....

... hm. I should really watch my step when I run from now on.

Anyway, it may not count, but today's stats:
DISTANCE: 1.25 mi TIME: 16:20 minutes AVG PACE: 13:05 minute mile

hum de dum...

mmm... pie

I had the urge to bake this weekend, so I put that to good use.

I had my first "pie campaign" today. I baked 2 strawberry-rhubarb pies from scratch on Monday night and brought them in to work on Tuesday with plates, forks, and vanilla ice cream.

The idea I had, instead of selling individual slices and nickel & diming my co-workers to try to raise money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, was to use the pie as a thank you gift for anyone who decided to sponsor me that day. It worked! I was so pleased!! I didn't push pie on anyone, nor did I go out of my way to let people know I was fund-raising. I just had pie on display at my cube next to my donation sheets.

1 pie is gone, and it was VERY good (yes, I had a test sliver to make sure it came out great). I was quite pleased with how it tasted. I still have a pie left though.

I'm considering taking it to my ultimate frisbee games tomorrow evening with slips of paper with my donation url on it, and handing out pie if the person is interested in sponsoring me. The logistics might be kinda awkward tho, since there are no... tables. Plus, ultimate frisbee isn't really much of a "pie" event.

Hmm... anyway, if that doesn't work out, I'll need to figure out what to do with this pie before it goes bad! Can't waste a good pie!!

Any ideas?

4 laps!

Total Distance So Far: 15.5 mi

Went ahead and tried 4 slowish laps around work today. Here are the specs:

lap 1) DISTANCE:1.17mi TIME:12:21 minutes PACE:10:43 minute mile
lap 2) DISTANCE:1.17mi TIME:13:10 minutes PACE:11:19 minute mile
lap 3) DISTANCE:1.17mi TIME:13:21 minutes PACE:11:29 minute mile
lap 4) DISTANCE:1.17mi TIME:12:45 minutes PACE:10:54 minute mile

TOTAL) DISTANCE:4.68mi TIME:51:38 minutes PACE:11:26 minute mile

I was shooting for a pace somewhere between 11 and 12 minute miles, so I'm feeling pretty good about this run!

running with dogs

Total Distance So Far: 10.8 mi

This morning I ran in the OR Humane Society's 20th annual Doggy Dash which went in a little circle route along Portland's Waterfront Park. It was supposed to be a 2 mile run/walk, but my Garmin told me it was more like 1.61 mi, which makes sense to me as I was able to run it in 15:37 minutes, and I am NOT capable of running a 7:45 minute mile for 2 miles right now. I'm just not.

My Garmin told me I did the 1.61 miles at an average pace of 9:41 minute miles. Not bad for me actually! I committed the sin of getting excited and starting off at the start line too fast... and spent the rest of the run trying to get my heart rate and breathing down to a comfortable, maintainable level. It's hard to contain my excitement when stepping off with a horde of other people (and dogs).

I also decided to try running with my new Novara Breeze hydration pack for the first time. I was pretty sure I wasn't going to NEED the water for a "2 mile" run (the bladder holds 1.5L), but I was pretty sure I'd need to bring water for runs later this summer when we're out running for an hour or more, and I wanted to see how the hydration pack felt to run with (plus I wanted to carry my wallet, cell phone, and camera with me this morning, and my hydration pack has a small pocket JUST big enough for those items). At first I didn't have the straps tight enough, and the flopping of the pack with the swishing of the water was really hard to run with, and I was distracted with holding the pack in place. After the initial excitement of running with loads of other people went away, I tightened up the straps and that at least eliminated the flopping to a point that I could ignore the inertia of the swishing water. The pack has this cool drinking tube that connects to your shoulder strap with a magnet. To drink, you put the end of the tube in your mouth and bite on it. It's pretty innovative.

Anyway, after the run, I got out my camera to take pictures of the event and the dogs. The runners were let loose about 15 minutes before the walkers were allowed to start so I was done by the time the walkers were going. I thought I'd share a bunch of the pictures here. Sorry this is a little off subject, but I can't resist. I love dogs.

This is a picture of the walkers approaching en masse along the esplanade.


If you look closely here, you can see there are like a dozen corgies in this group!


Here are some finish line pics...


Notice this husky owner has to wear gardening gloves to handle the leash of her pulling dog without getting blisters. Some dogs are like that...


Some dogs were wearing interesting outfits...




I think this was the youngest dog at the event... an 8 week old beagle! Too cute.


Some dogs didn't even walk the event!!


Lots of beautiful dogs there tho! All sizes too. This owner had a dog at both ends of the size spectrum.


Some more doggy pics...








A good morning all in all!

3 laps(!) and a story

Total Distance So Far: 9.2 mi

I thought it'd be fun to keep a running total (no pun intended) of the ground covered during my training. As of today (starting with my 5k last weekend), that amount is up to a little over 9 miles!

I did my 3 lap run of my work campus this morning. It went really well! I used the little "virtual running partner" feature of my Garmin, and set my VRP to a pace of 10:30 minute miles, and then I tried to stay with him. The Garmin tells you if you're ahead or behind your VRP running the pace you are trying to match. I was having a hard time sticking with my VRP tho. I'd get ahead of him, and then behind him... repeat ad infinum. He's a handy yardstick tho to know how you're doing all in all.

In the end, I think I did a decent job at keeping my goal pace thanks to my VRP. Here are the specs from this run:

lap 1) DISTANCE: 1.17mi TIME: 12:01 minutes PACE: 10:26 minute mile
lap 2) DISTANCE: 1.17mi TIME: 12:18 minutes PACE: 10:41 minute mile
lap 3) DISTANCE: 1.17mi TIME: 12:06 minutes PACE: 10:31 minute mile
TOTAL) DISTANCE: 3.5mi TIME: 36:25 minutes PACE: 10:35 minute mile

I think it was a decent pace for me. I definitely felt like I challenged myself, but it wasn't TOO much for me to handle. A good run overall, especially since this is my new "longest run ever done." I kinda figure I'm going to be saying that a lot over the next 5 months tho.

I read in the booklet we got for Team in Training that consistently paced miles is the key to running a marathon. If you can set a reasonable pace and keep it up mile after mile, you are more likely to have a successful run without hurting yourself. Something for me to continue working on.

Also, as promised, a little story.
My friend Gillian just reminded me of this yesterday when I emailed her asking about garage sale items. Gillian's mother died at the age of 51 of NonHodgkins Lymphoma. I remember when her mother was diagnosed! She needed a bone marrow transplant and none of the people on the national bone marrow registry were a match for her. I guess there are A LOT of bone marrow "types." A group of us who were friends with Gillian set out to get our own bone marrow types done to see if we were a match to her mom. The test, albeit easy (just a blood sample needed), is not a trivial amount of money (granted, I think part of the price was the "rush" we were putting on the processing). I think it was something like $75/person? Ineffect, we had a little fundraising effort to raise money to cover people's bone marrow typing tests, so we could increase our chances of finding a match for her mom. Gillian organized a bowl-a-thon where we each got sponsors who would give an amount based on our final bowling score. I did very badly (not a good bowler) but I think I raised a couple hundred dollars towards the effort nonetheless.

After all that work, none of us who were tested came back as a match for Gillian's mom, but as luck would have it a new stranger on the national registry was! Gillian's mother was able to get a bone marrow transplant, but the positive effect from it only allowed her to live long enough to see her first granddaughter once after little Helen was born. Gillian's mother died roughly a year after being diagnosed.

It's a sad story, and I now completely remember doing everything I could at the time to help. It's a grim reminder of how important the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's work is, and in some way helped me put a meaning and a heart behind my fundraising effort.

On Oct 7, I'll partly be running in honor of Gillian's mom -- a woman I never met, but tried to help.

planning for a garage sale

I think one of my first massive sized fund-raising activities is going to be a garage sale. I've started asking around today for donated Garage Sale items from friends and co-workers.

I guess this weekend I ineffect need to seriously clean out my garage to make room. I also happen to have a spare bedroom in my house I can store/sort/price items in. That'll be handy. HOPEFULLY I'll get a lot of good swank to try to sell off at budget prices.

The plan right now is to have 2 separate garage sales. The first on June 9, and the second on Aug 25. Unsold items after the first will have another chance to be sold at the second. We'll see how that goes.

I'm also considering selling hotdogs and soda at the same time during the Garage Sales. This is definitely going to be an interesting endeavor. I'll need to find some friends to help me man the sale on the day too.

a little run

Brought my Garmin and running kit to work today. My work campus is surrounded by a loop road which has a sidewalk or biking/walking lane for atleast 3/4th the way around the loop. On any given day you can find health-conscious employees walking a lap around the grounds.

I figured the loop was about a mile. Turns out it's exactly 1.17 miles.
I did 2 laps today non-stop. I tried pushing myself a little atfirst, but for the second lap settled into a slower pace (until I saw the end of the lap, then I pushed myself quite hard till the finish).

Today's Run Stats...
lap 1) distance:1.17 mi time:11:29 minutes pace:9:51 minute mile
lap 2) distance:1.17 mi time:12:04 minutes pace:10:21 minute mile
TOTAL) distance: 2.34mi time:23:33 minutes pace:10:05 minute mile

love the new toy.

Afterwards I went to the little employee shower room to change back into civies. I realized then I had forgotten to bring to work both deodorant, AND a shower towel. I guiltily took a pile of paper towels (meant for hand-drying) out of the dispenser and took them into the shower stall with me in lieu of a terrycloth bath towel. Not knowing how many I'd need, I took quite a few. Turns out paper towels are WAY more absorbent than terrycloth! I've never been so dry so quickly after a shower! Go figure. I also learned I need approx 10 paper towels to dry myself off after a shower. I'm filing this information away into my vault of trivial facts just incase I need to know it again.

additional note to self: next time you run at work bring your ipod shuffle, sunblock, sunglasses, and a visor.

On Friday I think I'll try 3 laps.

my first 5k, and a new toy

On May 4 I swung by REI to pick up a new toy... it's a Garmin Forerunner 201. This little gadget is a wrist-mounted personal training device that collects performance data based on GPS technology. I'm a geek, I really wanted numbers to look at over the next 5 months. Now I can gather data and look at it. Maybe put the data points into pretty charts? The thought makes me giddy.

Following that I took my new toy on a run around the Willamette Esplanade. It took me 30 min 31 sec to complete the loop. I know the time is correct. What I'm not sure about is the official distance of the loop. The Garmin GPS unit was set to bike-riding mode, and was set to the previous owner's personal data (I think it was an REI return as it was fully charged and the AC charger cable was blatantly not nicely bundled with a twisty tie). Also, since the esplanade loop is partially underneath bridges, the GPS unit lost contact with the satellites long enough to believe the loop was 3.9 miles in length (yeah, over a mile off. I'm pretty sure the loop is more like 2.7 miles long). Anyway, since the data was flawed, I went ahead and erased it and the one other entry in the history of the device that could only have been left by the previous owner.

Then I set the device up with my personal data.

On May 5, Hana, Val, and I ran the 5k amongst a gaggle of animal lovers. The three of us resisted the urge to go fast from the start, and instead intentionally started at a nice slow pace, and kept going... slow and steady. At first it appeared we were bringing up the rear of the 5k runners (maybe a dozen total? not many runners)... after about a mile we passed about 2 or 3 people who clearly hadn't been training to run a 5k non-stop. They may have started faster than us, but they had burnt themselves out. After the halfway turn around point, we passed a runner that had to stop because her dog was clearly over-worked (laying in the grass panting under a tree). Poor thing. After that we ran into the masses of 5k walkers... so it started to become unclear how we were doing compared to other runners.

We reached the end (actually, never found the finish line, I don't think one was set up since it wasn't a race technically... we eventually went back to the starting point for lack of a better final destination). My Garmin said we had completed a 3.36 mi run in 40 min 18 seconds... averaging 12 minute miles and burning 288 calories total.

We did it! We successfullly ran a 5k nonstop!! I believe it was all of our first non-stop 5k, so that was really really great! Also, we all FELT good after we were done. None of us were sore or in pain. It just felt really good. I don't know how else to explain it.

I'll run another run on Monday me thinks. I've got 2 weeks until the marathon training begins, but I don't want to lose whatever progress I've made in the mean time.

I can't believe how nice it feels to run. I wasn't expecting that. All this time I thought distance running was all pain and effort and boring. The 5k on Saturday made me really optimistic about the upcoming training. I think it's going to be worth doing for more than just being able to eat alot of pasta whenever I want.

Neat.

I can't believe I'm doing this....

Cliche, perhaps. I haven't exactly hit a midlife crisis.

I just feel... ready. Like I can be serious enough to tackle this.
This weekend my friend Val called me up and asked me to run a marathon with her in Oct. I hesitated for what? 30 seconds, then said what the hell. Not exactly the inspirational words of commitment you might expect from someone who is ready to spend nearly every day of the next 5 months in fitness, strength, and endurance training to work up to running 26.2 miles in the Portland Marathon. no not exactly.

But, I dunno. I did consider it... and thought I could do it.

Why? I'm not sure. I'm not a runner. Ok, I'm "sporty," yes. I've been playing soccer and ultimate frisbee at a recreational level (non-competitive) for 5 years or more now. I've got loads of ankle and foot injuries (and an old broken finger) to show for it too. A couple black eyes, a couple bloody noses... all in good fun. Makes you feel alive.

But now... now I'm taking on a whole new plateau of commitment and seriousness. I mean, I'm HOPING it will be enjoyable too. I guess we'll see.


A brief history of why I was amenable to this...
I decided to sign up to run a 5K on May 5, 2007 (this upcoming Saturday) with my friend Hana (for the SW WA Humane Society). Val later decided to join us in this run. For the past 4 weeks Hana and I have been "training" to be able to run the 5K nonstop (i.e. no walking allowed). And as of this weekend I finally believe we'll be able to. I drove up to Seattle to see Hana, and we ran around Greenlake (2.8mi) without needing to slow down once. It was a new top achievement for me... and I replicated it again on Monday on a 2.8 mi run around the Willamette esplanade (in 28 minutes) without needing to slow down. It was totally awsome, and I'm really proud of myself. I think we'll be able to run the 5k on Saturday without any trouble...

... and this "training" will give me a good launching point for the Marathon training... which begins May 19 with a 3 mi run.