Evolution into a runner continues....

It's a slow evolution, but I amaze myself when I do runner-centric things.

In getting ready for my trip to Alaska, I'm packing running shirts as everyday shirts. I could pack the plain one (solid color), but am picking ones with the names of the various running groups or races I've done. Partially to show off that I run & partially Texas ego. But I am thinking of myself more and more as a runner.

Last night I spent about two hours planning out routes to run in Anchorage. (I did this when I went to New Braunfels too.) For this trip, I have three different routes planned, so no matter what I have a backup. (And am prepared to run in the rain & cold.) Running through Anchorage is one of the things I'm most looking forward to on the trip! Crazy, huh?!?

I'll be in Anchorage from Wednesday night 7/16 through early Monday morning 7/21 and am planning on a long (6-8 mile) run on Wednesday, about 2 miles on Thursday morning and 4 miles or so on Sunday!
The next week (Monday 7/21 through Sunday 7/27) I'll be off in Denali National Park, Tangle lakes and Matnuska Glacier and will have limited luggage, so chances are the running shoes won't make the cut. I'll be doing a lot of hiking, paddling and climbing. So I'll still be active, just not running.

And I'm planning this running because I want to, not because I have to --

WOW!

But no, I will not be running on top of Alaskan mountains.
I will be hiking them, though. (And had my dr. call in a perscription for altitude medicine.)

Speed work and hills that was FUN!!

Last night I wrangled up about 20 of my Bayou City Outdoor buddies to join me at the Houston Orienteering Club's FREE monthly Social-O and it was the MOST FUN way to get in speed work and hill training ever!

I've been doing this for about 7 years on & off, but am usually going slow with someone to teach them how to do it. Since there were so many people, I was able to bolt around between groups and got in a good run & then did the Miller Theater hill twice (I wanted to do it more, but didn't want to have points taken off for being late).

Orienteering is finding your way through unfamiliar territory using a topographic map and compass to find control points. In this "Social-O" you receive a map of Hermann park, Rice U & the medical center and then go to a point on the map to answer a question on the quesiton sheet (such as what color are the flowers, what number is the bus stop, etc.) And you have a one-hour time limit.

Since you dash off to the next point, but then have to stop and locate the information to answer the question, it really ends up being like speed work! One of the questions was about the statue at the top of the Miller Theater hill, so there ya go!
Fun!

It's the 2nd Thursday of each month through October. You Houston folks should join us next month.
It's FREE!!

message from Viv

What a thing to send out to people at work on a never-ending Friday....

HILLS!!!

Yea!! Tonight is hill training!!!

(Did I convincingly sound excited?)

As much as I would like to skip out on the hell of hills, I'm going. And I'm going to make me like it (maybe not).

It's the last time the Fall Fit group has our private hill training. In a couple of weeks it will start for the entire Houston Fit madhouse of a crowd. Not sure if I can hang with a big gang.

Send some positive hill vibes my way between 6:30 & 8 tonight.

UPDATE: That wasn't so bad. It was actually rather enjoyable. I got lapped FOUR times running the Waugh/Memorial cloverleaf, but there were other people that couldn't keep up with me, so it's all good. (I did walk a lot, but a speedy walk!)

Plus, the people that lapped me are all in the full marathon group. Since I'm a half-marathon person, I should have only done half anyway! We did over four miles!! Our long run last week was just 3 miles (5 this week).

But I really think I did well since I told the injured Running Knitter that I would run "for" her while she's still in recovery :o)

Holiday Weekend wrap up

Hope everyone had a great 4th of July weekend!

Mine started on a festive note - we got out of work at noon on Thursday and when I came home all of the houses had an American Flag in the front yard - a real estate agent put them there. I need to remember to get the name and send her a thank-you.

I really didn't take good advantage of my extra time off and basically laid around the house most of the day, but did pack for an overnight kayaking trip and took Winslow to my mommy's house. While there I hooked up at DTV converter box to her analog tv (neither of us have cable). I hate the converter box - it's like watching tv through the VCR, you have to use two remotes and there is a black screen for a little while when changing stations. And channel 8 (PBS) doesn't come in both at her house and mine. (I e-mailed them and the engineering director e-mailed me back very quickly, to which I responded & will probably get another e-mail from him tomorrow). She had me unplug the thing until she has to have it. I may do the same with the one I've plugged in.

On Friday I did the Run Wild 5K and had a really good time. I'm not a 5K fan, but it is really nice to see so many people I know and don't normally see. There were a LOT of PIMsters there, along with some Houston Fit friends and my gang from Bayou City Outdoors. The run wasn't too horrible. Although Garmin did say it was 3.33 miles! My average pace was a speedy (for me) 12.14 min/miles, which is really fast for me. Not so sure about the old Garmin 301 (still can't figure out why I can get the intervals to work). May NEED a new one.....

I had to cut the after race party short (shame too - there was 2 rows with brew, Michelob Ultras and Katz Ice Coffee. I did partake of 2 rows & Katz). Carol & Michelle were meeting at my house at 9am to load up & head out to San Marcos for 2 days of paddling. It wasn't TOO difficult to figure out how to load up the three kayaks on top of Michelle's car & we were off.

We got rained on quite a bit on the way out to San Marcos and were discussing the planned route for the day's paddle. Tracy was in charge & we were a little scared of how difficult the paddle would be for us in touring kayaks (the others were all in whitewater boats). We decided to bow out of the days paddle and tube instead. Although in the end we ended up drinking at the hotel pool instead! We did meet up with the rest of the gang for dinner & fireworks.

Saturday's paddle on the San Marcos was really, really nice. It has been a year since I've paddled (although I own a kayak, I can't transport it since I drive a convertible!). I would have liked to stayed and done the same route again! But we had to head home....

My neck/shoulders were a bit sore from the paddling and possibly still from the massage from hell, so I popped one of each of the drugs when I got home last night. It takes about 24 hours to regain energy, so most of today was spent sleeping...

I did pick up the precious (16 year old) puppy, go to the grocery store (Randall's has watermelon boats filled with cut fruit for $10!), got in a little run tonight and have officially begun packing for Alaska.

Oh yeah -- I'm going to Alaska July 16-26/27! 5 nights in Anchorage (hotel) followed by 4 nights in Denali (tent) and 1 night at Tanglewood Lakes (lodge). (And with the time change, one night flying home)

Off to bed now....have a great week!

There is such thing as a BAD massage

A VERY BAD massage!

Last Monday I was feeling great after running ~5 miles both Saturday and Sunday mornings in hilly New Braunfels. After a great pilates class, I went for a massage. Didn't really need one, but thought I deserved one.

I went to Avalon massage school, where I have gone several times and had the best massages I've ever gotten - by new graduates that have some great techniques. And an hour and a half massage is $50! (Nice private rooms, subdued lighting, aromatherapy & soothing tunes playing).

When I got there, the receptionist said the intern was not available, but an instructor agreed to do the massage at no extra charge. SCORE! -- I thought.....

Right from the get-go it was not a good massage. The guy (Noel Solis - beware of him!) made some crack about people getting massages from him need to "take as much as they can handle" or something like that. Right then I stopped him & said I was there for relaxation and rejuvenation, not some hard core crap - I do that to myself running & boot camp, etc. He said okay. I said I DID NOT want to be sore the next day. He said I wouldn't.

But then he started HARD. I told him again I did not want to be sore. He eased up some & said I wouldn't - he's an instructor & knows what he's doing and is very good at it. It would just be sore while he was doing it, but then I would feel great.

This bullshit (and I don't curse) went on throughout.

If he was an intern I would have stopped him in the middle & left. If he would have been a regular masseuse I would have also. But he was so insistent that he's an instructor and is great at what he does, etc, etc, etc.

I was in more pain when I left than when I went in.

It was worse the next day.

The following day I had to go to the doctor. She said my back was bruised and swollen. It was so tender she couldn't touch me.
She prescribed an anti-inflammatory AND pain medicine AND muscle relaxers -- three different drugs!

It took an entire week for me to get over all that.

And now, I really NEED a massage, but am too scared to go get one. Seriously, I really don't know if I'll get then again anytime soon. And with training ramping up, I'd like to be getting them monthly.

AND, I've lost a week of training. I'm a measly 1.8 miles away from making 200 miles this year, but haven't been up to getting in that silly amount. I have the Run Wild 5K this Friday and am going to have a super-sucky time since I haven't been running at all.

I am going to file a complaint on that "Instructor" with the Texas Department of Health Services, the ones in charge of licensing massage therapists. I'll attach the e-mail response I got from him when I told him how sore I was....

Mother Nature beginning to speak?

Today is hill workout day, and the news reports are reporting the possibility of bad weather this eve.

Sounds like Mother Nature REALLY does not want me to do hills!!

Favorite part of toobin weekend? Running!

Which of these items would be your favorite activity:

• Toobin' the Comal river during the day & at night
• Hamburger & hotdog cookout
• Illuminated & Discovery tours at Natural Bridge Caverns
• Jacuzzi time, lots of great jacuzzi time
• Hanging out in a condo with some other folks, eating junk food & jello shots & champagne
• Getting up at 6:30 am for a 5 mile hilly run and then cooling off by jumping in a 70 degree river.

I must be freakin' nuts, because the 6:30 am 5 mile run was my favorite part of the weekend. I enjoyed it so much that I did it BOTH days! (9.7 miles total). On Sunday I even threw in some core work between the run & jumping in the river (straight after the run, still dressed, minus high priced electronics and shoes/socks).

The awesome jacuzzi time does come in a close 2nd...

Toobin @ night

This weekend I'm going night toobin' and you're not -- HaHa!

I do have a 5 mile run planned out for Saturday morning in New Braunfels. When I was there last August I did this same route, so it'll be interesting to see how much better/worse I do this time.

I am so ready for some chilaxing time. (I've been wanting to use that word, Viv!)

Have a great weekend!

Mother Nature doesn't want me to do hills!!

Today I sucked up the courage to go to my first-ever hill training.

Just as I was pulling up (still in the car) BAM - thunder, lightning and rain. (And it hasn't rained much this year.) The sky is still grumbling 15 minutes later and it's pouring out.

If Mother Nature doesn't want me to do hills, I think that's a dang good sign for me to not do them! (Ever?)

Garmin interval not working

Help me Garmin users -- I can't get my interval times to work anymore!

I go into Training Assistant - Interval Workouts - Set Time & Rest Time - then set the time, rest time & reps, hit done. The "Press Start to Begin Intervals" screen comes up. I press start and it just starts going like normal, no intervals. No beeps at the end of the set time or rest time. No interval workout at all.

I thought maybe I did something wrong, but have gone over & over it.
I've tried setting the intervals at 10 seconds and nothings happened interval wise -- it just keeps on going like I'm not using the intervals.

I've used them a lot in the past without a problem.

Any ideas??

I have the Forerunner 301.

I've gone through the manual and looked on their website & tried to find help through internet serches too.

Weekend review

Kind of a low-key boring weekend. Got to rest up for night toobin next weekend!

Friday -- I went to watch the bats at Allen Parkway & Waugh. There was a big crowd there and a lot of bats to see! They started steaming out about 8:15 and there were still some vortexing when we left about 10pm.

Saturday -- I love Houston Fit Fall 1/2! We had a GREAT run. A really supportive, talkative group of ladies (where ARE all the men?? During Spirit of the Marathon, they showed Chicago Fit's weekly meeting and it was mainly women there too. I didn't realize I had said "Where are all the men" so loud until the theater started laughing).
We did 4 miles and I was really wanting to run some more, but didn't want to push it and then have an injury.

That afternoon I went to a kayak rolling practice & pool party. It was fun. I realized it's been an entire year since I've been kayaking. I have one, just can't transport it!

Sunday -- I did as little as possible and it was nice! I did go visit my mom for a long time and took along Winslow and the dog I'm dog-sitting. Also did some more research on Alaska activities, I leave a month from today!

And I cooked my meals for the week, filling up the little black boxes from My Fit Foods so they're all set to go in the fridge:

• breakfast - scrambled eggs (more white than yolk), veggie sausage patty & boiled new potato
• lunch -- spicy baked chicken with new potatoes and cabbage (weird once-a-year cabbage craving)
• dinner -- interesting mix of soy sauce & ginger on chicken with cabbage some zuccini and peppers along with some broccoli
• snacks -- cottage cheese & raspberries & strawberries, EAS protein shakes, yogurt, peaches, almonds, Oatmega bars (only 2 snacks per day, but those are all my options for the week).

Plus I got in a simple little 2 mile run at 9:30 pm last night. I think I'm now officially in the 13+ min/mile category. So it's looking like every 6 months or so I'm getting better by a minute per mile. Maybe by the time of the Houston 1/2 in January I'll be down to 11 min/miles! (But would be happy with 12 min/miles and satisifed with 13 min/miles.)

Fancy new lightbulbs not so great....

I learned that those fancy-schmantzy new lightbulbs that are way more expensive than the good ole ones we've used since childhood do not work in fixtures with photocells. (Photocells are the sensors that will turn a light on when it's dark and off when it's light out. One of the joys of homeownership - having to learn all about things you never wanted to know about.)

That sucker didn't even last 24 hours. Back to the good ole standbys I've always known and loved.

Random thoughts on the road

I wish I had a little micro recorder to take along on runs. I think of some good things out there, but then get back inside & *poof* it all disappears.

I did a couple of things to be proud of along my run today:
- I did it. That's good for me lately. (OHMIGOSH - I just realized I've actually done something (run-jog or pilates) everyday since Monday of last week!! It's been moderate enough activity that I don't think I'm overdoing it, though.)

- I was planning ahead on where to walk & drink and realized I was thinking "I'll take a break when that light pole gets to me" instead of thinking when I get to it. I didn't even realize I was doing that at first. Pretty cool.

- My walk breaks usually would time out at 7 minutes, in Houston Fit I'm with a group doing 5/1, so I should be super prepared!

- I might actually be acclimating to the heat. At least I thought I was since I wasn't miserable (@ 6:30 pm) like I was last night (@ 10pm). But then I came in and checked the weather on the internet and see humidity was way down. So I might not be as acclimated as I had hoped. The Houston Fit newsletter for this week talked a lot about acclimation. I threw that last comment in just so I could use the word acclimation again since I know it's Viv's word of the month.

- I did a negative split - mile 1 was still a bit too fast, but miles 2-4 were each slightly faster than the last. The overall times were much slower than what I have been doing, but in the HF newsletter it did say that most times will be about a minute higher due to the heat.

- I enjoyed my run!

Karma

*&^%$#! that Karma!

Since I taunted in my last post, that mean ole Karma came back on me already.

I've been doing great sticking to my training schedule, plodding along. Today I didn't get a chance to run until 10pm. Ugh that's late. And still hot!
Despite drinking my entire hand-held water bottle, I still lost .3 lbs. of sweat. And it's still pouring out....
You're welcome for the nice visual.
Pleasant dreams....

HaHa

I'm going to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner and you're not. HaHa.

(I don't really care much for chain restaurants, but I like to tease people....)

I *heart* Houston Fit!

Man that run felt good today! HOT, but good. (Although I think I'm acclimating pretty well.)
I did walk a tad bit, but my running buddy du jour (Kate) and I kept each other on track - knowing when to push each other & when to slack off.
I had Garmin issues (it wasn't beeping for the intervals like it should, even though I pretty sure it was set right), but according to the folks I finished with we made GREAT time - 13 min/miles. Woo-Hoo!

Running can be *fun*

Just 'cause I wanna

Houston Fit is bright and early at 6:30am, so tonight is usually a no-run night.

But I really wanted to do a little running.

I only did a mile and 3/4 - came back to check on the sprinkler in the front yard and decided it was too late to keep at it tonight. At the end I had the precious puppy along, so it was a really slow run (He's a spry 16 year old). But we netter out at a 15 min/mile.

I learned a joy of home ownership - getting to run through your own sprinkler at the end of a run. Wonder if the neighbors were watching.

PS -- Tomorrow I have to exchange a pair of white denim capri pants I bought because I can literally take them off without unbuttoning or unzipping them! Woo-Hoo!
(But I did compare them to a pair of jeans I own and even though they are the same size, the capris are obviously bigger.)

Chuging along.....

Attn non-running readers: This is a boring running post, you may want to skip it (Kelly).

This running crap isn't all that horrible!

I just did 2 miles (@ 8pm, 85 degrees, 70% humidity) and it felt pretty good. My knees are hurting (lifelong knee problems) a tad. I might have gone around another mile, but don't want to push it. (In case you didn't know, I've been slacking a LOT lately.)

I averaged 13:45 min/miles which is great for me (Esp. since I stopped a couple of times to try and coax a lost doggie over to me, who I later coaxed back home not even knowing that was his home, 2 streets over from where I first saw him. And I also stopped twice to upright overturned trash cans -- it got windy!)

Last year at this time I couldn't even fathom running. I was a PIM drop-out and just knew running wasn't my thing.

11 months ago I couldn't run more than 1/4 mile without gasping for breath and having to walk (and sometimes just turning around and going home). 6 months ago I did 13.1 miles in training. 5 months ago I did an official 1/2 marathon.
And have plans to do a lot more 1/2's in the future -- (Houston in October, San Antonio R&R in November, Houston in January, possibly Surfside in February and most definitely Seabrook in March - possibly both Sat & Sun).

And now to get back into training shape...
Yesterday I did a mile, today I did 2 miles.

I'm getting there....at my own pace....

(Plus, I'm tired of seeing that little 0 on the sidebar as the miles I've run....)

Now I need to work on getting my eating totally back on track so I can kick some booty in Viv's Independance Weight Loss Challenge.

Two thumbs up!

I don't want to give anything away, so won't give a detailed review, but do give Sex & the City two thumbs up.

I went in with low expectations, since movies don't usually live up to the original form (book, show, play, nursery rhyme even!). I was very pleasantly surprised with the script, storyline, acting, etc. All 4 ladies had pretty good plot lines. Now thinking about it more, I could knit-pick a lot of it and I like liking the movie, so I'm not going to think about that anymore. Just go, sit back & enjoy!

One thing, I thought Carrie was wearing the same shoes in a couple of scenes. I'm not a big shoe-ho & not really into fashion at all (this weekend I bought clothes at Target & Sam's Club!). Since shoes are such a big deal in S&TC, I was looking at them and surprised to see the same or similar shoes in multiple scenes.

Worth going to see now instead of waiting for video. I got my $7.50 worth!