Thursday, April 30

Wii Fit Weight: 114.6

Breakfast: two Eggo waffles with peanut butter and jelly and vanilla soy milk

Lunch: homemade sandwich with ham, turkey, cheese, lettuce and tomato on honey wheat bread

Snack: black & white chipper and a weird triangular-shaped mini sugar cookie with sprinkles from Paradise Bakery

Dinner: stir-fried eggplant and pork with white rice

Dessert: four strips of dried mango

Exercise: 6.11 mile bike ride in 35:11, .51 mile run in 4:34, strength training, 10 minutes elliptical, 1.61 mile bike ride in 9:32

Chicago, here I come

Yep, I decided to go ahead and register for RnR Chicago. I found a $15 discount code so registration was only $55 plus the stupid active.com processing fee.

Assuming I finish both Seattle and Chicago, I’ll be getting this handy dandy medal from Elite Racing.

An unexpected run

Whew, I’m pooped. I was planning to go to the gym tonight for some strength training. I asked Troy to ride over with me to make sure that I lock my bike up right, but he didn’t want to go today. He said he’d go tomorrow, so I switched up my plans and went for a run instead. I was planning on an easy four miles. My legs were still tired from yesterday’s track workout so I started off slow around an 11 minute pace.

Now that the sun is setting later, I’ve been able to try some new running routes. I discovered a paved path that runs along the side of Highway 51. A couple weeks ago I headed north up the path and found myself at Reach 11. Tonight I went south instead. I got about a mile down the path (three miles from home), then decided that I better turn around before I got too tired to make it all the way back home. I’ll have to go back on my bike to see how much farther the path goes. I think it’ll be a nice place to bike where I don’t have to worry about cars and traffic lights.

After the first couple miles, my legs actually started to feel better and I picked up the pace just a little. One of these days I’ll have to figure out how to download my Garmin information to a computer so I have accurate data. But since I started around an 11 minute pace and finished at a 10 minute pace, I think I can safely consider that a negative split. I guess reading Mica’s blog is rubbing off on my training. (Hi Mica! Thanks for all the great comments!) Once I knew I was going to run the whole six miles to get back home, I decided to add in an extra .2 to do a full 10k. Overall the run was slower then I’d like, but I’m feeling better about being ready for the Seattle 1/2 in June.

I wore my new Adidas shoes for the run. I like the cushioning on the Adidas better than my Sauconys. But the Adidas are still irritating my arches. I’ve never needed to break in my Sauconys, so I’m not sure how much longer it’ll take to break in the Adidas. I hope it’s soon because other than the arch issue, they feel good to run in. I also somehow ended up with an icky blood blister on my second toe on my right foot. This is the first time that’s ever happened and I’m not sure why. I remembered to use BodyGlide tonight. It’s a puffy blister and I know I should probably pop it but I’m too scared. Now I’m thinking about trying those individual toe socks…

Wednesday, April 29

Breakfast: asiago bagel (from New York Bagels & Deli) with cream cheese

Lunch: pulled pork sandwich and two chocolate chip cookies from Shane’s Rib Shack (another free office lunch)

Recovery Drink: Shamrock Farms Rockin’ Refuel chocolate milk (this tasted sooo good after my run)

Dinner: sticky rice (lo mai gai) from Golden Buddha

Exercise: 6.22 mile run in 1:05:44 (Adidas)

Registration Dilemma

I want to run the Rock ‘n’ Roll Chicago Half Marathon in August, mainly just because it’s an inagural race. But I don’t know if that’s enough of a reason to justify the expense of traveling up to Chicago. I was planning to wait until the RnR Seattle Expo to make up my mind about registering, because I was hoping to get another free t-shirt with my registration. The thing is, the registration fee goes up from $70 to $85 on May 1. So if I wait I’d basically be paying an extra $15 for a free t-shirt. Also on the RnR Chicago Facebook page, they posted that the race is on track to sell out. So there’s also the possibility that registration may not even be available at Seattle. Now I’m thinking maybe I should just go for it and register…

Slow, but fast

There was a smaller than usual turnout at the track workout tonight so I was the third to slowest runner. By now I know that I can’t keep try to keep up with the others so I just pushed myself at my own pace. It was a hard workout tonight. We did 1000 meters, then 800 meters, then 400 meters. Then we repeated it two more times. Not everyone stayed for the third set but I decided to stick with it to the end. My times varied a little more this week than last. Overall I was probably around an 8:30/8:40 average pace. For the last 400 I was tired, but tried my best to keep going as fast as I could. I was breathing very hard when I finished. I was so surprised when the coach told me my time… 1:53. That was my best run of the night! Afterward I did a super slow one mile cool down in about 11:40.

I’m really glad that I’m doing these track workouts. It forces me to push myself harder than I do during my normal runs. Even though my legs are tired and my knee hurts, I feel good about how I did at the workout tonight.

Tuesday, April 28

Wii Fit Weight: 114.9

Breakfast: harvest peach Yoplait Light

Snack: eight strips of dried mango

Lunch: chicken salad and tomato on a croissant (Lunch was brought in for the office from Paradise Bakery, but there were no cookies. That’s the best part of a Paradise Bakery meal!)

Workout Fuel: Honey Stinger peanut butter ‘n honey energy bar (Yummy! I’ll have to get more next time I’m at REI.)

Dinner: leftover stir-fried zucchini, mushrooms, and sausage with white rice

Dessert: 1/3 pint Ben & Jerry’s phish food

Exercise: 4.1 miles – track workout, plus 1 mile cool down (Saucony 6)

Monday, April 27

Wii Fit Weight: 114.9

Breakfast: onion bagel with cream cheese (from Chompie’s)

Lunch: homemade sandwich – honey wheat bread, lettuce, and tomato from the Roadrunner Park Farmers’ Market; ham, turkey, cheese, and some type of vegi/mayo spread from Sunflower Farmers Market

Snack: 1/3 personal size watermelon

Dinner: leftover stir-fried zucchini, mushrooms, and sausage with white rice

Dessert: five girl scout thin mints and vanilla soy milk

I’m a wuss

I wanted to check out a new trail so Troy and I went to Papago Park on Sunday afternoon. I’d never been to this part of the park before, but the trail was supposed to okay for beginners. I discovered that I’m just not cut out for mountain biking. I get too freaked out by the rocky hills. I don’t like going too fast and I’m always worried that I’m going to fall off my bike and crash. Looking back at the ride, I don’t think I would describe any part of it as fun. Mostly I was just relieved to have made it through in one piece. I know I probably just need to have more confidence in my bike and myself. But for now I think I’ll stick to riding at Reach 11 and on roads until after the duathlon. Then maybe I’ll try again.

4/25/2009 – Run for the Cheetah 5k Race Report

Happy one year running anniversary to me!

My weekend started with the Run for the Cheetah 5k on Saturday morning. I did the run last year as my first ever race. It was nice to arrive this year feeling almost like an experienced race veteran. (Last year, I was such a newbie that I had to ask what to do with the timing chip.) Whenever I do a race at Papago Park, I try to park near the ranger station so I have easy access to the bathrooms. As at most of my recent races, I used the walk from the car to the registration area as my main warm up.

The race was very well-organized this year and it didn’t take long to pay my $25 and get my race number, t-shirt, and goody bag. I also entered the free raffle. Then I went back to the car to prepare for the race and grab my Garmin and camera. (Now that I’m a reporter for Arizona Foot Races, I’ll be bringing my camera with me to all my events, not just the big ones.) On the way back to the start line, I took a short jog and saw an opportunity for a great scenic shot. I’m really happy with how this photo turned out…

We started on time at 7:30am. This year the race wasn’t chip timed, and it took about 15 seconds before I crossed the start line. My goal was to finish in 30 minutes so I figured I’d try to stay at about a 9:30 pace. It was so crowded for the first 200 yards inside the park that even if I wanted to, I couldn’t have gone that fast. Once we got out to the canal it was better. I looked at my Garmin a lot. I have no idea how to run a consistently steady 9:30 pace, so I mostly just checked to be sure I was somewhere between 9:00 and 10:00.

My pace probably waivered a lot because of the photos. I didn’t want to stop or walk, so I just took A LOT of photos, figuring that at least a few had to be good. The one below is my favorite because of how it shows the line of runners along the curve of the canal. Looking back, I probably should have just carried my camera the whole time instead of continually putting it in and taking it out of my waist pack.

I took one last photo as I was coming in to the finish. Zooming in really close on the photo shows that the clock reads 29:59. I sprinted for the finish in order to try and make my goal of 30 minutes. I thought I crossed the line right at 30:00, but the official results have me at 30:01. (And they didn’t even get my name right!) Although if the race was chip timed, then I would have been under 30. Oh, well.

I stuck around after the race waiting for the raffle drawing. I didn’t win in the raffle, but I did get my photo taken with the Red Robin mascot. 🙂 I also ended up taking home quite a few goodies from the race: four packages of Clif Shot Bloks, four bags of Popumz, a couple REI coupons, a Jamba Juice coupon, and some Red Robin bird bucks.

And… I got free admission to the Phoenix Zoo for the day so Troy and I went back later in the afternoon and wandered around for a couple hours. Not bad for a $25 registration fee.