Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Lonely 8 miles...

8/30


Usually on this Monday long run I have my friend Jon from work to run with, but today I was solo. It's my run I have to do after working four 12 hour night shifts in a row so I'm always tired and it's nice to have a friend that can push me along. Not to mention I am suppose to be at 10.5 miles according to my training plan and I only made it 8.23 miles.


I got all ready to go, turned on my Garmin and it said low battery. WHAT?? Low battery on my long run! I didn't even think to charge it because I haven't used it and it's been turned off! Lame! Well, I figured it would last me a little while so I kept it on a started my run. I didn't even make it a quarter of a mile before that darn thing shut off!


I decided to change up my run a little bit from what Jon and I usually do. The run was going pretty well except for the last mile and a half back to work. Man it just kills me! It has so many hills. I wish I could find a route that only has them in the beginning or middle. To do a bunch of hills which I'm all ready not good at when I'm dead tired just doesn't work for me. Ugh.

I'm starting to get really worried about this half marathon. I'm leaving for Vegas in two days and will be there for 10 days!! All my friends are going to want party it up and that doesn't make for good running. I guess we will see what happens.

Feeling Good

8/25

Since on my last run with PamelO my leg was killing me I decided to take it easy because I wasn't sure if my leg was going to start bothering me again or not. I was going along at a pretty slow pace and it didn't seem to bother me so I decided to go a little longer and speed up a tad.

Where I live has some small short hills so I decided to get some practice in. I've got to start somewhere I guess, and I stink at hills. I looped around the neighborhood a few times so I could do the hills more then once. Since I had such a good time running the other day at dark I decided to go a little later today too. I've noticed it's getting darker out so much sooner now. I took my dog Abby with me so I had someone to run with. All though, she would never protect me. Unless getting super excited and licking someone is protecting?? I know the area really well however, they are still building houses and all the streets don't have lights so of course I twisted my ankle on a rock I couldn't see. I iced it when I got home and it was fine. Thank god.

Oh on a side note, I felt really good about this run. I didn't stop at all except to walk up the giant hill and I even made it half way before walking!

Monday, August 30, 2010

Running with PamelO




8/23/10



Running post Utah, I noticed right away it was easier for me to run at home. I wonder if it's all in my head?? Maybe I'm a little crazy?


I did go for a long run I didn't blog about. It went ok, no big events. However, I went with my friend from work and did the same long route as before, the one I love. I had to stop and walk more then before. He said, "I can see you didn't run when you were in Utah!!" What the heck? I did run, it just didn't go very well.


Back to my 8/23 run with PamelO. Her name is Pamela O. but I call her PamelO. I work with her and she is a great runner. I always feel bad asking her to run with me because she is a million times faster then me... Well about 2 minutes a mile faster, which is a lot. I wanted to run in Tacoma where the You Go Girl half marathon will be so I could test out the area and see how bad the hills are and such. We headed out to Tacoma a little late, it was a hot day and of course I wanted to wait until it cooled off. I brought my reflector though so we didn't get ran over and killed.


When we finally started out it was pretty much dark, I think I like running at night, it's cool and not to busy. Anyways, right away in the run my right leg/calf/shin started hurting. I just kept running and hoped it would pass. However, after a mile of waiting for the pain to go away it was still hurting and now it was pretty bad, I had to stop. I stretched it out and then started up again. We had planned on doing 8-10 miles but there was no way I was going to make it with the pain I was having. I felt so horrible and I wanted to keep going. I tried to run through it and Pam asked me if I wanted to stop because now I was limping while running. I said no but we should probably turn around, we headed back to the car. I wished I could of went further, we ended up doing 5 miles.

Sunday, August 29, 2010

Lost in Utah...

8/10/10

I needed to do my long run while I was still in Utah so I waited for it to cool off and decided to head out around 8:15. My step mom Gina told be to go through this neighborhood and go to the right and it loops around. Great... off I go.

I get into the neighborhood and go to the right like she says. I'm looking around and there are nice houses everywhere and it's on a golf course. I'm still really struggling to run in Utah it's just not the same. Boy do I give people credit that travel all over and run these marathons in states they don't live in because I am having the hardest time. So I decided to run 6 minutes then walk a minute. Which is working, kind of. I cheated and walk early a few times.

It's starting to get a little dark out which is great because it's starting to cool off. It was pretty hot the whole time I was in Utah. However, it's starting to get dark and nothing looks familiar but everything looks the same. Does that make sense?

I'm starting to get a little bit worried now because it is officially dark outside and I have no idea where I am. I am now lost in Utah.

Crap! I start thinking to myself should I knock on somebodies door and ask them how to get out of pleasant view? Then I see a few cars heading in the same directions so I decided to follow where they went and hopefully that will take me to where I began. I follow them but this is so not the beginning! However, it looks familiar and I'm pretty sure we have drove this way home before in the car so I go with it. I'm really tired and my foot is starting to hurt. Also my shoulder are hurting, I can feel the tension in them. I try to shake my arms out but it's not helping. I'm pretty much walking now more then I am jogging which worries me because I just want to get back to the house. I see a sign for the road I need to turn down so I am no longer lost! I know where I am, probably only 1.5 miles from the house. I'm going along this road trying my best to jog when I can. All of the sudden this car pulls over and scares me a little and it was my dad. He says you could of ran a marathon by now!! I'm beat! I hop in the car and ride home.

I ended up home safe with the biggest blister ever on my toe. I decided on my run that I need to get a reflector so I can run at night and people can see me and I need to get an arm band big enough for my iPhone so I can call someone if I get lost. Utah and running, so not for me.

Utah... Attack of the Allergies!!!

8/6/10

I headed off to Utah to visit my family and made sure to pack my running gear so I wouldn't be a slacker. Both my dad and step mom run so I figured I would be able to get some runs in.

Early morning comes and my dad pops his head in the room and asks if I want to run before it gets hot out. I'm not really a morning person since I work nights and all but I get out of bed and get ready. I get outside and the sun is blazing in my face! What??? Before it gets hot out?? It's feeling pretty warm to me all ready! So the old mad and I head down to the end of the driveway, I'm trying to get situated with my music and such. I bend down to tie my shoe, look up and he took off without me!! No warning, no looking back, just left me in the dust!

So I head off. I'm thinking to myself no problem, I can catch up to this guy, he's old. I'm running along and get pretty close behind him and I feel like he starts running faster. He has his music in so I don't think he's doing it on purpose. This guy is pretty fast! Now I know I'm not going to be able to catch him so I slow down and try to just keep a comfortable pace. What the heck! It's so hot out! I'm really struggling here. Then I start coughing, just a little, no big deal. Gosh, I haven't even gone over a mile and I feel like I need to walk. I start to walk for a bit while I'm looking around at all the houses, horses, barns and then noticed the hay, everywhere!!! Which I'm very allergic to. On a scale from 1-10, I'm an 11! Well that's what my doctor said. LOL.

I run a little bit more and ended up doing three miles ALONE since my father ditched me at mile zero and I was behind him for the rest of the run. I had to at least stay close enough to see him since I had no idea where I was going.

Then I start coughing, coughing and more coughing, which makes it hard to run. When I finally made it back to the house it was non stop coughing. I didn't bring my inhaler from home because I hardly use it and clearly I wasn't thinking. I ended up buying an over the counter medication which helped.

Holy moly slacking on this blog thing!!

Ok so I have a million and two runs to blog about so I will just do some of the big ones...

8/2/10

I was suppose to do my long run for the week, 7 miles. I worked all night, 12 hours, but have a friend from work that will run with me so I didn't want to pass up the chance to do my long run with someone. We looked online and mapped out a run. We both aren't from around here so we really have no idea where we are going.

Morning comes and we both are tired and not really feeling like doing this but we suck it up and head out. It ended up being a really nice route. The views were so pretty!! I found the next neighborhood I want to move to!! The houses have so much charm and the view is amazing! We head down to the waterfront which we are both familiar with and then headed back up towards work. Which is uphill and if you don't know yet, I hate and am horrible at running hills! I actually wasn't doing to bad until we got to a pretty steep hill and then it was down hill from there. Down hill for me, not literally down hill, it was definitely up hill!!! We, missed the turn and ended up going a different way which just had a mild incline but it was killing me! I had to walk. The last mile of this run was pretty much me dying and walking. However, it felt good to get my 7 miles done even if the last mile was a walk.

Friday, July 30, 2010

Is some better then none???

I work 12 hour night shifts from 7pm to 730am and this week I work seven of them in a row! I still need to fit time in for running otherwise I get lazy and it's even hard to start back up on my days off.

I get off work this morning and I'm tired! Going for a run is the last thing on my mind. I just want to go to sleep!! Sleeeeeep! I'm suppose to do 3 miles today. I say to myself, 30 minutes, that's it! While sitting in my car deciding if I should change my clothes, get out and go for a jog or just drive straight home I was giving myself small motivational talks.... It's only 30 minutes, you will sleep better, you can do it, 30 minutes!!

So, I changed my clothes, put on my running shoes and head out to the park. I went to the park across the street from my work. It has a nice little trail that goes up and down but nothing too big. I start going, hey this isn't too bad. However, not even half way into the jog I have to go pee really bad. I think I drank too much last night at work. I make it almost a mile and can't go any more, so I stop and use the restroom. Of course there is a guy in there cleaning them while I'm outside doing the pee pee dance. But it was a nice break because I was all ready so tired.

I start up again and soon after I start I'm dying! I'm out of breath, tired and feel like I need to stop again, so I do. I walked for a little bit and started back up. I think to myself, just go even slower and you can make it. I go for a little bit longer but I'm coming up to where my car is and I just gave up! I stopped and went home.

On the way home I'm so tired I'm worried I'm going to fall asleep. I only made it 2.5 miles and it sure was a struggle. However, is some better then none?? I'm really not sure?

I didn't hate running today!

7/28

I didn't hate running today! I'm always so jealous of those people who say, "I love to run". Love to run??? Did I hear you right? How can anybody love to run? I definitely don't love to run...yet. But, I didn't hate it today so that was nice.

According to the plan I'm suppose to do 3.5 miles, easy. I said to myself this is just an easy run. It will be fine. Right when I started out my shin started to hurt and I thought to myself, "oh great! This is going to be a horrible run". However, after a few minutes of running the pain went away and I was feeling ok. I even passed mile one without having to stop! Then I passed mile two without stopping. There were even two hills between mile one and two that I made it up without stopping and continued on my way. Here comes mile three... It is a very long hill, which I knew I wouldn't make it up so I just walked it. After the hill was over I started up again and ended the jog with a real run pace. I always feel funny to say I went for a run when I'm so slow and it's more like a slow jog.

6 miles

7/26

Today was my long run, 6 miles. Last night when I got home from Oregon I rushed to Best Buy before they closed to buy my Garmin. I have been looking at them for sometime now and my Step-dad said he would help me buy one so I rushed there. We got stuck in traffic on the way home and I thought I wouldn't make it in time. We got home at 7:15 and they close at 8:00, I made! Got home and charged it so it would be ready to go tomorrow.

I mapped out my run and was starting to get excited for it. However, it was really hot out and I don't like running in the heat, it makes me feel so sluggish. Therefore, I decided to wait until later and would run when it cooled down. Well, 8:30pm rolls around and it is still 82 outside! So, it's time to run anyways.

It was time to get ready. I felt like a poser with all this equipment on and I’m not even good at running. I put on my heart rate strap, Garmin watch and my iPod. I had a running partner today, Luis.

This run was really hard for me. There were two hills right away, the first one pretty big and the second one not so bad but it was enough to make me have to walk after. All I could think was, I'm hot, I haven't even made it to the second mile and I'm all ready walking!! Not to mention I was having major equipment malfunctions. My stupid heart rate strap kept falling down, there was no keeping that thing up, it was all the way down to my belly button. My Garmin watch that I was so excited to wear doesn't really fit well because my wrists are pretty small, it was flopping around everywhere.

Where is the wind?? I was hot and just wanted some wind on my face; anything to cool me down would be nice. I don't have any of those fancy water bottler holders so I didn't bring any. I'm not sure what the rule is about drinking water but I think if it's over a hour you are suppose to have some water? I was hoping this run would only be a hour so I thought I would be ok.

I feel like I have to walk again and I’m not even half way! Not even three miles!! What the heck is wrong with me? I was not meant to be a runner! I started walking and Luis is not going to wait for me, off he goes ahead of me. Now it’s starting to get a little bit darker outside and pretty soon it is VERY dark outside. I can hardly see anything! I have no idea where Luis is and I’m starting to get worried.

Now there are no sidewalks and I can’t see anything, great! I’m almost home but I have to go down this curvy hill with no sidewalks and I’m afraid I’m going to get ran over. Every time a car came near I pretty much had to go in the bushes so I wouldn’t get hit. Not very good planning on my part.

It’s over! I made it, alive.

Winchester Bay

7/24

I went to Oregon with a bunch of friends to play in the sand dunes. I made sure to bring my running shoes and an outfit so I didn't slack all weekend. However, I was only able to get one run in. My good friend Pamela ran with me, we didn't go very far and I struggled in the beginning. I'm starting to have this issue with the first couple of miles, it's so hard for me and I have to stop and walk for a minute or so. I felt bad for Pam because she runs 10 miles all the time and way faster, she could probably walk as fast as I jog.

Thursday, July 22, 2010

If she can, I can!

I always hated running growing up. I can remember being in elementary school taking the fitness test and having to run what seemed like a million laps around the gym to equal one mile. I would get horrible stomach pains and would have to walk. During this test you had a partner who would cross the laps off as you passed by; I would always pick a friend to cross my laps off so every time I went by she could cross off two. Even with two a lap being crossed off I was still so slow!! Running was not for me!

Not too long ago a friend from my neighborhood would invite me to go on walks with her. She just had a baby and wanted to loose the extra baby weight. I didn't mind going for walks with her, I could walk all day. However, pretty soon she wanted to go on "jogs" with her. Oh man! All I could think about was back in PE and how bad I am at running. I didn't want to say no because I enjoyed time with her. But, I didn't want to say yes because I knew after 30 seconds I would be walking again.

I started jogging with my friend and just as I remember, I was horrible. She always said she didn't mind but I felt like I was holding her back. She is a stay at home mom and I work 12hr night shift so it was hard to meet up to jog and she would go without me. Pretty soon she was telling me that she went 2 miles, 3 miles and more! I wanted to be able to do that as well. I thought to myself if she can do it, so can I!! And this is how my running started.

I'm still very slow and find running to be so hard for me. I'm not even sure that I love it. Well, most of the time I don't. However, I'm hoping with time it will get easier and I will enjoy it more.

I completed the Tacoma City Marathon’s 5k with a bunch of friends from work and I did a lot better then I thought I would 28:49 so I signed up for the Sound to Narrows 12k. Before I completed the Sound I thought well I should sign up for the You Go Girl half to keep myself motivated and I wanted the cheaper price since it is so spendy. OH MY GOD! I thought the Sound to Narrows was going to kill me. I knew there would be some hills but I was not ready for that at all. I remember just wanted to give up so many times but then I thought crap I would still have to walk all the way back to where I started. I finished 1:26 which I was bummed about but better then not finishing at all! I was so sore the next day and after that run I haven’t really been running like I should. So here I am, a little late, starting to train for the half. We’ll see how it goes!