A Few Thoughts…

I completed the Heart Mini-marathon 15k race! It was a little, no, quite nasty outside! The day started out a bit rough, I remembered to get everything I needed for the run itself. Clothes, shoes, bib, timing chip, watch & heart monitor, snack, water, phone, and ID pack to run with. I woke up, made some coffee and oatmeal for breakfast. Thank to pre-race jitters though, I only managed to get half of the oatmeal in me…the coffee was no problem to consume

I picked everything up, and went down to the car to start going. About a mile away from the house I realized that my ID pack was missing one critical piece…my ID. I took it out of my wallet for the Over the Rhine concert on Friday and it didn’t make its way back in. Time to turn around.

Back on the road I now feel like I’m going to be a little late for the team photo with the group from work…but I might make it if I catch all the lights, and find parking quickly. I call my parents to say good morning and chat on the road. About the time I reached SR126, I realized that I forgot one other critical item for my day: money for parking. Now, I had my credit card in case I needed to buy something for some reason, but I wasn’t sure if there would be a live attendant in the parking lots, or if they would take a credit card. Time for another detour to find a bank…

Now I know I’m not going to make the group photo, but I arrive well before the 15k event starts (though after the 5k started, so I missed seeing all of the Xetron group). I chat with a few of those who are left either doing the 15k or the walk, and say hello to the Mojo running group. Then head out into the nasty weather to find the port-o-lets, look around for the starting line and in general mentally prepare for the journey ahead.

As the start time approaches, more people fill in the starting chute, and we all wait to get moving (though it did get a little warmer with everyone standing together, which was nice). I’m a little worried that I might be a little too close to the front of the pack, but not much I can do by the time I realize it, so I just plan to move off to the right soon after the start when things spread out a little.

The cannon gun goes off closer to us than the starting line, and we’re off. Well, 2 minutes later anyway we pass the starting line, and then we’re off. I had been having a problem in my runs recently of not being able to slow down enough at the start to make it to the end of longer runs. So I’m watching my watch closely to make sure I’m staying around my 10:00 pace, which I’m fairly confident I can maintain in good weather anyway.

There are some easy rolling hills to begin (which I reconsider at the end of the run), and around 2 miles I look over and say to myself “Delta Av. isn’t too far away now!” By the 5k mark, things have spread out nicely and it doesn’t feel crowded, though I realize that delta is a little further away than I originally thought (got some landmarks mixed up). The weather is okay – some drizzling rain, and cold (low 40’s) – bearable, but not fun by any stretch. Somewhere between 5k & the turn around, the leaders pass us, and everyone is congratulatory as they are speeding along!

The turn around point is just ahead, and thankfully they don’t have us run all the way to Delta, cuz that’s a bit of a hill that is! After the turn around I remember something that was supposed to be happening today: wind. Apparently, it was to our backs up to this point! This is going to make the return trip a little more taxing. The other difficult part of the return is Torrence Pkwy. It’s a pretty nasty hill, but I manage to make it up and back down without too much difficulty. It did take some mental work to convince myself I could keep going up the hill though!

While I thought I was home free after Torrence, the biggest challenge lay ahead. Not so much because of the course, but the weather had finally wore me down to the point where I was blowing my nose every few hundred feet. And I can’t really explain what its like to try blowing your nose while running after mile 8! At this point I succumb to the needs of my body and slow down to a walk/jog schedule. Unfortunately, this made my last mile my slowest split of the entire race.

I was cold, wet and tired, but I finished by running the last bit of the course and across the finish line. There was quite a few times on the race I kept repeating “why am I doing this?” over and over. And when I was finished I wasn’t sure I wanted to do anything like it again. Shivering, standing in line for the official results (which for some reason I didn’t want to just read online) was not my idea of a fun way to end the race. But the next day, I was ready to go back out for a run. Unfortunately I have not made it back out yet for various reasons, but I’m feeling good and looking forward to the Flying Pig Half-Marathon in May!

Highlights of the day first: Made lunch with Jennie (a regular thing, but still a highlight). Picked up some new coffee which is very good. If you’d like some, I have several pounds which aren’t reserved for anyone yet, so let me know! And I’m about to eat a bison burger.

Now the rest:
So today at work was fairly slow – I’m kinda on an in-between period on projects. I was looking forward to going for a run when I got home. I came home, drank some water, and read for a little bit to let the traffic calm down some. Before I knew it, it was 19:00…I read longer than I wanted. So I get dressed, throw some new tunes on the ipod, and head out. I hadn’t thought through my run before getting outside, which is not normal. I decided to do a fairly easy 4-5 miler, just up and back a short, rolling-hill segment of road a few times.

About half-way through my run, I change my mind and decide to push a little harder and get a 5k race-pace run in (which was a horrible decision). I ended up pushing myself too hard, and walking back home. To top it all off, I got an annoying blister right in the middle of my arch. And I didn’t make the pace I wanted…by 5 seconds.

I blame daylight savings time.

Well, I made it – I finished my first 5k race! I achieved my goal of finishing faster than I could walk. Officially, my time was 32:35, though I didn’t start right at the gun of course. I had to walk part of it (there were some crazy hills that I was not ready for), but not much – just more than I’d like. To add to the hill problem, my allergies decided to rear their ugly heads. But I finished the race with my head up, and I’m ready to continue training. But I need to get something better to listen to music with….

I finally made it to the last week in the Couch-2-5k program, and I gotta say, the program works. I was a little unsure about actually making it to the 5k mark in the 30 minutes of running, but I did it. And not on a completely flat course either! Now, the Zoo will pose a slightly greater challenge, but I’m feeling pretty good about the running at the moment. I think I’ll keep with this distance for a week or so more after the Cheetah Run, and then start pushing on a 10k program, with the ultimate goal being the Heart mini-marathon 15k in the spring!

I really like running – especially in the mornings. Well, other than almost getting run off the road that one time…and that was even in a wide shoulder to run in (there was no problem when I was ACTUALLY sharing the road with the vehicles and running on the white line). And I kinda like the new diet: not having to worry as much about the quantity of the food I intake, but more about the quality of the food. So really I’m getting to eat more good food – and an occasional trip to the fast-food establishment of my choosing is just fine!

If you have any tips on moving up the distance on the running, post them!

Another day, another run. This time, I crossed the 10-minute mile mark. Probably not a big feat for some of you, but it was a first for me. Yay me Unfortunately, the pizza I had for dinner made the run quite difficult. Boo me

3.00 mi in 33:45

Now for a shower and sleep…though not at the same time. I think that’s called drowning…don’t wanna do that…

Today’s run got me to the 3-mile mark! I feel pretty good, though a little dehydrated. It seems like a lot of the runs at this point are more of a psychological achievement than physical achievements. Certainly the 20-minute continuous run from last Thursday did a good job of making me feel more like a runner than someone who is just trying to make his way through some running program.

Running for me is somehow strangely relaxing. I don’t really know how to explain it, but I enjoy it. Just under 5-weeks until the Cheetah run, and I’m thinking about adjusting my personal goal…but I haven’t really done any running outside yet. So I’m gonna hold off on that one

Last night’s run was a little more difficult than friday’s – don’t really know why though. It was a little warmer in the fitness center, but I don’t think that would cause my shins to burn. On a side note – a little wikipedia-ing shows that the muscles which hurt were probably called Dorsiflexors, which is a cool word. Anyway, I was able to finish my 30 minutes or so, and go back home to eat and begin a long night of work. School work, and HTG work kept me up WAY past my bedtime to almost 1:00 or so. I don’t really know how long I was up, I kinda dozed off on the couch at one point. Anyway, hopefully not too many more of those nights are in store – I have a lot to do around my house to get ready for Thanksgiving!