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Monday, December 24, 2007

I must be crazy, running on Christmas Eve...

Another early morning. Got to sleep in an hour though, since we met at 6:00 this morning. We went through some neighborhoods in the Highland area downtown and saw some beautiful houses and Christmas decorations while the sun came up. There were two major hills though that about killed me. We kept looking at all the houses to distract ourselves from the awful incline. All told, we went almost 6 miles.

My knees are a bit swollen after Saturday's run. I've taken some Aleve and then I iced them after the run this morning. I was pretty stiff all day yesterday, and aside from the swelling feel totally back to normal.

I'm taking tomorrow off since it's Christmas, then a group of us are meeting on Wednesday after work to go 4 miles.

Saturday, December 22, 2007

First time for everything...


Today was a day of firsts:


  • First 10 mile run
  • First run with my new Garmin Forerunner 305
  • First time to use a gel on a long run
  • First ice bath after a long run
I'll devote a paragraph to each to elaborate.

We were scheduled to run 10 miles today, but in the end I actually wound up running 10.95 miles. We ran part of the way on the course of the Mercedes Half Marathon. I've mapped it out on www.mapmyrun.com and again, if I did it correctly, it should show up at the end of the post.


The Garmin Forerunner was a gift from my husband for Christmas. We exchanged gifts
yesterday and I was so excited when I got it. It showed my pace during the whole run and kept
up with the mileage. Definitely a worthwhile investment. I'm excited about reading the manual
and finding out what else it can do.

I also used a gel for the first time on this run. I got a Clif Shot in mango flavor. We had a water
stop around five miles so that's where I stopped to do the gel. It tasted pretty awful and I had to
choke it down taking a sip of water and then another chunk of gel. I was worried about it
upsetting my stomach, but once it was down, I was good. I wondered if it would really help me.
About a mile later we started up a long hill (about a mile long) and I could definitely feel it working.
I'm glad I had it with me. I just need to find a flavor that isn't so horrendous.

I felt relatively good the entire run, which surprised me. I've been trying to psych myself up all
week telling myself that I could go this far and I guess it worked. I was the last person to finish
(again) but I felt so good when it was over that I didn't care! I was just glad to be done. A few of
us went over to Starbucks to get some coffee and warm up and then I drove home.

Now it's time to talk about the ice bath. Our coach told us we should do this after our long runs,
but I was a bit skeptical. I think I was more nervous about the ice bath than the actual run! I got
home and filled up the tub. That took a while since we have a big garden tub. More time to delay
the pain of getting in. Finally it was time. I called my husband into the bathroom so he could
distract me while I was in the tub. Getting in was excruciating! I let out a few choice expletives
while submerging my lower half in the water. After two minutes though, as long as I didn't move, it
felt like I was in warm water. I stayed in for 15 minutes and then got out of the tub into a warm
shower. The shower felt like heaven! And I could already tell that my legs were feeling better
than they normally do after a run. I could bend down to get the shampoo and it didn't hurt at all!
I think I'm a believer in ice baths now!

Now I think I'm going to take a nap for awhile. I think I've deserved it. :)

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Brrr...

It was another cold one this morning. I think it was 30 degrees when we started out at 5:30. The group was considerable smaller since all the sane people were still in bed. We went longer today, 6.5 miles. Normally the runs during the week are around 5 miles. I was feeling good at the end. It takes me awhile to really get going in the morning. By the time I'm warmed up and feeling good the run is almost over. Tomorrow is spin class, then the Christmas Light run on Thursday night.

Saturday, December 15, 2007

Cut back week

Today the long run was only 6 miles since it's a cut back week. Only. I can't believe I'm using that word along with the words "6 miles". That's a short run for us now. I remember when we started gong 5 minutes at once felt like climbing Mt. Everest. We've come a long way, with a bit still to go.

I think if I can get through the holidays while keeping up my running I can do it indefinitely. There are so many parties and social events to go to, but if I want to do my long run on Saturday morning and feel good about it, I have to go to bed early. Same thing for those early morning runs during the week.

I have to make sure that I get all my runs in this week. Next week's long run is 10 miles. That will be our first double-digit run. I'm excited and apprehensive at the same time. Linus will be staying home for that run. I'm sure that he can go the distance, but I think that he would be more of a distraction to me. I just have to make sure that he doesn't see me with my running clothes on because he'll get all excited about running and I'll feel bad about not taking him.

In other news, I got my first comment about my weight this morning. I haven't really been losing weight since I started running in August. I lose a few pounds and then gain them back. Running makes me so much hungrier, and while I try to choose good foods, sometimes I just eat really badly. In the past few weeks though, I feel like I've been losing inches even though the scale hasn't necessarily been going down. I should measure and see what my measurements actually are.

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Stupid blisters!

My blister has returned. If you recall, a while back I had two blisters. One was really big, the other was small and barely even bothered me. The big one healed a while ago. You can still see where it was, but it's all healed up. The smaller one has returned with a vengeance. While the big one was peeling off, the small one calloused. I thought I would just have a bump there, but about a week ago, the callous peeled off. It didn't really bother me until today. I had an early morning run of 5 miles. I noticed a twinge where the blister was, and when I got done running and looked at it, it looked pretty bad. It was bubbled up again and this time it's red. I drained it and put a band aid over it. Does the red mean that it's infected? I need to look into that. I'm supposed to be getting a new pair of shoes soon, since I've getting close to 300 miles on the ones I have. Hopefully the new pair won't give me blisters!

Wednesday, December 5, 2007

This past weekend our long run was 8 miles. My ankle was all better, but I had only run once during the week so I was a little apprehensive. Luckily I found another person in the same boat (they hadn't run all that much during the week) so we ran together. We ran non-stop for the first 4 miles or so. Then we took a couple of walking breaks. I think all in all, I ran 6..5 or 7 miles which isn't too bad, considering how behind I was. I'm determined not to get behind this week. The next long run is 9 miles. They're not getting any easier, so I need to suck it up and make sure I get all my runs in. I've been really good about going to all the group runs, but not as good when running on my own. On Monday morning I got up to go to an early spin class before work. The instructor was someone I had never been to before and she kicked our butts! I didn't like how she increased the tension. Most instructors tell you how many times to spin the tension dial. She just told us to do easy medium or hard (or hard medium, easy medium, etc). I had a hard time figuring out where that was for me. Maybe I just need to take more classes to get the hang of it. Tuesday morning was another 4 am day. I met a girl from our group at a running trail. We couldn't decided if we were going to run 4 or 5 miles. I mentioned that if we did 5, we would reach the water fountain and get a water break. We got to the end of the trail and tried the water fountain and it was frozen! No water would come out. I guess I should have expected that since it was 29 degrees. That's definitely the coldest weather I've run in yet. Today was a sleep in day since I'm running after work instead of before. It was definitely nice to not have to get up before the crack of dawn. The plan for the rest of the week is 4 miles today, spin class tomorrow morning, 4 mile Friday morning, and then the long run on Saturday. I'm sure I'll be taking a long nap Saturday after the run.