New Shoes

So I finally broke down and bought a new pair of shoes!  It was about time - the old pair, which were my first, had logged about 300 or so miles and were starting to give me some foot pain.  It is sad to retire them, but I got a shiny new pair of Brooks Adrenalines that make me pretty excited to hit the pavement.

They make me so excited, in fact, that this morning I snuck in a run before work.  It was short, as I didn't have much time, but I logged my two fastest road miles ever.  In 80-something heat.  Hell.  Yes.  They were 10:11 and 10:06 (!) respectively.

I also had a fabulous 4th of July weekend.  No running, but the relaxation (aside from long car rides with the same group of people) was much needed.  I went to visit a friend who invited a bunch of people to his exclusive locals only beach on the north shore of Boston.  While there, I jumped off of this cliff into the ocean:

It's the part on the left.  You can't really see it, but near the jumping point is spray painted "Insanity" - seems pretty appropriate.  I also got a chance to finally go to Martha's Vineyard, which was AWESOME.  If you get the chance, you should go.  It's so beautiful!  Hope you all are running strong in spite of the record breaking heat and that you all had a happy and safe holiday weekend!

Half-Marathoner!

It's over. I did it! I am a half-marathoner! I ran it in 3:07:20, which is way slower than the vast majority of people (just an observation, I'm quite proud!), but was just right for me. It's also technically a PR, and I'm excited because it's my first! In terms of the race, I had three goals in mind:

A. 3:00
B. 3:15
C. Just finish

As I watched the three hour mark pass, I just cranked it up and told myself to get in under 3:15 (the race started at 8:00 and awards were handed out at 11:15). I would have been happy with any finish, but I've got to confess that I'm quite pleased that I didn't have to default to goal C.

The race was great, and I met a few awesome people along the way. I wore my CamelBak, as I need water way more frequently than the average Joe. Aid stations were situated at 1.5, 2.5, 5, 7, 9, 10.5, and somewhere near 12, and they were a sight for sore eyes. I downed water and Gatorade going through each of them. No asthma or allergy problems, thank heavens!, and the weather was exceptional - around 60 degrees and overcast, though a bit humid. Way better than the forecast of 80 degrees and thundershowers.

Here's a brief overview of the events of the race and my thought process:

1: What the HELL am I doing running this thing? I have 12.1 miles left. I am the dumbest person in the world.
2: Met a cool girl from Vermont, made me feel better about life and running. Started a bit too fast, so I eased up and said goodbye to her. Also had to hit a toilet real bad, but there was no way in hell I was losing time on the lines. I decided to wait for the next one (mile 5).
3: Who the hell thought it would be a good idea to put this ginormous hill here? You think it's over, turn a corner, and there it goes again. I saw someone else struggling up and said to her "What goes up must come down." She flew ahead of me.
4: Where the hell is that toilet? I need to go something fierce.
5: Sweet lord, salvation! And no lines. I was in and out in 2 minutes, took some Gatorade, and powered up the next hill.
6: Met Lily and Kristin, two lovely women who gave me moral support and company for about 2 miles. They are sassy and lovely. Makes me forget about the pain.
7: We've passed the halfway point! Hit an aid station and walk up a long hill to give my feet a bit of a rest.
8: What the hell am I doing? I can't do this. Shut up, of course you can!
9: Insert a lot of mumbling and cursing about the cruel person who thought it would be a good idea to put a mile long hill this close to the end.
10: I didn't even see this marker. At this point I'm run/walking. My back is aching and my feet are cramping.
11: Met a nice woman from Florida who didn't have a chance to do any hill work. Poor flat-lander. She was a powerhouse!
12: Just one more mile right? I think I'm going to die. Okay, not really. But even though I know that I am so close, I just can't even fathom finishing. My right foot is cramping something awful.
13: 0.1 miles to go. This is where I feel like an Amazon warrior. SPRINT.
13.1: DONE! So smiley. And Lily and Kristin stuck around to watch me finish. They were so sweet!

Lessons to take away with me:

1. I don't really need to pee much when running long distances, likely because I sweat so much. The more you sweat, the more salt you lose. My forehead was like the shore of the Dead Sea. Maybe invest in some salt tabs or something.
2. I sweat a lot and dehydrate fairly easily. CamelBak is a good idea for longer distances for me, and I'm quite glad I decided to run with it. Aid stations every ~2 miles is not enough fluid for me.
3. After a race, I can't eat immediately. I downed an entire water bottle, cracked open a Gatorade, and tried to eat an orange. The orange made me gag. Stick to the fluids for the first 20 minutes, then go for a banana.
4. Stick with running socks. In fact, invest in more. I picked up two pairs of SmartWool running socks yesterday at an LL Bean outlet (they're somehow defective and thus very cheap, but can't find any flaws), and they were the most wonderful things I've put on my feet in quite some time. They weren't lying when they said no blisters.
5. Running with people makes the time go by so much nicer. I wish I had friends or knew people who ran a snail's pace - it would be nice to have someone to pass the time with. Though Lily, Kristin, and a couple of other kind folk were there with me part of the way, I spent most of the time running alone.
   

I'm in the middle, flagged by Lily on the left and Kristin on the right.

The aid stations were well stocked even for the super slow people (i.e. me), and the volunteers were great. It was especially nice to get cheered on by kids who were volunteering. So cute! My only complaint about the race is that for the last two miles, when few people were left on the course, there were no volunteers or police officers to help with traffic (the roads were only partially closed). Other than that, it was an awesome inaugural race, both for Worcester and myself!

I will take a day or two of rest, and then back to the old grindstone. Gotta keep moving!

A little bit of redemption

So, like I said, yesterday's run was abysmal. Worse than that, even. Okay, I may be being a bit melodramatic. In any case, today while at the supermarket with a friend of mine, I decided to forget yesterday and keep running as hard as I can for as long as I can. I told her my plan so as to have someone to hold me accountable for my decision (because I can't hold myself accountable). I don't usually run the day following a long run, but today I made an exception.

I ran my favorite short loop, which is 2.75 miles and usually takes me around 32-33 minutes (11:30-12:00ish pace). I ran it today in 30:36! That's a pace of 11:08 and is officially the fastest run I've had since I started training for the half marathon in January. Granted it was a short distance, I must revel in the small victories.

Woohoo! Now to stretch some more and water the garden.

Happy Memorial Day, all!

Getting faster, running longer!

Today I set out thinking that I would do a solid 1.5 miles, jog slowly for a few minutes, and then pick it back up and run one more mile, for a total of ~2.5 miles. I got on the treadmill and thought to myself, "This is a dreadmill day." I don't run with music and I don't cover up the display in front of me. Running may be a physical activity, but I think that it's equally mental. Every time I run, I try my hardest to best the display, and pay less and less attention to it. I say that it was a dreadmill day because I looked at the display after about 20 seconds. This was going to be a tough one.

The first mile was tough - and it often is for me. After running only a couple of minutes, 25 more just seems so impossible. It's not, and I know it's not, sometimes it just feels that way. In any case, I made it to one mile, and then I told myself that after 1.5 miles at 5.5, I could bring it down. Then I thought, "Bring it down? You mean let this machine beat me? Ain't gonna happen!" I ran to 2 miles. Just 2 miles? I did that yesterday, easy-peasy. How about 3? And how about I run it a little faster than I did last time? Sure. After 2 miles, I did ease it down to 5.4, then 5.3, then 5.1, and I ran until I hit the 3.0 marker at 33:19. That's the fastest I've ever run 3 miles!

Mile 1: 11:03

Mile 2: 10:53

Mile 3: 11:23

I obviously slowed down a bit in the end, but overall this is the fastest I've accomplished 3 miles, and I feel AWESOME! I am 26 seconds faster than I was on Saturday, and 1:41 faster than I was on Friday!

My goal a few weeks ago was to reach 202 lbs by November 2nd, which is a week from today. That's not going to happen, because I seemed to have hit a little snag at 208. That's quite alright with me, though, at least for now. Chaffing is getting pretty bad, though. I definitely need to invest in some better shorts.

Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse

According to the film Zombieland, the number one key to surviving is cardio. Screw losing weight and getting healthy, I don't want to be torn to shreds by a flesh eating semblence of a human!

For this reason, and this reason alone (okay, not really), I pushed myself during my run today. I pushed hard. I set out wanting to get in a solid mile. Just one. After already running 10 this week when my goal was 7, I just wanted to keep momentum going but give my muscles a little rest. Psssh. Why not run 4? That's what I did instead. Something that I've only achieved twice before, today I did it in style.

Yesterday's 3 mile run took me 35:00. Today I got to the 3 mile marker at 33:45. I shaved off 1:15! Heck yeah, I say. Nay, I scream! At the 5k marker I was at 36:10, and I finished 4 miles in 45:10. That's awesome, especially since I only aimed to complete 1.

After the first mile I was just feeling so great that I kept going. Mile 2 was a little tough, but I got through it. Should I stop here? Nah, go for 3, I thought. Maybe you can finish a little bit faster. And I did. Then I thought, you still have some energy, might as well just try for 4. At this point, my fat thighs had chaffed to the point that the skin broke, and I was considerably irritated. Had it not been for that, I think I could have gone for 5. Oh well! It was a great run, of which I am particularly proud. I think I should invest in some longer spandex - my current pair rides up quite a bit.

Take THAT scale. I bested you in the best way possible.

Success!

FINALLY! I've made it back to 3.0 mile land. I did it a little bit slow (35 minutes), but I did it nonetheless! And with no walking breaks :)

What a great way to start the weekend! And I've been really good about keeping my nutrition within range and drinking all of my water. This is going to be a short post, because I really need to shower and do some work before my noon class. Farewell for now!

Ouch!

So, I am sorry to say that I did not live up to my personal challenge. The first day, Sunday, I was unable to hit the gym. WOMP. What a bummer! I mean, come on... the first day? Well, I decided that I'm going to keep going with it anyway. It's a good challenge to push myself to complete. Yesterday I ran the first mile and felt a bit winded, so I slowed to a walk before running another mile. Two miles! That's pretty good, and, at the very least, makes up for a little bit of the mile I missed on Sunday.

I left all of my gym things in the locker room (I didn't want to bring smelly gym clothes to meetings, class, and work) with the intention of swinging by before the gym closed at 10:00pm to pick up all of my stuff. Woops! Next thing I knew, it was passed midnight and I was still in the lab, trudging through my work. I went home and tried going to bed, but my roommates distracted me until almost 1:00am! That's pretty early for the normal college student, but I like to go to bed early and then wake up early. I set my alarm for 8:15, hoping I would have the will to get up and run. I did not.

Instead, I lazed a bit and then went to class. My hardest class! Oh, woe is me... we were getting our last assignments back and I was so nervous! This was perhaps the hardest assignment yet and I only got a B on the previous one. It's also worth noting that the majority of the class works in pairs, while I somehow ended up working all by my lonesome. Anyway, at the very end of the class, we got them back. I got an A! Not only an A, but the highest grade in the class and the only A my professor has given out so far this semester! Rejoice. I could sing. I could dance! ...I coud run.

And so I ran. I impulsively headed for the gym, needing to let out my happiness somehow. I put on my dirty, smelly, and still wet clothes from yesterday's run and ran. The idea was a nice 2.0 miler. But then I said to myself, "I feel great! Let me try for 3.0!" At this point in time, I started to get a twinge of pain in my right foot, just below the ball of my foot. Weird location for a pain, I thought, but I tried to ignore it and I just kept running. As I came closer to 33:00 on the treadmill, I decided to up it to 35:00 (a nicer number, don't you think?). I got closer to 35:00, thought to hell with it!, and pushed the button until it read 44:00. I was running about an 11:00/mile pace, so that would put me just over 4.0 miles. Then the pain started to worsten. It felt like burning, stabbing perhaps. I kept running. Screw pain. YEAH.

Bad idea, turns out. Talk about behemouth blisters... this was no little guy. I expected to have a small blister that had popped while running. Nope I had a huge blister that wasn't even peaked yet. It even hurt to stretch after I was done. Woops! It's about the size of a quarter. With a penny next to it.

Well, it was bound to come sooner or later. It almost makes me even more proud of myself in a way. Kinda weird, but I have my first runner's blister, my first run over three miles (and longest run time-wise, both on and off treadmill), and I have the best grade in my hardest class! Seriously. AWESOME day.

I wonder if I should lay off the foot for tomorrow? We'll see how it goes.

Miles: 4.05
Time: 44:00

Snail-like and proud!

Today was a beautiful day, so I decided to take my run outside for the first time since an atypical December morning. I waited until the temperature was just right (about 2:30) before I went out. My roommate kind of laughed at me when I told her I was waiting for it to warm up, you know the kind. I could hear it in her laugh that she didn't think I would actually go out, actually get up off my fat bottom and run. Well, I did. Not fast, not by a long shot. My pace was 13:20, which is way slower than even I'm used to, but I think my body is just not used to running again, which is a big consequence of being lazy, of which I am most certainly guilt! I've never run on streets where you have to wait in order to cross the street, so that added a couple of minutes to my total time (but I did not stop moving! gotta love knee-highs).

I ran about a 3.0 mile loop. CRAZY! I've never done something like that before, so I don't even care that I did it slowly. All I care about is the fact that I did it.I would have done the whole loop straight through without stopping, but I'm pretty sure my roommates have been eating my peanut butter, so I took a water break at the super market and picked some up, then finished the last leg of my run home. The pre-supermarket stop summed to about 34:00 (longest I've ever run non-stop!) and the last portion was about 6:30. Dear reader (if you exist), do you know what this means? I ran for 40:30! That's the longest I've ever run in one workout. Sure, I've run 3.0 miles before, but who gives a poop about distance? I'm more in this for the health, and while mileage is something fun to share, I ultimately just want to be able to run for a long time without dying. My longest (time-wise) run prior to today's was 36:00, and I definitely beat that!

Okay, I need to go shower my smelly self and snack on something. Keep on running!

Mini Goal Met

I've been thinking about the goal I set for myself all week. Running 25 minutes straight on a treadmill is daunting, especially when you hate treadmills and haven't been running outside in quite some time. I'm out of shape. Well, I guess I can't be out of shape if I've never really been in shape. But you know what I mean, right? Last summer I was able to run about 25 at a time (I usually fluctauted between 22-28), but I couldn't event imagine running the same distance on a treadmill. The treadmill is my demon!

So all week I've been thinking about running for 25 minutes, and each day that I've been running, I've pushed myself, but never hard enough. I've been running longer intervals (longer than I'm used to with the Couch to 5k program, at least) and pushing myself to get in about 2.0 miles each time I hit the gym. This morning I woke up very tired (I only got 7 hours of sleep, and I know my body needs at least 8), and I had to drag myself out of bed. I procrastinated a little bit, but I got myself to the gym and on the treadmill. My goal for the work-out was to run a mile, at which point I would evaluate how my run was going, and add more time if I wanted. Everytime the treadmill was about to send me to a cool down, I added a minute. Then I had been running for 25 minutes (!) and I allowed the machine to cool me down with a brisk walk. At the end of my walk I decided, HEY! You can run more. You've pushed yourself before, push yourself again. So I added another 5 minutes of running, totalling 30 minutes and 2.5 miles. That just may be the longest and furthest I've run in one workout!

Another exciting thing is that in my past two work outs before today's I've ended with 0.5 miles at 6.0 mph, which is something I've never been able to do before. I think tomorrow I'm going to do 2-minute intervals at 6.0 mph. We'll see how that goes!