Wednesday, September 30, 2009

AAAAAHHHHHH! (1/2m WEEK 2)

So, pretty decent week for running and then

WE

CRASHED

OUR

BIKES.

The Captain broke his arm! Bike safety was always what scared me about triathlon and I was right…it was scary! That full story will come shortly and it is becoming less traumatic with time and now that he is doing so much better but, holy smokes! Not fun AT ALL!


As for that week of training:

It started out pretty good and then went down (literally, hehe)

Week of 9/14

  1. Fashionably Flexible: Long runs on Fri, Sat OR Sun - whatever day works best for me. This didn't work very well I guess since on Sunday I decided to go for a bike ride in place of my long run so I didn't get my long run in. It was OK since the "long run" was still only 6miles. So I was going to get them in on Monday…then we crashed L
  2. Weak Weekdays: Only 3 times per week MAX and not over 5/6 miles. No need to go out and get injured. I did fine during the week actually, even got in an actual tempo run!
  3. Cerebral Caloric Intake: If you remember I gained weight on my first marathon, but I was a svelte sister on my 2nd one. Gotta watch what goes in the pie hole. Meh, it was OK
  4. Luscious Longies: 3 runs of 20+ plus miles, maxing out at 22 miles. Not there yet
  5. Yoga Yahoo: Continue to do Bikram at least 2 days a week - aiming for 3 Crosstrain. Well, we went for a bike ride…that ended in tragedy (less than tragic but still WAY SCARY)
  6. Healthapotamus: I'd been pretty good about using G$

Week numbers:

9/14/2009

shred

9/15/2009

shred

3mi run

9/16/2009

shred(interrupted by phone call)

speedwork

9/17/2009

shred

3mi

9/18/2009

shred

3mi

9/19/2009

3 mi hills (Hal said to do 4miles)

9/20/2009

12mi hill bike ride (accident)




Thursday, September 17, 2009

Running Irk: race photos

Why are race photos so darn expensive? Seriously? Who out there is buying them?

I just feel like they are so exorbitantly priced that they out-price themselves. I don't even consider spending $40 to get a digital image of a race photo but at $5 or $10 I would certainly. I'm just not sure about their sales strategy.

Say there is a race with 4000 people, If 1:100 people (generously) are inclined to buy a $40 picture the gross revenue is $1600. But if 1:20 (maybe generous too) people that are willing to buy a $10 photo they gross $2000.

But maybe they find that the same people buy whether the cost is $10 or $40. And maybe I just have to be less cheap. Either way, there have been a few race pics of myself I'd've liked to have but alas NOT at that premium!

And really, WHO IS BUYING THESE? Because they must profit since there are always a million photgs out there.

Just long enough to suck (Iron Girl 10K race report)

That is a quote from a cycling class instructor at 24hr fitness about 10Ks. It cracks me up cause it is SO true.

I was not super jazzed about running this race. 10K's suck! But DSF sold me when I saw that they had personalized bibs (I am still very sad that we missed out on them for the marathon where I was running slowly enough that everybody would have had time to read my name and cheer me through the death shuffle). So, Friday night, I dragged myself away from a game of Beatles Rock Band at a friend of The Cap's and began pre-race setup. I have a secret desire to be really thematic at races and, although my introversion keeps me from going over the top costume-y, I try to be at least slightly festive. For this race that mean looking girly and I realized I didn't really have the gear for it. I went with my Team In Training long sleeve tech top and tri shorts. In the morning I got up, ate pita with scrambled eggs (I just had to pray that this wasn't a huge mistake later but it is my current favorite breakfast), donned my selected outfit, grabbed the Garmin (no HR monitor), opted not to bother brushing my hair, and was out the door. My biggest decision of the day was that I did not drink anything that morning. I was going to try having as little slush in my stomach as possible.

Met up with DSF and we chatted in the starting chute. The main topic was "Running skirts, yay or nay?" I find the running skirt rather curious…but I guess it would have met the girly-ness criteria when selecting my ensemble.

I had set my Garmin to a 10K in 1hour. A lofty goal for me.

The race began and once I'd waded through the initial sea of female humanity, I was off. I liked how my Garmin only displayed distance remaining and average pace, it was exactly the right amount of info to know. I saw that I was holding a 9:25sec pace for the first 2miles and was feeling pretty good about it. There was a water station there but I decided to skip it to continue testing the no/low liquids theory.

I decided I would not consult the Garmin for any more info (other than the remaining distance and avg pace) because I felt like that would be too distracting and if I focused on staying around the suggested avg pace (9:39), I'd be golden.

So, that's what I did. The 5K runners peeled off and we went out for another lap of the lake. Until mile 4 I was still feeling mainly good.

Hit the water stop again and I was thirsty but felt good, so I figured I'd carry on and see how it went. One reason I don't like 10Ks is that 6.2 miles is around the upper limit of how far I can run without needing a potty, but at mile 5 I was still doing fine in that department.

So I kept running. My avg pace was creeping up a bit but still not over the 9:39 target pace that Garmin was having me aim for.

The last 0.5mi was TOUGH. I wanted very badly to walk or at least slow down more than I already had but I saw that avg pace creeping up and I saw how little distance I had left so, I kept running. When I finally saw the finish line I was excited but knew it had to be a trick. Garmin had been a little ahead of the race mile markers and even he said I still had 0.2miles to go. You had to pass the finish line, go around a seemingly never-ending loop and then into a U-SHAPED(!) finishing chute. Garmin clocked me at 59:13 for 6.21miles, the official clock timed me at 1:00:38. So not under an hour exactly but I was very happy.

Afterwards, DSF and I skipped the rather elaborate and elegant post-race spread in favor of showers (not together) and to get busy the day started.

Overall it was a good race. Not my favorite distance but it was OK. This is the first time I realized how much I like the Garmin. So much I'm going to name him. I think I'll call him G-money (G$ for short) because Garmin starts with a G and it was the priciest running paraphernalia I've gotten yet.


 

On a more sober note: I will put it here so as to immortalize it for myself and future medical professionals; my right knee has been feeling tweaky lately. Mainly when I do speedwork but also on longer runs and even some days on the stairs at work. Nothing awful, just first sign of tweakage.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

M2:weeks 2&3, plan revision

Weeks 2 and 3 brought a realization about this round of training. DSF mentioned that not only is Feb a bad time for a marathon (bulk of training in inclement weather) but that a 30 week build up is too mentally draining. This got me thinking about how to make this safe and sane.

One tentative plan was to train for the Seattle 1/2M with similar training sanity rules and then begin training for a spring marathon. I printed Hal's 1/2M:Intermediate training schedule and am almost done with week 1.

Overall it's been OK. Hal and I may be on different pages though. This plan has me running 5 days/week & strength/stretch the 6th day. It feels a bit much so I may look for a less aggressive plan…intermediate may be pushing it anyway.

We'll see I guess, well here is my compliance report for the past 2 weeks:

  1. Fashionably Flexible: Long runs on Fri, Sat OR Sun - whatever day works best for me. Basically success, the weekend I was in ATL I didn't do a long run. Last weekend, though, I was feeling good on Friday so I got in 7 miles
  2. Weak Weekdays: Only 3 times per week MAX and not over 5/6 miles. No need to go out and get injured. I have been lowering my weekday volume (not sure if this is compliance with rules or just being lazy and busy)
  3. Cerebral Caloric Intake: If you remember I gained weight on my first marathon, but I was a svelte sister on my 2nd one. Gotta watch what goes in the pie hole. In ATL I ate and ate well. Last week was pretty good. Ate most meals in and the Cap and I cooked multiple times. Felt really great
  4. Luscious Longies: 3 runs of 20+ plus miles, maxing out at 22 miles. Not there yet
  5. Yoga Yahoo: Continue to do Bikram at least 2 days a week - aiming for 3 Crosstrain. Not really. The Captain and I did a pretty grueling but very short set of hills (on the course to his work and back) and then I bounced at my nephew's b-day party (which was WAY hard and WAY FUN!)
  6. Healthapotamus: I have been trying to get good at using my Garmin (but see the previous post J).

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Less effective?

2 times.

Twice I have gone for a run with my heart monitor strapped to myself, in accordance with my goals, but without the Garmin.

Makes it slightly less effective, no?

Despite being a DA about it I am intrigued by the HR monitor. I realize I run in a very high zone. Not sure what it means (the HR running book I checked out from the library was due back before I read more than 1 chapter) but I have been playing around with controlling it. Sadly keeping it steadily under my ready-to-die (and internet calculated) max HR means <<SHOCK>> running slower. I find that staying between 10:30 and 11:00 miles keeps me comfy. But it does bum me out a bit. I thought I was getting faster.

This brings me to my conundrum. The 10K I am running this weekend. Should I have a goal? My PR for a 10K is 1:06:23 but I haven't run a 10K race in almost 2 years and have since gotten a tad speedier (or so I thought). I did the Torchlight 8K in 0:48:51 (in the heat I must add, just now realizing I never wrote up that race…and it was a doozy). So I feel like I could aim for around an hour. I wish I'd finished the book to find out whether running an entire race at HR Max is a bad thing.