My Visit to the City of Trees

Seeems it's not very common that people visit Idaho! Hehe. Aside from my blog, I was asked this question quite a bit. Duane and I went to Boise on a very short trip to visit one of my oldest friends. Heather and Ron (and their 2 girls) live about 20 minutes outside Boise. I've known Heather since 4th grade, the first friend I ever made when my family immigrated to the US. I wish I had a picture of Heather and me back then to show you... But I'm sure it's buried some where in my old room at my parent's house. Heather moved out to Idaho after she got married about 10 years ago. And, Heather and Ron have made a really great home for herself and her family in that potato state. If you haven't been to Boise yet, maybe you should think about making a trip out there in October! I'm considering the City of Trees Marathon in Boise on 10/10/10! And hello, it's only $73 for registration fees! So if you're interested in joining me... Check out this link for the City of Trees Marathon website!

There was also a Susan G Komen 5k Saturday morning of our visit... Only discovered by accident when we went to the Boise downtown farmer's market. If I had known, I woulda ran it! Oh well, I shoulda done some research. But needless to say, I didn't get much running in this past weekend.

By the way, my friend Heather is one of the most talented women I know. She's really into digital scrap-booking and photography. She once was a director of a Montessori school, education consultant to the state of Idaho and fabulous athlete. Recently she's been a stay home mom and with her 3rd child due in 8 weeks she's a very content and very busy stay home mom. If you know anyone who needs an event/wedding photographer in the Boise area (maybe after August), check out her photography website!

Yesterday it rained on and off for most of the day. Since when did it rain in May in the Bay Area? And it was a lot cooler than normal. I went out to my usual running spot and hoped that the rain would cease... As I left work the rain seemed to be dwindling but once I got to Pt Isabel, it was POURING. I was disheartened... Thinking: I shoulda went to the gym straight. And also secretly happy that I got out of running. I decided to go home and rest. I was feeling under the weather after all and been coughing all day. I drove about half a mile and noticed blue sky peaking through the north part of the my hood! And I thought about the 2 upcoming half marathons and I REALLY wanted to run... So I drove back. And waited several minutes for the rain to pass. Low and behold, not too much later, the rain stopped and I bounced out of my car in my new SyncroFuel Pearl Izumi shoes. (More on the shoes later!) Maybe because I didn't think I was gonna be able to run, I was really excited and happy. I felt good the whole time, too. It was still cool (mid 50 degrees) and overcast, which was perfect. I ran pretty evenly at about 9:33 min average/mile pace! I've been clocking in 10+ min per mile lately so this felt really really good. I don't think I'm going to breaking any records in June for my two half marathons but I think I'll run them at a decent pace!

I am hoping for a longer run today, hopefully a 8 miler. It's a beautiful day today. Nice and sunny. :-)

New York City Marathon Here I Come!

You guys are so awesome. Thanks for coming by and dropping me a note. It's really wonderful knowing that I wasn't forgotten... *sniff*

What an exciting day! Found out that I got into the New York City Marathon via the lottery!!! Yay. There was some confusion at first because I signed up both Duane and myself and when I saw the charge for 1 entry, I wasn't sure who got accepted. Turns out, it's me! Good thing November is still months away and I get my ramp up my training and actually be ready. I'm also really excited to go back to NYC, I haven't been back since I left in April 2008!

I went out last night thinking I was going to do 5 miles but ended up running about 6! The overall pace was about 10:30 min per mile and although my legs were tired from getting so much exercise in 2 days. I also stopped and walked briefly around the half way point, I was tired! My legs are pretty sore right now and debating if I want to go out again tonight. What would you do? I also got up at crack of dawn this morning to go to my boot camp session so I'm kind of sleepy, too. I won't get a chance to run again until Saturday morning... So maybe I should?

Who else is going to NYCM??

Happy Friday & My Interview on Runner's Lounge Blog

And guess what? I'm the featured runner in Open Mic Friday at the Runner's Lounge! Please click on the widget above to access the interview. Thank you for those of you that have already read it and told me it's up there. You guys are so sweet!! I really enjoyed writing the interview and made me realize how much I appreciate you guys, my fellow runners, bloggers and readers. :-)

Went for a 6 miler this morning and felt pretty good. Except for the strange pain in my Achilles tendon. Well, at least, that's what I *think* it was. It was a sharp pain in the lower back of my ankle and felt it all morning since I got out of bed. I debated on running on it but decided to test it out... After a few miles, the pain subsided and felt much better. There is a dull pain there but not too bad now. Any idea what it could be?

Oh and happy birthday to my blog mom Leslie!! Please go wish her a happy birthday! :-)

TIaRT: Training Dos and Dont's

Another TIaRT brought to you by me, courtesy of the great folks over at Runner's Lounge.

I've run a few marathons here and there and there are some things that I've really come to live by when it comes to training dos and don't.

Training Do: Two rules of thumb for me are rest and stretch. I need a day of rest at least 2 or 3 days of straight running for my body to recover. And, I always try to stretch. I noticed I'm much more prone to injury if I don't follow my "do" rules! Fortunately for me, I haven't had any major injuries to put me out so I'm going to stick to these two for now.

Training Don't: Don't over do it. I know my body and I try not to over do it. In another words, I don't over train. Not that I ever had a chance to overtrain but I don't plan to either. That's a pretty easy one to follow, too. :-)

So I followed my "do" yesterday and took a rest day. Today is a running day for me and is planning a 6 miler at lunch time. I haven't had a chance to hit a long run midweek, yet. Next week, I plan to throw in a 9 or 10 miler Tuesday or Thursday. Wish me luck!

Also, thank you for all of you who were concerned about my little accident on the stationary bike earlier on Monday. I'm definitely recovering but sad to report there is a nasty bruise *there*. I am such a clutz!

OH and I did it. I signed up for the Napa Valley Marathon on March 1st!!! Let the training begin!

TIaRT: Super Powers

The TIaRT over at Runner's Lounge this week calls for runners to ponder about what kind of super powers they would love to have. Honestly, I'm not much of a superhero expert so I had to rely on Google to help me with the type of super powers there are out there. There are A LOT of super powers, apparently! I actually found this article that listed some creative and cool super powers!

Now, not all of these would be applicable to runners but I found one that I would LOVE to have the super power of the Metabolism Woman. According to the article I mentioned earlier the author wrote: "I would use this power to eat fried foods, eat more chocolate and drink more alcohol, knowing that my *super metabolism* would just burn it all off, keeping me fit and trim, without paying for it with hours at the gym."

HOW COOL WOULD THAT BE???

Of course, I would change mine so that my "super metabolism" would kick in when I start running! I would eat and drink whatever I wanted and if I ran (even only a mile), it would all be burned off! All of it. And then some. How awesome would that be? Sure, if I was truly lazy, I wouldn't even need to run! But then, what would be the point? I love running!

Man, this was really fun to think about... (And I think I am obsessed with my weight. I've written my last 3 TIaRTs on some kind of weight related topic!)

If you're really into this super power stuff, you can even vote as to what you think is the best super power! And here's are some funny and practical super powers you can chuckle over.

On the running front, I haven't been as good as I should. I had a busy day on Tuesday at work and by the time I got home (after my long a$$ commute) I had no desire to go to the gym. It was my cross training day and I totally skipped out. Bad me. Wednesday, I went for an easy 6 miler after work. Today, I'm going to shoot for 8 after work and go visit my sister who is 15 weeks pregnant!

Running Alone

I run alone. There are days when my husband comes out with me for a 5 or a 6 miler and OK, for the longer runs, I drop in a local marathon training group if I can. But for the most part, I'm out there pounding the pavement by myself. But, for the past few months that I've been blogging about my runs, I feel like I have been part of a running support group. And that would be YOU! Sometimes, during my runs, I think about the things I want to write about or capture during the run (although, most of the time, it never makes it on the screen). And knowing that I have a small group of runners that read my blog and give their comments have been really really encouraging. I feel like I have my own personal running coaches and partners. Believe it or not, you guys are all out there with me when I'm running. And it doesn't feel so lonely out there! This post might be a bit cheesy but I just wanted to share. :-)

Also, I went out for a 6 miler last night after work and it felt really good. Maybe it's running on flat roads but it felt really good!! However, my Nike+ said I only ran 5.5 miles!! Which is really odd because I stopped the Nike+ when it read 6.2... So strange. This is my "broken" Nike+. The replacement hasn't arrived, yet. According to this map of the San Tomas Creek Trail, I started near the starting point and went out to the 3 mile marker and turned back. (This is the route the Sports Basement running group goes out on Tuesday evenings and Saturday mornings. I love how it has a legend at the bottom of the map. Also, a great bike path... well paved and clean!) But my sensor didn't capture it that way. Hmmm. Anyhow, this morning, the top of my foot was a bit achy and looked a bit swollen, too. I thought my shoelaces were too tight but i think I must have done something to it yesterday. I iced it this morning before I came into work and it's feeling better but I'll have to play it by ear to see if I can run on it today.

Off and Running... Finally!

So I finally put on my running shoes on Monday morning and went for a run. I haven't run since the marathon (really) so I was a bit concerned about my performance. I haven't gone this long without running in a really long time! Monday was a nice day so I dragged D out with me and we set out for 6 miles. Our usual neighborhood route in the East Bay. The thing is, the first 3 miles is virtually downhill. Which is great. The problem is the return route. The 3 miles back home is an uphill battle. Even when I was in decent shape it was a tough climb. But out of shape... it was no joke. Like I said, the first 3 miles was downhill so it was easy breezy! Even thought, my lungs did feel like it was going to burst around mile 2! It was the uphill 3 miles that kicked my butt. I was already tired by the time we turned around and around mile 4, I had to walk... And we pretty walked the rest of the way home. In retrospect, maybe I should have set out with an shorter goal but I was told once that muscle memory goes a long way. Maybe my muscle memory isn't as good! Even after the regrettable run on Monday, I tried the same route again. It wasn't as bad. It was still tough. But I went much slower this time and walked every mile or so just to catch my breath. I ran about 5 miles yesterday. I was really sore last night from tackling those hills but I am feeling much better today. I am planning on an 8 miler tonight. Yeah, probably crazy but I have a lot of ground to cover! My Hal Higdon marathon plan for the Nike Women's Marathon on October 19 is not pretty. (No, I am not registered, yet but I am keeping positive!) As you can see, I am supposed to be running 13 miles this weekend which I don't know if I'm even physically able!

Nike+ SportBand = Confusion

sSo it took me a little while to figure out how to set this puppy up. I don't normally look at user guides or quick reference guides (for electronic devices), but I wanted to make sure I got everything right to capture the mileage, pace, calories burned and the time. So I strapped on the Nike+ SportBand, planted the sensor into the Bozzee cradle and went out for a run. Btw, Bozzee is great! You can use the Nike+ sensor on non-Nike shoes. It worked great on my Asics GT-2140. Once I got it started, it seemed to be working just fine. However, about half mile into my run I noticed the mileage recorded on the SportBand was much higher than the actual distance that I ran. I run this route quite often so I know where my mile markers are. I had that disappointed feeling the whole time, knowing that I wasn't really running 8:40 pace. It felt more like 9:30 pace, which is my usual pace. The SportBand said I ran about 7 miles in an hour. I didn't think I ran that far so when I got home I mapped my run and as expected, I only ran 6.5 miles. I added the true distance in the calibration tab and we'll see what tomorrow is like. Granted, today's run was a bit hilly and I did have some stomach cramps so I wasn't very consistent in my run. (I probably should not have had that slice of pizza before I went out running but I was SO hungry!) Tomorrow, I plan to take out the SportBand on a more flat run. Stay tuned... Oh and here's my run graph from today's run: