Facebook trumping blogger

I was a little late coming into the blogging realm back when it was popular a few years ago. And jumped right off when Facebook came about. Oh, how I love Facebook!

But the Facebook romance is getting a little boring now. I'm slowly starting to pull away. And would like to get back to blogging again.

The blog did mainly turn out to be about running. But most of my Facebook posts are about that too. I dislike that I can't easily go back and find posts on Facebook later. I enjoy going back and re-reading older posts on Blogger and espically my race reports.

Facebook is MUCH easier to post photos and I try to be good about adding informative captions that tell more about the race than just what's in the picture. But that's not the same as a written-out report.

Since I have LOTS of races on tap, figure I should dust off the old blog and get back to it now.

We'll see how good I do at it. (And 'we' really mean 'me' as I doubt many others will read this & that's fine.)

Little fun things....

Just downloaded the data on my Garmin from my speedwork & forgot what a thrill that is to do :-)

Looking at the little map & checking the stats. I hadn't done that in SO long.

Was pretty impressed that my speed bursts on the fartlek were in the 9-min range. Overall times was.....not impressive. But I am impressed with the 25 seconds x8 that were fast!

My running clothes are so ill-fitting! And tech fabric does not shrink as much as I want to think it has.... bleck.

Must stay focused & not get drawn up into little things....training for a marathon is also a marathon.
OMG - typing 'training for a marathon' just had me skip a breath..... I really am going to do this.....

Fingers crossed!

Back on the road...this time to 26.2 (*yikes!)

Oh my.

Both physically & (more importantly) mentally I haven't seen why people want to run 26.2 miles. Of course, the same could easliy be said for 13.1 or even 3.1, but 26.2 just seems CRAZY.

After completing more than a dozen half-marathons, the thrill wasn't there like it used to be...
Could I be ready to do a full?

Even training wasn't the same, was kinda been-there-run-that.
Could I be ready to do a full?

Looking at my medal rack full of all that dusty bling was beginning to lose meaning.
Could I be ready for a full?

Hello? Hello?

Been thinking about blogging again.

Maybe tomorrow.....

Sidelined from long runs

When I start to run now, my legs from my knees to my ankles feel "squishy" and I just can't do the speed. They're fine any other time - no pain at all & I can jog okay. But can't rip 'em up (as if I could anyway).

I was advised to lay off the long runs for a couple of months. Nothing above 6, possibly 8 miles. Basically, sidelined until Houston Fit Fall Half starts in May. It'll be June or so 'til I get back to distance.

This should give my body some time to adapt to more speed work. I still have my two speeds of stop and go. Not doing long runs is supposed to help with faster-, medium- and slower-fasts.

We'll see. It's kinda good so now I'm not tempted to do any half-marathons for the next couple of months. There's some that are tempting (that would be travel).

DONE!!!

I'm the Michael Phelps of Land!

On 3/15 I completed half-marathon #8 for this season (as marathon season runs in Texas) and earned medal #8.

Eight 1/2 marathons in 4 1/2 months.

And looking at my 8 medals, I am over my obsession with earning bling!
Instead of it being all about the medals, now it's just 'a lot' about the medals :-)

My performance wasn't what I had hoped, but it was fair. This season was about quantity. Next season will be quality.

Pelican Challenge report and wrap-up of this season to follow eventually....
Thanks to Javier & Bill for getting me to start blogging again.

IT'S ALL ABOUT THE MEDALS!!!

I'm going to need some positive images to get me through these two cold, wet 1/2 marathons this weekend. Here's the image:

It's ALL about the BLING!!

Surfside Beach (half) Marathon

WHEW!! The Surfside Beach (half) Marathon was tough!

They put on a nice race down there, but didn't get much cooperation from Mother Nature!

The fog was really thick when we first got down to the beach and it was difficult to tell where to go while also making sure to not drive into the ocean!

The first 4-5 miles of the race were good, it was cloudy but the weather was nice.

It was really nice looking at the water and seeing the blue-green color which faded into grey and then the white caps breaking stirring up the brown sand at waters edge. The sand felt good, not difficult to run on at all.

But then we headed into some strong wind. My back ached from being hunched down and was super glad to see the turn around for the 1/2 marathon at mile 9. And I thought of the poor marathoners that would keep going for another 7 miles into that wind!

After the turn, things were looking good for a while and the the thunder started cracking. I never saw any lightning but the thunderboomers were loud!

And then the skies opened up. The rain was like needles coming down and with the high winds it was somewhat vertical. Luckily for me, I was headed away and once again I thought of the poor marathoners headed into that mess. Someone that did the marathon said it almost felt like small hail at times.

And it did get really chilly.

I'm guessing the rain kept up like that for an hour or so, then stopped, but later rained some more.

I had a PRW - Personal Record Worst. Doing good until the weather turned & after that I just bagged it and walked it in...

At packet pickup, we got nice yellow windjackets with an embroidered logo, a stone drink coaster, a coffee mug and some thick winter-type gloves.

Aside from one dead dolphin, the beach was pretty clean. Small patches of seaweed about, nothing that impeded the run. I heard from the marathoners that there was more debris past the 1/2 turnoff, but not bad.

The pavilion where the post race party is usually held was a victim of Ike, so the party was in a tent. There were a lot of beach houses that apparently felt Ike's wrath also. Most were still mostly-standing, but not sure if they can be repaired or will need to be rebuilt.

One of the cutest things ever at a race -- they had blue porta potties for boys and pink ones for girls! AND they had a handwashing station in between complete with soap, water and paper towels! That's about as classy as you can get for outdoor temporary facilites on the beach!!


Water stops along the course were adequate & this was the only race I didn't carry fluids. One also had Gu. Crowd support was basically non-existant, but we had the waves to cheer us on :-)

Mowi Wowi set up a stand on the beach and all finishers got a free smoothie. I had a mango-orange/pina colada combo that was awesome.

The post race meal was BBQ! It was great and plentiful - sliced beef, chopped beef, sausage, chicken, beans, BBQ cabbage, potato salad and pickles/jalapenos/bread. They had a variety of store bought cookies, muffins, coffee cakes & bagels both before and after the race. Sodas, tea & water.

I'm starting to get choosy on which races I want to do a second time and this is one I definitely plan to do again next year!

Hope Mother Nature is nicer then.

5 down, 3 to go

For anyone that just happens to drop by....... (Javier).....

I'm still running. So far I've done:

• Koala Houston Half on 10/26/08
• San Antonio Rock and Roll Half on 11/18
• Dallas White Rock Half on 12/14/08
• Houston Fit Half in training (it counts!) 12/20/08
• Aramco Houston Half on 1/18/09

And I've got 3 more halves on tap:

• Surfside Half (on the beach) 2/14/09
• Seabrook Half 3/14/09
• Seabrook Half AGAIN on 3/15/09

I just started StayFIT, Houston Fit's 5K/10K training program. I don't plan on doing many 5/10Ks, but want to do the training to work on speed. We meet every Tuesday evening for speed work and every Saturday morning for hill/distance work.

In March I'll also be coaching Power In Motion again.

I'll try to be better about updates..if anyone besides Javier still stops by!

One medal down, 7 to go!

Woo-Hoo!

Thanks to Coaches Alan & Kathleen with Houston Fit Fall Half and my friend Tom Brannon, I finished the Houston Half in UNDER THREE HOURS!
Yea Me!

Alan & Kathleen have been a super tremendous support all training season long (since May) and Tom was a super sweetheart to show up to cheer me on throughout the race and even did the last 2 miles or so with me.

I forgot to hit stop as I ran through the finish line, and then stopped to get my medal, hug Javier and pose for some pics and then stopped my Garmin, which showed 2:54:39. So I'm guessing maybe 2:50? That would put me just under 13 min/miles for 13 miles. DANG!

My previous 1/2s have been in 3:21 and 3:11, so this is a HUGE improvement.

Here's a few pics:

Jackie, Anna, Brenda & Kathleen, all smiling with medals!

Alyssa & Anna with medals, waiting for massages.

The medal - a little boring, but a medal nevertheless!

Pics from Javier

Javier was at the finish line of the Houston Half and was nice enough to take some pics of me:



Coming across the finish line (chip time 2:53:39.5):


Getting the medal:

With Javier:

With my friend Tom, that came out to cheer for me:

THANK YOU JAVIER!!!!

Marathon season goals

Here are the half marathons I have in mind for this marathon season:

Koala/Luke's Locker Houston Half Marathon -- Sunday, October 26, 2008

San Antonio Rock and Roll Half Marathon -- Sunday, November 16, 2008

Dallas White Rock Half Marathon (maybe) -- Sunday, December 14, 2008

Aramco Houston Half Marathon -- Sunday, January 18, 2009

Surfside Half Marathon (on the beach, probably walk) -- Saturday, February 14, 2009

Seabrook Half Marathon -- Saturday, March 14, 2008

Seabroon Half Marathon Trail Challenge (ANOTHER half marathon) -- Sunday March 15, 2008

WOW!

Possibly a BIT way too ambitious, but I'll see how the osteo-arthritis and osgood-schlatter in the knees does and give it a go.

Yikes -- being in writting on the world wide web makes these more real!

But, I'm totally okay with not making them all, just a darn good attempt.

If I'm successful at the Trail Challenge in Seabrook, I earn 3 medals for the weekend.
That will give me a grand total of EIGHT medals for the season, making me the Michael Phelps of land.

WOOT!

Ike

House is fine, but no electricity. Now I'm a refugee @ a friends sucking up electricity & internet. More when normal is returned......

Happy 1st Birthday to the Boardwalk Bullet roller coaster in Kemah!

That's me in the front seat with my arms up! (And that was ride #6 of the day, we had exclusive ride time for an hour Sunday morning.)

After that, I went down to a really nice cabin on Quintana beach.

Hope everyone else had a nice Labor Day weekend also!

PS -- I ran 8 miles on Saturday, 3 on the beach on Monday and 2 yesterday.

Miles and Miles to go....and already went

Last night I hit 450 miles logged (since I started running 7/7/07) and after this weekend I'll be at 300 miles for 2008!

WOW - that's a lot of running!

And it really doesn't seem to be that difficult anymore.

Viv and Timmy both commented on how I just glazed over 9 miles in my last post. Really, I didn't think of it as that big of a deal. That's what was on tap for that day, so that's what I did. 5:45 start time and all.
Dang - I just said 9 miles was no big deal!

Now once I hit double digits (like Eileen just did) in a couple of weeks (9/13), THAT will be a big deal.

Whew - tiring weekend!

Saturday morning I had to wake up at 4:45 to run 9 miles and Sunday was an even earlier wake-up, 4:15, to go deep sea fishing.

I was exhausted, but had a great time doing both!

Saturday afternoon I was complemented on my complexion (a result of the 9-miler, I'm sure) and I have about 5 pounds of fish in the freezer from the fishing trip.

After eating so much fish in Alaska and then last week had mahi-mahi almost every night, I'm getting close to being fished-out! Last night after Pilates I stopped at the store and got corn tortillas and shredded cabbage to make fish tacos, but I was still plumb tuckered-out from the lack of sleep over the weekend that I was just too tired to make some. And tonight it speed work (yea!) and a BCO event leader meeting, so they won't be made tonight either. Maybe tomorrow after off-season PIM....

Speed training, Fartleks & Orienteering

run, Run, RUN

This speed stuff isn't as bad as I thought it would be!

Tuesday the track workout was a bit intemeditating. Luckily I recognized one of my back-of-the-pack half-marathoners that told me we usually divide up from the full group. Whew! There were only about 6 of us halfers there (and about 40 in the other group). I did have a hard time running all-out (which is still rather slow) ALL the way around the track, trying to stay at the same pace. My running buddy kept me encouraged and I made it. Our slow jogs were actually walks. We got all 6 sets in - earlier I had e-mailed with the head coach that gave me an out saying I may only do 4 sets. At the end there was a mix of pride that I did it, but disappointment that I felt I did it rather poorly. (My fasts were the same as others slows - sometimes I was even slower than them.)

Wednesday I was feeling good from doing the track workout that I decided to through some fartlek-ing into my normal easy run. (All my runs thus far have been easy. I have two speeds - slow and stop.) It was fun! I would run all-out to a light pole, then walk to the next, etc. I know I probably wasn't doing this totally right. But hey, "fartlek" means speed play and I was speedy and playing! I did do too much and had to walk home instead of jog.

Thursday was the monthly Social-O, so that was once again some speed work in between stopping to find the controls. At the end I did a mini-hill so I could mentally pat myself on the back for hill work too.

Today is rest day -- yea!!

Tomorrow is NINE miles bright and early at 5:45 am.....

Alaska pics!

Here's some pics from my trip!

On my first-ever whitewater rafting experience, I "rode the bull!" But initially got bucked off good - I'm the one laying on the bottom of the raft in this shot:

We did a 1/2 hour or so lecture on how to stay in the boat, how dangerous it would be to fall out, where to keep your feet under straps so you stay in, etc. Then we had to practice strokes to be sure we were all prepared for the dangers that lay ahead. We were warned about the first rapid and told to pay attention. Right before we got to the rapid, the guide asked "Who's gonna ride the bull?" Huh? What the heck is he talking about. Riding the bull is sitting on the very front of the raft with your legs on the outside and a rope up between your legs and trying to stay on, just like riding a bucking bull. "Right" we thought -- We were just told how dangerous this rafting in Class III-IV is and now he's saying this - surely he jests. Nope. He was serious. And at the last second I said I would. It took so long to get over the big tubes to the front that by the time I got there I was never on good before we hit the first of the rapid, so I spent the entire run on the bottom of the raft getting hit in the face with 33 degree water. At one point I started to panic since I couldn't take a breath, but luckily I had enough sense to put my head down and block my face with my arm so I could breathe.

It was so much fun!

Later I got up before we went in to a rapid to get used to the feeling of hanging off the front of the raft and then was able to stay on through the rapid - it was a blast!

The last day we went hiking on a glacier, which was seriously cool:

I had some thicotropic glacier mud on my nose to keep from getting sunburned.

We also rafted past the Spencer glacier which had several super neat icebergs in the water. Since it was cloudy, the ice looked bluer!


I think this iceberg looks like a frog.

In Anchorage, we went to the Seavy dogsled experience where the did a little skit/show about sled dogs and the Iditrod. Mitch Seavy won a couple of years ago. His son was in the show who is the youngest person to compete in the Iditrod (or something like that).

The best part was petting the sled dogs and getting to hold the adorable sled dog pups!

I'm here!

In case anyone wondered, I'm still here!

Alaska was great except for the weather -- CLOUDY, rainy and cold. As bad as it is to have to re-acclimate to the Houston heat & humidity, I much prefer it to dreary grey skies. Luckily even though it rained every day in Alaska, it was a light shower that we were still able to get out in easily. Here, when it rains it doesn't mess around about it.

I'll post some pics here sometime.... the highlights were:

• glacier hiking (SO much prettier in person and crampons are super-cool)
• whitewater rafting
• rafting past icebergs
• petting sled dogs
• running in Anchorage! Running is such a great way to see a town. And I found a slammin' Himalayan restaurant, REI, liquor stores, laundry, Wal Mart and all kinds of cool places. And if you ever need to find a porn store in Anchorage, I know where one is.
• I'm not much into spotting animals (years as a zoo docent and previous travels has me dulled to that), but we did spot a bear, whales, lots of caribou, moose, eagles, puffins, seals, and other critters I forget. Oh yeah - a muskrat (right?) swam right behind my canoe.

Now I'm getting back into the running thing and we are ramping up FAST. Ever since I've been back Saturday long runs have been increasing by a mile each week. This week we're up to nine. Then thankfully we do a drop back next week(to 6) and start building again.

Planning on going to my first-ever speed work session tonight. Scary.