Autumn Running!

This morning between 7:00 and 8:00 was perfect for running. It was nice and cool; it had rained hard the night before and the air was fresh and clean; there was a gentle, constant breeze. My Garmin Forerunner GPS watch that I ordered came in while I was sick (some kind of non-flu virus, but it was yuk), and I'm finally healthy enough to get out and use it. So guess what I did?

I slept in.

Yeah. Well, I blame my bunco sisters. We all got together last night and had a fantastic time, and I was out late. I am really grateful to have them. We are a group of the most awesome, intelligent, beautiful, fun women ever in the history of the world. Last night was supposed to be a bunco night, but we were missing two people, so we just ended up talking, laughing, inspiring each other (more on that in a moment), and eating good food (it was simple sandwiches last night, but it was great!).

I could do a whole blog post on girlfriends, and how very special and important they are, but I will do that another day.

About that inspiring each other thing. One of my bunco girlfriends is Aimee at La Familia Luis. She has been doing P90X and modifying her eating, and she looks really great. She was always gorgeous, but I can see a real difference since she's been doing all that hard work.

She has inspired me.

I have decided that I am going to also work hard and finally get rid of these final pounds that I've been toying with since the half marathon, and I'm going to get my muscle tone where it really needs to be.

I'm starting today. I'm going to do Jillian Michaels' 30 Day Shred workout, and then I'm going to the Y to spend an hour on the spin bikes. I might take my swimsuit and jump in the pool for a little cross-training; I don't know. But I'm back on the wagon as of now.

Even though I squandered a perfect running morning.

Oh, by the way, I don't get any kind of ad money for the links I put to the workout DVDs or the Forerunner up there; the links are for informational purposes only. If I could have found a site that described them without selling them, I would have used those.

Best Day Ever

Yesterday was Labor Day here in the United States. It's a day that we get to take off from work to celebrate work. Apparently. I don't know; I just know it's the holiday for all the end-of-summer barbecues and swimming parties. It's a nice little holiday to fit in there between Independence Day and Thanksgiving (wow - two other strictly American holidays).

Anyway, Julia and I were planning to grill some steaks and have a nice little just-the-two-of-us patio party. Now, we like to eat steaks for dinner, not for lunch, so we decided to grab our cameras and take a drive into town to see if we could get any cool photos. We're both trying to get better at photography, and it was a beautiful day to go out and get some practice. Neither of us have taken any lessons; we just enjoy it (we'd both like to take classes someday).

Our first stop was the farmers' market. There were so many opportunities to get really cool photos there! Here are a few of Julia's best ones:













And here are some of mine that I liked:















We were going to eat lunch at the Greek restaraunt at the farmers' market, but they were closed (Labor Day - duh), so we drove uptown to have lunch at a chain restaraunt on the main strip. Our waiter looked like Will Ferrell and juggled for us after bringing us our food. Yes, that was as odd as it sounds.

After lunch, we drove back downdown and parked by the art museum. The plan was to walk up and down the street a bit, getting some nice architectrual photos, then go to the museum for a while.

We were both kind of fixated on the old Union Station building, so we both took several photos of that. Here are some of Julia's:

















And some of mine:
















Then we went to the museum and stayed until it was closing time and they kicked us out.

By the time we got home, we were both way too tired to grill, so we grabbed something simple and got ready for bed. Julia thanked me several times for spending the day with her and doing such fun stuff.

I thanked her for spending the day with me and for being the greatest kid on the planet.

Best. Day. Ever.

I Do Still Work Out. I Just Don't Write About it as Much

So, now I have been coerced into doing a Spring half marathon with a couple of my online friends. We will most likely do one in Florida, so at least it will be flat.

I'll probably start the serious training in October, but for now, I just have to get my body used to running again. I've been doing spinning classes and Zumba for cardio lately because it's better on my knees, and they really needed a break. But running is another animal altogether.

So, one thing I'm going to do to get a little running under my belt in the meantime is join the adult soccer league at my YMCA. Maybe. I can only join if you don't already have to know how to play soccer. If they don't teach beginners, then I'm out of luck. My only soccer experience is watching Julia play. So we'll see.

Yeah. Not much to say today. Just a little snippet to try to get back into the swing of blogging.

Faster Than the Speed of the Brain

This post is going to seem pretty random. These thoughts were swirling through my head last night because my cat was particularly snuggly.

Shutty. I can be as warm and fuzzy as anyone else.

Well, with animals. With people not so much.

Anyway.

Last night, as mentioned, my cat was needy. He jumped onto my bed and snuggled up tight with his butt in the pit of my arm and his body across my chest, cheek-to-cheek with me. In my half-asleep daze, I brought up my free arm and started petting him, without thinking twice.

For some reason, this reminded me of the time there was a mouse in the house. I remember on some nights, before we were able to get the exterminators in (sorry, PETA people, I HATE MICE), I would be absolutely freaked-out paranoid that the little bugger was going to jump onto my bed at night. I don't know if mice do that; but I was scared of it anyway.

There's a point here. Be patient.

Now. Had a mouse actually jumped onto my bed as I was sleeping, I would have had an immediate response to shoot out of the covers like a rocket, catapulting the mouse across the room, screaming like a little girl, and then stroking out. No thoughts, no debate. Just reflex.

What this led my incredibly geeky brain to analyze was the amazing processing speed of our brains. When my cat jumps onto the bed and sticks his nose in my face, I immediately know that he is an animal that is safe to handle. I don't have to go through the long process of thinking "This animal is under my care, is clean, has been innoculated for disease, eats a controlled diet of non-contaminated food, and is not violent; it is safe for this animal to be on my bed."

My brain knows all those things to be true, and no doubt processes them, but all that goes through my head is "Awww! Kitty!!!"

For the mouse, all I would think is "AAAAUUUUAAAAUUUUGGGGGHHHHUUUUGGGHHH!!!"

I don't know why this stuff amazes me so. It's really pretty elementary; but when you're in an exaustion-induced, perfectly relaxed, ready-to-sleep state, and then a cuddly kitty jumps up purring like mad and snuggles in cozy, relaxing you even further as well as giving you a little shot of happy, your brain thinks weird stuff.

Shutty.

Still Here, Still Running.

So, after the half marathon, my first thought (after the adrenaline subsided, and then the pain started to die down) was, "What now?"

Well, I took two weeks off from running; I continued with strength training and did spinning class, but no running. By the end of the first week, I was itching to run again.

So today I did my first run after the race. It felt great; I set out to do three miles. My plan was to go to the greenway, run a mile and a half out, and a mile and a half back; but, when I got about two-tenths of a mile past the .75 mile marker, there was caution tape across the path, and when I looked past it, I saw that the remainder of the greenway was basically a lake. That is because it has rained for 31 of the last 30 days here.

Okay; my math might be a little off. But it has rained a lot. I don't remember when I moved to Seattle; but apparently, that is where I am.

(Because, you see, it rains a lot in Seattle. For those of you not familiar with US weather patterns.)

So, I ended up turning around at the trailhead and just doing the .75 mile out-and-back twice. Which, according to my calculations, is three miles (.75 X 4 = 3, right?).

It felt really good to be back out on a trail. I really enjoyed the run, and I feel really good now that I've done it.

I'm going to start training soon for my next half. I have the running bug, and I don't want the antidote...

Life Begins at 13.1

Today, I ran the Country Music Half Marathon in Nashville, TN, USA.

My goal time was to finish in under 3:00:00. My time according to my stopwatch was 2:43:06. Official chip time will be posted soon, and I'll post an update to include it.

I don't even know where to begin. I guess I'll begin at the beginning.

[Note: There is absolutely no blood in my brain right now, and the pain in my lower extremities has caused severe loopiness. This post might be incredibly disjointed and in a stream-of-consciousness style worthy of Faulkner himself.]

[Another Note: I am so loopy, that when I first typed that, I said Steinbeck instead of Faulkner. Um, Steinbeck is, like, the total OPPOSITE of SOC writing. I need a nap.]

I had to get up this morning at 4:00 to get ready, because I needed to be in the parking lot at LP Field by 5:00. I left in plenty of time to get there on a normal day; what I did not take into consideration, though, was that there would be 30,000 other people trying to park at LP Field at the same time as me. So, yeah. Traffic sucked.

I did get parked in time to hop on one of the shuttles to the starting line (LP Field was the finish line, so our cars were there when we were done). Talked to a nice guy who sat next to me on the shuttle. He had run the CM half before, and was really cool to talk to. One of my favorite things about running is the camaraderie that almost instantly forms when two strangers find out that they are both runners. It's very inspiring to talk to a pro; it's equally inspiring to talk to someone who has trained their ass off and is running his or her very first endurance race.

So we got to Centennial Park (starting line), and I checked my gear bag, went to say hi to my TNT team leader and coach, and got in line for the Port-a-Potty. The lines were long...

So, time to get in my corral. I was in corral 26, because I put on my race registration that I expected to finish in around 3 hours (faster runners are in the front corrals; it keeps them from trampling us). The race started at 7:00; our corral started at 8:00. It was a long wait. I had to use the bathroom again by the time I got to the starting line. Damn.

So, I took off at a nice, easy pace at the starting line. I went totally according to plan; 3 minutes run, 1 minute walk. It was going well. There were bands playing every few miles, there was plenty of Cytomax sports drink and water, and it was a beautiful run. I love Nashville.

The only bad thing in the beginning was the heat. It was hot. Like, 80ºF (26.6ºC). That's not too bad for spectating, but it was hot for running.

The bands were great; the spectators were awesome. There were lots of TNT supporters shouting "Go Team!" whenever they saw a purple jersey passing. My coach from the triathlon four years ago saw me, and shouted "Go Nena!" It was so energizing, so exciting! I had lots of energy the whole time, really, but just after mile 6, around the 10K mark, the bottoms of my feet started to hurt. I mean, really started to hurt. Like they were breaking to pieces starting to hurt.

I pushed through it, maintaining 3 min run/1 min walk. Lungs felt great; heart rate was good; knees felt good; legs felt good. I'm fit enough to do this. Damnit if only the bottoms of my feet didn't hurt like the fires of hell.

Have you ever had a sudden, stabbing pain that only lasted a split second, and it hurt so much that you couldn't imagine how awful it would have been if it had lasted longer than that split second? That's how my feet felt, but not for a split second; it was enduring pain of that magnitude.

I was maintaining my intervals through mile 10; still felt good. There was a Port-a-Potty with no line right before mile 11, so I made a quick pee break, then right back on course.

At mile 12, however, I started to go downhill. The pain in the soles of my feet was almost unbearable; my legs were getting fatigued; and my general energy level had dropped drastically. I wanted to quit. I wanted to quit so badly; but there was no way in hell I was quitting. I had worked too hard for this. I did have to ditch my timed intervals and just run when I could, and walk when I had to.

Mile 12 was the longest mile ever in the history of the world. There were more TNT supporters along that mile, cheering and encouraging us to keep going. They knew that's where we would need them. It helped; but it didn't take the pain away.

Then, I saw the pedestrian bridge. The home stretch. This was it. I make it to that bridge, run across it, turn the corner, and I can see the finish line.

13 mile sign...there it is. I can do it...

Turn the last corner...

Boom.

It was the most amazing feeling ever. I did it. I finished the half marathon.

Highlights:
- The bands. They were awesome.
- The crowds. Especially the TNT supporters.
- The general excitement of all the participants. It was contagious.
- That I didn't crap myself. Seriously. That was a fear of mine.
- Knowing that I was going to finish. It hit me at mile 10, and it was an incredible feeling. I almost cried.
- Crossing the finish line.

Lowlights:
- The heat.
- The horrible pain in the bottoms of my feet.
- The weird snake-shaped blood blister thing I have on the big toe of my right foot. I just discovered it when I got home.
- The ice bath afterwards. No one was home when I took it, and it's a good thing. I screamed like a banshee. No; not like a banshee. Banshees would have wondered "what the hell kind of creature can make a noise like that? Damn!"

I am so glad I did it. I'm already thinking that I want to do another here in Tennessee in October. Then another in Florida next March.

I'm not sure whether there is an effective treatment for my particular brand of insanity.

I'm sure I'll think of more things that I want to say. I'll post updates as I think of them.

Thanks to all for your support.

UPDATE: Official chip times were published today. Mine was 2:42:42. Even better than what I clocked; and the chips are way accurate! YAY!

The Truth About Tapering

Apparently, when one trains for an endurance event, one must go through a process called "tapering" during the last two weeks before the event.

Tapering consists of doing shorter, gentler workouts to allow your body time to heal from the rigorous training it has endured, and rebuild some of the strength you will need for the actual race.

It also consists of being RAVENOUSLY HUNGRY and having tiredness and soreness after even a short, easy run. Yesterday I ran four miles, which lately has been a piece of cake; today I am sore and really tired. It's strange.

As for the ravenously hungry part, I was told by a seasoned endurance athlete with whom I work that I would be hungry. She wasn't kidding. I have been eating like there's going to be seven years of famine. It's overwhelming how hungry I have been. I'm going to have to really buckle down on the food intake after Saturday. I actually gained some weight back last week, but this is not the week to worry about that. After the race is the week to start worrying about that again.