I'm a Hazard to Myself

Don't let me get me.
Following Hal Higdon's Novice II Marathon Training schedule, yesterdays run was 3 miles. It was an unusually warm day in January, 75 degrees, so I decided to take it at an easy pace. The mysterious pain in my knee I had on Sunday and Monday, mysteriously disappeared. But this morning I awoke to sore leg muscles.

What?! That was a 3 mile run, at an easy pace? Why am I sore? Was it cuz I ran so slow? Are my muscles always this sore and I never even noticed it?

I'm my own worst enemy.
These last two weeks of tapering are leaving me antsy. I needed something to do, so for some stupid reason, Monday night, I decided to do the initial testing for the two hundred sit-up training program.

The initial test consists simply of doing as many crunches as you can to determine where you should start in the training program. Knowing I could've done a few more, I stopped at 47, just to be conservative. That number of crunches at my age places me at the "Good" level.

All day yesterday, I thought, Wow! I don't feel those crunches at all! I should have kept going. But then, I woke up this morning. HA! NOW, I feel them!

Its bad when you annoy yourself...so irritating

Geez! What am I doing to myself?! I'm supposed to be taking it easy before the marathon - take in a movie or a nice leisurely game of golf. This training is making me crazy. I should be relaxing, not tripping out on every ache and pain I feel (Oh yeah, during this morning's 2 miler, I felt like I was getting shin splints. Really? 2 miles?).

I just can't wait for this whole thing to be over. So much so, that I'm going to start looking for my next race!

So over it!

It's 87 degrees at 6:00 AM. I am officially tired of training in this weather. The sun's not up and it's still 87 degrees with a humidity of 30%. I know we've probably got a month of this weather left, but I'm not going to take it anymore.

I found my little city fitness center for $2 a day. So what if there's only 3 treadmills and they ladies on it don't follow the "30 minute limit" rule. I'll use the elliptical, I'm not picky. I'm just sick and tired of running in this heat.

Hahaha! Wait, just 3 months from now, I'll be begging the heat again.

Falling Behind

Two days behind on my training now. Yuck.

Things get so crazy when my husband travels. I can't sleep. Last night I finally made it upstairs to bed at 1:30 AM. Only 5 hours of sleep. Am starting to invest in RockStar.

No way I can run today. Work, kids, no sitter.

He'll be home tomorrow afternoon, then I leave at 5 for San Francisco, so tomorrow's looking bleak, too. I've got to find the time somehow.

Training Hurdles

I don't know how I'm going to train this week. My husband is out of town. My oldest son, who I can usually get to watch the 4 year old is away in college. And I've got a trip to San Francisco scheduled Thursday - Saturday.

I'm on week 6 of my half marathon training from Hal Higdon's site and I'm supposed to run 4 miles today. There's no way I can make it into the gym, it's my daughter's first volleyball game, and it's an away game...far away.

I hate falling behind.

Now that the Human Race is over, I'm now training for the Nike Women's Half Marathon on October 19th. Then, after the half marathon is done, I'm going to transition into Week 6 of Hal Higdon's Novice II Marathon training program.



I love the Nike Women's Marathon tagline. Also, anyone who registers and runs gets a special Tiffany key chain. Love it! Of course, I won't be running in San Francisco. Since I'm using Nike+, I can run the race anywhere I want. I'll probably run the Scottsdale Greenbelt and Arizona Canal, from Shea to Chapparal Rd. It's a beautiful run, through lakes and golf courses. And by late October, the weather should be perfect.

Now if only I could find the time to train for it.

Human Race Training Review

I didn't actually start recording my 10K training until 2 weeks ago. Unfortunately, these last two weeks of training coincided with a few personal obligations that may have interfered:
Son moving in to ASU dorms and starting school 8/21 - 8/23
Youngest son's 5th birthday 8/23
Family trip to Las Vegas 8/24 to 8/26
Prepping house for Fantasy Football Draft on 8/30

I was scheduled to run 36 miles and only ran 29 these last two weeks. I was short 7 miles in my training.
I guess that's fine considering how busy I was.

And I did hit my goal for the month of August!

If you thought ringing in your ears were annoying...

I'm in Vegas this weekend and am hoping this trip doesn't interfere with the training. Our hotel does have a fitness center, but I'm hoping it doesn't come down to that. I'm not big on treadmills. The last time I used one the inside of my ears were shocked by my headphones. I didn't know that was even possible. And in case you didn't think so either, let me just say, YES, it is possible. And YES, It does hurt.

Suddenly, you hear a loud zapping and feel pain in your ears. Then you rip off the headphones as fast as you can, like they're alien insects trying to slip into your brain. And, if you're lucky, they land on the treadmill console. Otherwise, they fall on the moving track and they're stomped to pieces, or you trip over the wires and embarrass yourself in front of everyone in the fitness center. Oh yeah, good times.

Too bad for me my foam covered headphones are at work. So, I can either, risk the shock, run the treadmill without music or run the streets of Las Vegas at 6 AM. None of the above are at all desirable.

How should I run on the treadmill tomorrow to avoid ear shock?
	Run without music. I heard it can be done.
	Run the streets of Vegas at 6:00 AM. All the crazies should be in bed by then anyway.
	Buy shockless headphones. You'll probably have to use them again anyway.
	Risk it! You're in Vegas, baby. Go ahead and use your headphones.
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Tempo Run

I finally uploaded my "Tempo Run" to Nike Plus. According to Hal Higdon's training website, a Tempo run is "a continuous run with a buildup in the middle to near race pace. (Notice I said "near" race pace. You don't want to go faster than your 10-K race pace.) In this program, tempo runs are scheduled for every other Wednesday, alternating with interval training on the track. A tempo run of 30 to 40 minutes would begin with 10-15 minutes easy running, build to 10-20 minutes near the middle, then 5-10 minutes easy toward the end. The pace buildup should be gradual, not sudden, with peak speed coming about two-thirds into the workout and only for a few minutes. You can do tempo runs almost anywhere: on the road, on trails or even on a track."



The above run profile shows that at about 2/3 of the way into the run, I gradually build to 9.52 min miles. Then 3/4 of the way through my work out I start slowing down for the last 5 - 10 minutes. That's about how Hal would've wanted it.

The mystery of 0224693

That's the number on my Nike Human Race shirt. I checked the product site on Nike and it says "Each tee has a unique and individually printed bib number." How cool is that?

Very cool, if I may say so myself. Mystery solved. That's probably why the decal isn't silkscreened.

So, my training schedule calls for a 4 mile run plus strength tomorrow (Thursday) and then rest on Friday. I'll have to flip that around since tomorrow I will be VERY busy moving my son into the dorms at ASU. That's even cooler that a fancy t-shirt!

The Human Race

I just got my t-shirt! So, it's official. I am part of the Human Race. Woohoo!
















It was 85 degrees this morning and I was just going to run with my sports bra because I was too lazy to dig through the clean laundry for a t-shirt at 5:50 AM. But as soon as I stepped out of the door there was a box on my doorstep. My t-shirt! Coincidence or kismet? You be the judge.

It is a nice shirt, kinda bright for my taste and the material is not as soft as my other running shirt. But it's still the stay-dry material. Comments about the shirt on the Nike site say the label is a little heavy, but to me, it's barely noticeable. Sure, a silkscreen would be better than an iron-on, but it's all right.

I like the fact that I can train with it and run with it on race day, and people who are also running their own course can identify each other as part of the Human Race.

After my morning run, my daughter was in the middle of asking me about some pony-tail holders when she stopped herself and said "Wow! That's the coolest shirt ever!"

One question though, what do the numbers on the shirt represent? It's not the date of the race (20080831), could it be my actual bib number? Would Nike go through the trouble of printing out t-shirts with specific bib numbers? These are the questions that I must ask, and I will find the answers. I will.