Over halfway done!

Ok, so we can all agree that I suck at blogging. But I'm busy with work, school, plus I have to actually run. This is week 12 of training. So far, it's going fairly well. There have been some weird issues going on, but I'm trying to figure out how to manage them. I've run 5 races so far: 3 5Ks, one obstacle run, and one half marathon. I've got 2 new PRs and 1 age group placing. As Inigo says, "Let me explain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up..." (kudos to you if you have to complete that quote in your head. We should be friends!)

8/16/13: Hottest Friday Night 5K
28:32 (almost a PR! dang it), ave pace 9:12. Wiley Post Park, 82F
21/68 in F25-29

Sizzling Summer series overall: (rankings based on gun time)
F25-29: 9/34 (top 26.5%) <----top 10 of my age group, ya'll. :D
Overall F: 59/173 (top 34%)
Overall: 138/283 (top 48.8%)
Total time 1:30:19

8/31/13: Choctaw Nation Labor Day Festival 5K
31:57. Ave pace 10:18. Tuskahoma, 85F at 8:30am, full sun. (In other words, a heat stroke suck-fest. This is why I slowed down.)
2/18 in F24-29. This is likely to be my only age group placing for a long time, folks. I can't place in city races because I'm a turtle. If the heat isn't too bad, maybe I could win my age group next year. I never got my medal for this race, which makes me sad.

9/28/13: Gravedigger Obstacle Run
1:51:14. I was seriously scared of this race after my experience in the mud factor, but this was amazingly fun. Seriously, it was one of the best races I've ever run, and I will do it again next year. I at least touched all of the obstacles, but I didn't complete 5 of them. I ran this with my bootcamp friends. It rained for the entire race, but the temperature was perfect while we were running. I fared much better after this race-I only had a few bruises, and my left ankle was a little sore. No broken skin, and no sprained ankles this time.
25/42 F25-29
73/135 F
191/299 overall

Before:

After: (OMG it was so cold once we stopped running, hence the terrible pic)

This is me on the following Tuesday. I am a fan of periodical locker-room selfies, but I love how I can see the bruises on my underarm from the 2x4s that I hugged at the top of one of the platform obstacles (I'm scared of heights!). Plus, it's sort of nice to look back and have something to compare myself against.

I have had the Spirit of Survival (SoS) Half on my calendar since they announced the date for this year's race. My LRS announced a 5K on the same day, and I immediately dismissed it because I can't be in two places at the same time. Then one of my bootcamp friends kindly pointed out that the half started at 7:30 in Lawton, but the 5K didn't start until 3pm in OKC. Plenty of time to get from point A to point B, with some time to shower and eat in between. So, I present to you the craziest thing I've ever done (to date): 2 races in one day, one of which is over 10 miles long lol.

10/6/13:
SoS Half, in Lawton. I had to leave at 5am to get to Lawton by 6:45am. The race started at 7:30am. It wasn't nearly as cold this year, but I still consider 44F to be below my comfort level. As usual, I started out a little too fast. My first 2 miles were both under 9 mins. Funny how last year, my first mile was in the upper 9s, and that was way too fast. Anyway, things were great until my left hip started hurting around 10 miles in, and I started getting a cramp in one part of my abs. The ab pain was enough to stop me and I had fingernail marks in my palm. This feels different from a side stitch; I'm not sure what's going on. Sucking in will help reduce the pain, but I still have to ride it out. In all, I had 3 ab cramps during the run. The hip pain was bad enough that I had to fight to run the last mile. My A goal was 2:15, and my super-secret goal was 1:59. I knew around 8 miles that 1:59 was impossible, but 2:15 was attainable. When I approached the finish line, the announcer said "and now we're at 2:16." I was so angry! I knew that I had probably gotten 2:15 on my chip time. It wasn't until later that I was able to check the results: My gun time was 2:15:57, and my chip time was 2:15:26. But my previous time was 2:36, and I was over there upset about a 20 min PR! But I'm very happy that I met my goal time.

Time: 2:15:26, ave pace 10:20 <----20 min PR!
23/39 F25-29
108/253 F

So I went home and showered, tried to eat something, and then went to work to meet my bootcamp friends so we could carpool.

Runtoberfest 5K
I ran way more of this race than I thought I would be able to. It's amazing how running with very motivated friends can help you push yourself. My hip was ouchy, and the cranky ab attacked me 2x during the run. We had to walk one hill, but other than that I think I ran most of the run. I was fairly calorie-deficient at this point, so most of it is a blur. Actually, most of the day is a blur too. I fell asleep by 7pm lol. I wore the tech shirt from the half during the 5K; I think my favorite part of the entire race was a guy cheering on the sidelines. When I passed him, he saw my shirt and said "hey I ran that this morning!" I said, "I did too!" and kept running right past him. That made me feel a little bit badass. :D

Time: 30:38, ave pace 9:53
80/199 F25-29

This was my last race in the F25-29 age group. My 30th birthday is this coming Monday. I don't have any races scheduled until the Nov 24 marathon. The Putnam City Cancer Classic 5K that benefits my workplace falls on the same day as my 20 miler, and I'm not willing to compromise that long run in any way. I think I'll go cheer on my friends, and then go do my long run. The 5K is at Lake Hefner, but I might go do my long run at Earlywine instead. The wind coming off of the lake can be really cold, so it'll depend on the weather. I'll probably have to pull out my thermals by that point.

I am in an ASL interpreter program at school, and they have an upcoming ASL walk at the OKC zoo on October 19. If anyone local reads this, please consider going! I sort of groaned a little bit because it's a walk (I want to run!), but it's still going to be a good time. I have a scheduled 18 mile long run that evening. Because my 30th birthday is on the 14th, I am going to make that long run a 30K and do 18.64 miles.

44 days until the RT 66 marathon! I have a few kinks to work out,  mainly my IT band and mysterious ab cramps. I am making extra sure that I foam roll regularly; I've sort of slacked on that over the last few weeks, and I hope that that is why my IT band/hip acted up during the half. I don't know what to do about the random ab cramps, beyond knowing that sucking in makes it go away a little bit quicker. I have plenty of time to figure all of that out though. This is my motto for this cycle/semester, because both running and learning ASL are tough. But I am tougher.

Mud runs, sprints, new shoes, 5Ks, and training

I can't believe that its been 2 months since the marathon! I've been pretty busy since then. On June 8, I did the Mud Factor run with the bootcamp people from my work gym. It was awesome, scary, and painful! I'm proud of myself for not skipping any obstacles, despite the cement blocks that were my shoes. I came out of it with a nasty scrape and bruises on my knees, and both ankles were out of commission for a full day afterwards (due to the deep mud, or so I'm told). Here are the girls after we finished:

And the damage to my knees:

I haven't pulled the trigger by signing up yet, but we're talking about doing the Gravedigger on Sept 28. This race will hopefully have a lot less mud, but more high obstacles. I did ok with the mud in the mud factor, but I am terrified of heights. One girl said that I was visibly shaking after climbing over the first 15ft-tall A frame. There were 3 A frames: a flat wall with ropes that you climb up, a cargo net over a second one, and then a 70ish degree wall with ropes halfway up that you had to grab to get over (this was the source of my still-scarred knee). I will most likely do the race, but it is the week before the SoS half, so I bought different shoes and I'm going to tape my ankles with KT tape just for some added stability.

A few weeks after the marathon, I started doing sprints on the treadmill every Monday morning with my trainer. They've gone about as I expected:

Week 1: dizzy
Week 2: almost puked
Week 3: horrible cramps
Week 4: almost puked/cramps
Week 5: migraine about an hour after sprints (I think this is coincidental...)
Week 6: NOTHING BAD HAPPENED!!! Finally.

They still suck, but I'm doing better, and we're doing more sprints with less rest time. I've already seen a difference in my speed and 5K time, so they're helping a lot. I'll continue to do them once marathon training starts on the 22nd. I bought a garmin footpod and Wahoo ANT+ adaptor for my iphone so I can measure the actual distance of the sprints on the treadmill (we step off to rest while the treadmill is still going). They're sort of cute, and they'll also help when I do the Choctaw 5K on Labor Day weekend in the land of no GPS/cell signal.

I went to a natural running form clinic at the local running store (Red Coyote). I've been fighting shin splints since March or so. They seem to strike at random, but I can almost always deal with them if I wear my calf sleeves and take ibuprofen before the run. I almost always wear them to sprints, and about half of the time on long runs. Anyway, at the clinic they suggested that the fact that I heel strike is likely the cause of the shin splints. So I've been working on that, mainly by being sure to push my hips forward rather than back (as is my normal habit apparently). I also bought a pair of Brooks PureFlow2 shoes as my next pair of running shoes. I've been gradually transitioning to them-I'll run the first half of my mid-week runs in my glycerins, and then switch to the pureflows for the second half of the run. Last Saturday I ran the last 3 miles of my (fantastic!) 8 mile long run, and it was awesome. I am going to take at least another 2-3 weeks to transition to the new shoes. I'd like to be in them completely by the time I start marathon training on July 22. They're very bright! I would have preferred a blue pair, but this is the only color they had. In retrospect, I guess I could have asked them to order a different color for me.

They also have a bizarre tongue! It's attached to the outer side of the shoe. Very odd.

I am on a 5K kick lately, which is a bit odd since I hate 5Ks. They're too short! But I've been going to the weekly social 5K at Red Coyote, and I'm doing the Sizzling Summer Series of 5Ks. The first one (the Hot 5K) was on June 21. I PR'd! My new 5K PR is 31:44, which beats the 32:14 set in the Putnam City Cancer Classic last November. I went out a bit too fast, and paid for it at the turnaround with some fun abdominal cramps. I need to do some googling to find out why this is happening-I think I read somewhere that over-hydration can be a cause. But I don't want to die of heat stroke, so... idk. But if it weren't for the walking that I had to do because of the cramping, my time would have been under 30 mins, which is one of my goals! Almost there. I may not try to PR on the next 2 races (Hotter on 7/19, and Hottest on 8/16) because of the insane temps that are Oklahoma in July and August. All 3 races are at 8pm on a Friday night.

And, finally, I start marathon training in 20 days! I'm going to run the Rt66 Marathon on Nov 24 (and the Spirit of Survival Half Marathon on Oct 6). I've already put my schedule up by my desk at work, although it is still subject to change. I need to figure out where to add hillwork, because quite a few people have told me that the course is a very hilly one. My trainer says Fridays are a good day, and an online forum suggested doing it during the longer mid-week run on Tuesdays. So I have 3 weeks to figure that out.

Marathon recap

I loved every minute of the marathon. Every stinking minute. My fueling plan worked out just fine, I met my finishing time goal (<6hrs), and the weather was fantastic. But I digress.

I got up around 4:15am. I ate a turkey sandwich around 4:30 or so, and half of a banana. We left at 4:55am. We got to the corral areas around 5:45am. It was what I consider super cold (47F), so I shivered for most of the time we stood there waiting to start. Liz used the early start option, and so she started at 4:30am. There were so many people at the starting area that none of the apps on my phone would work, so I couldn't track her. I was in the 2nd of 2 corrals, and I lined up about 50 feet beyond the 10:30 pace sign. There weren't any slower signs than that, and my pace is ~12:30. I didn't want to be at the very end, but I also didn't want to make the mistake of getting too far forward and running too fast. Every year, they have 168 seconds of silence to honor the 168 victims of the Murrah Building bombing. This year, they added an additional 3 seconds to honor the victims of the Boston Marathon bombing. Those 171 seconds were so very long, and so very emotional. There were easily 20,000 people there, and the intense silence was amazing. Only one girl spoke, and I gave her some very unfriendly looks. She appeared to be foreign based on her accent, but she was so rude. My husband made the mistake of wearing one of his EMT jackets, so people kept asking him questions. The disrespectful girl kept trying to ask him how she was supposed to get into the corral (she was a pacer).

Anyway, finally we started! It took me over 13 minutes to get to the starting line. You can just barely see the starting line in the picture above (it's that white thing right to the left of the tree). I had a lot of trouble getting my nike running app to work because there were so many people there. I finally got it settled about a mile into the race. I tried very hard not to start out too fast, and I think I mostly succeeded. My first few miles were in the 11 minute range, which is faster than my average pace of ~12:30, but still slower than my epic 9 min first mile of the SoS half. I ended up taking off my arm warmers somewhere around miles 7 or 8. Mike met me at miles 12 and 18 to reapply the sunscreen so I wouldn't roast like I did on the 20 mile long run (we succeeded-no sunburn!). I managed to stay with my pre-determined fuel plan: Gu at miles 4, 9, 13, 18, and 22. I took beans when needed, usually about 2 miles after Gu. I started taking powerade at the water stops around 10 miles in. The plan was to alternate powerade and water, but towards the end I started getting both powerade, water, and pretzels at every stop. The temperature by noon was close to 80, and it was hot. I was very happy to see that the later water stops had wet sponges so I could wet my head.

My left hip started hurting around mile 14. It got bad enough that I took some aspirin around the 18 mile water stop, and then tylenol around mile 21. Nothing that I thought would be a problem hurt-my shins were completely fine! I was surprised by the hip pain. At that point, I just kept going on. I walked up any hills that I came to, and walked through water stops. One of the girls that I work out with was waiting between miles 25 and 26, and seeing her gave me the extra boost I needed to get to the end. My last mile was one of the faster ones-my pace was 12:08 lol. Once I saw the finish line, I started cheesing like a dork. I almost cried when they handed me my medal-it was close!

My time was 5:36:49, well under my less than 6 hours goal. I finished pretty strongly, but was gimpy once the adrenaline wore off. My hips and knees were fairly sore. I had asked Mike to bring me muscle milk at the finish, and they had bananas, so I avoided post-race incoherency. After the picture-taking was done, we went home. I drank 2 more cups of chocolate milk, and ate some pasta. Then I slept for 4 hours. I was really stiff once I got out of bed again. I have a blister under the skin on my heel; hopefully it won't burst. There's also a chance that I'll lose the second toenail on my right foot. I cracked it a few months ago during a long run, and it's still pretty sore after Sunday.

On Monday, I was a bit stiff in my hips and knees, but it got better as I moved around. Against a few people's advice (but not that of my trainer-she ok'd it), I did a light arm workout on Monday. If it had been a leg day, I totally would have skipped it. But since it was arms, and my arms were fine, I went ahead and worked out. I think it was beneficial to loosen up a bit. Plus, I have a mud run on June 8, and I need to get my upper body ready. Yesterday I was still a little bit stiff in the hips, and today I'm fine.

Here are my stats & splits from the results page:

163/204 in F24-29
862/1135 females
2259/2740 overall
Gun: 5:50:46
10K: 1:15:13 (1:04:22)
15K: 1:53:14 (1:52:32)
Half: 2:37:01
27K: 3:26:46 (3:13:34)
32K: 4:10:46 (3:57:34)
Time: 5:36:49

The difference between the gun and chip times is 13:57, so the times in parenthesis are what the app said my times were, based on my chip time (I think lol). I wish I knew what my half time was, because it was almost certainly a PR.

Finally, here's my medal! :D

I signed up for this year's SoS half yesterday, and I am planning to run the Route 66 marathon in Tulsa in November. I've been bitten by the marathon bug, it seems. :D

Spirit of Survival Half Marathon Race Recap

I did it! I finished my first half marathon! My time was 2:36:45, which blew out both my official goal of <3:15 and my secret probably-not-attainable goal of 2:45. I'm fairly sore today, but I'll be ok.

Earlier last week, the weather reports all said that the temp when the race started would be around 45F, which I could probably handle since you're supposed to dress like it's 20 degrees warmer. However, as we got further into the week, it became clear that the temp was more likely to be in the upper 30s (correct-it was 38F at the start). I wasn't really worried about running 13.1 miles, but my nervousness manifested in a freakout about my clothes. I had my clothes planned out for the past 2 months, and I've done all of my long runs in them. I wanted to wear an underarmour tank and compression shorts. That won't work for 38F, so I wore some compression capris, my underarmour tank, and my running jacket. I added some cute gloves and an ear warmer and I survived.

Here are the tech shirt and my bib number. I find it very ironic that my number for this race was 17, and my number for my first race (the redbud classic) was 717.

We were freezing to death before the race. I'm pretty sure I was about 10x colder than Gnome was.

The race itself was fairly smooth. Either my mymyrun's GPS was off, or the mile markers were off. My app would yell at me about .1 miles or so before I passed each mile marker. I took my water bottle with me so I could use the pouch to hold extra sport beans (cherry and grape). I drank water until about 4 miles or so, and then I started drinking gatorade at every other water stop. I refilled my water bottle at the other stops. I went through 2.5 of the 4 sport bean pouches I brought with me (both cherries and 1/2 of a grape). I managed to not stop for the portapotties, although I don't think I'll be able to avoid it when I run a marathon. I was not able to run the entire race, but I didn't walk as much as I thought I would need to either. The turnaround point is at the top of a hill, and it was a bit rough getting up there. The rest of the course had gradual hills, and part of it was flat (mostly the part on the city streets). There was a tiny hill at the end of the race, which I thought was a bit cruel, but I ran it anyway.

Here I am, about 50 feet from the finish line:

And now I'm finishing:

My app says that I actually ran 13.59 miles, although I did forget to turn it off for a few mins in the confusion after I finished. It was like my brain completely shut off in the excitement of finishing. Also, my legs decided that they were going to cramp up if I stopped moving, so I had to keep walking. At one point I was walking circles around Liz and Katie because I just couldn't stand still.

We took our obligatory photo with our medals and went back to the hotel. Liz refused to get in a pic with us, unfortunately.

Stats:
13.1 miles
2:36:45
12:01 pace
165/233 females
24/33 in 25-29 females

Other stats:
Mapmyrun says I ran 13.59, with an 11:37 pace. I'll go with the official stats for this, but I like the MMR stats better :)

Training for this race was sort of difficult, since I initially pulled my hamstring on the Tuesday before training started, and then re-injured it in week 8. I ran about half of the mileage that I should have (108.74 of the 177.4-204.4 scheduled). I only ran the mileage that I was supposed to for 4 of the 12 weeks. But I'm proud of my effort, and I've learned some things about injury management, listening to my body, and differentiating between regular pain and injury pain.

I have finished this:

Now I'm starting this:

139 days until the Cowtown Marathon in Ft. Worth, TX, on Feb 24. It'll be the first marathon for both Liz and me. She started training 10 weeks ago, and I am jumping in at week 11.

**Note: the end of the half marks 252.77 miles on my shoes.**

Riversport Challenge, Half Marathon Training, and a bit of insanity

On June 30th, I participated in the OK Riversport Challenge on the OK river at the Chesapeake Boathouse. The race was a 500m kayak followed by a 5K run. It was incredibly hot, but still a lot of fun! I've never kayaked before, and this is my first 5K race, so it was an automatic PR. Here's the breakdown:
Total time: 44:21
Kayak: 6:48
5K: 37:33
9th of 10 in my age group (25-29)
52nd of 66 women
101st of 127 overall

Obviously, there's room for improvement. But it was hot, and it was my first time kayaking. I got caught up in a jam with another girl who had never kayaked before, so that took a lot of time. I decided while running that a slower time was better than heat stroke. There were only 2 water stops-one at the beginning/end and one at the turn around. I think they should have had one in the middle because the temp was over 100F that day. Here is a pic of my running buddy Angie and me after the race:

I unofficially started half marathon training about 2 weeks ago. I wanted to gently ease myself into the schedule of working out almost daily. Unfortunately, I pulled my right hamstring last Tuesday. I iced it that night, and rested it Wednesday and Thursday. Unfortunately, that wasn't enough. I ran 2 (very slow) miles on Friday, and while it hurt, it felt better after stretching. Because of that, I thought it was ok to run 3 miles at the lake on Saturday. That was a bad idea. Between that and being on my feet for a full shift on Saturday and Sunday, it got fairly angry. I put heat on my hamstring and kept it elevated for several hours on Sunday.

My friend Gnome and I are going to run the Spirit of Survival Half Marathon in Lawton, OK, on October 7. We officially started training on Monday. Here is my training plan, altered a little bit from Hal Higdon's Novice I program:

On Monday, I worked out my arms and abs in the group training class (and they still hurt, btw). I rested yesterday. The trainer, Kelie, said that it is ok for me to bike instead of run, but I've decided to just take the entire week easy. I've been putting icy hot patches on my hamstring and am putting heat on it at night. My plan is to avoid running this week, and try biking next week. I might try the bike on Friday and see what happens, and maybe get on a treadmill for a few minutes on Sunday to see how it feels. I'm super worried that it won't heal and that I'll suck in the half. I'm really OCD and schedule-oriented (think Sheldon from Big Bang Theory), and this deviation from the schedule is stressing me out big time.

Now, on to the insanity portion. Gnome's husband has suggested that it is possible for us to train for the marathon in Dallas, rather than the half. We could pick up on of Hal Higdon's novice supreme plans around week 22, and be right on schedule. If my hamstring gets straightened out, there's a pretty good chance that I'll try the full. Crazy-talk, that is.

Here's a recap of my runs since I blogged last:

6/19/12 (Tuesday):
Stats: 2.31 miles in 30:04
Notes: Continued walking dead, season 1 ep 1

6/23/12 (Saturday):
Stats: 4.17 miles in 54:56, pace 13:09, ave speed 4.56mph. At hefner with Angie

6/26/12 (Tuesday):
Stats: 3.41 miles in 45:01.
Notes: also, rowed 2511 meters in 15:30, 2:48 500m/m, resistance at 6. Walking dead, ep1, 2.

6/30/12 (Saturday):
Stats: Riversport Challenge. 3.1 miles in 37:33
Notes: also, 500m kayak in 6:48

7/3/12 (Tuesday):
Stats: 3.1 miles in 38:24, ave sp 4.8.
Notes: walking dead ep 2 & 3

7/7/12 (Saturday):
Stats: 4.1 miles in 50:21, ave sp 4.9
Notes: Once Upon A Time: world w/out magic

7/10/12 (Tuesday):
Stats: 3.1 miles in 38:07
Notes: Grimm. Injured my right hamstring.

~~NOTE: This marks 139.12 miles on my shoes~~

7/13/12 (Friday):
Stats: 2.0 miles in 30:46
Notes: Hamstring still not happy.

7/14/12 (Saturday):
Stats: 2.94 miles in 43:45 with Jake at Hefner. Pace=14:53.
Notes: Hamstring not better. Also, Jake is an enthusiastic runner who expends all of his energy at the beginning and lags at the end. Also, note that he is scared of bikes. 2nd also: came back to a flat tire.

First 10K recap

I survived! It wasn't all that bad either! I was really worried that I'd have a horrible experience and hate running forever. I had one minor cramp in my calf that worked itself out around 4.5 miles or so, but other than that I didn't have any trouble.

Here I am before the race, a bundle of nerves:

The last sign for pace was a 9 min mile, so I went to the very end. My normal pace is somewhere in the 13 min mile. I couldn't even see the starting line from where I was standing (it's slightly beyond the second light pole, btw):

The race finally started (I stood for at least 45 minutes, waiting for it to start). It took me a while to get to the starting line, but DH kindly took a pic of me as I walked by:

 The route goes through the nichols hills area of OKC, which is a very affluent neighborhood with mansions everywhere. There were people sitting in their yards and cheering us on. There were also 3 live bands on the route. Thankfully, there were several water/powerade stations along the route. I alternated drinking water and powerade.

Fast forward a little over 6 miles, and here I am finishing:

My whole goal for the race was to beat the time of one of my friends from last year. His time was 1:33. According to the clock, I finished in 1:17. I think my time is probably a minute or 2 less than that since it took me so long to actually get to the starting line. This is the pic I sent him, just to rub it in a bit:

I'm so glad I ran it. I need to find something to run between now and the Spirit of Survival Half Marathon on Oct 7. I'm a bit apprehensive about running in the Oklahoma summer heat though. We had a mild winter, so maybe we'll have a mild summer. The weather seems to go in cycles like that. I'm also planning to run the Dallas White Rock half marathon with my friend Katie on Dec 2. I suppose it's only a matter of time before I end up trying to run a marathon.

ETA: My official time was 1:15:31, and my pace was 12:10 min/mile. I finished 538/651 and 117/136 in my age group. Not bad for my first race! :D