Saturday, December 18, 2010

Jack Frost 10K race (and a week in) review

Tomorrow will be two weeks after the marathon and I got in three short runs before today. All of them hard. Apparently i didn't go far enough because by the 5 mile mark today I felt great. I also got two strength training sessions (and a couple blisters on my hands to match the blisters on my feet!) at KOR that rocked my world. Not sure if it was in a good way or not. I still have trouble sitting down to go pee and then getting up again. LOL

This week in review~
I managed to get all those workouts in despite working in the classrooms this week, endless loads of laundry to wash and fold, doing dishes that refuse to do themselves, going out to eat because I'm too lazy too cook and Christmas shopping but I still don't know where I found the time. I did manage to address and mail out Christmas cards and I'll post a pic of that on here too. Yes the picture was taken in March of this year, yes the children look like it was 5 years ago instead of 8 months ago. They grew a ton while I was out training for a marathon and didn't take any good pictures during that time. I did manage to help out during the Blondy's pizza party on Thursday and Nurse Tammy brought her daughter (who is gluten free [GF] ) a pizza from the local pizza joint and it was super yummy... most important, I could eat it and not pay the ultimate price. Win win for me! I also made a not GF baked french toast casserole for Hollywood's class. I didn't eat it because Nurse Tammy's other daughter is in this class and she is GF too so she made a yummy egg casserole with potatoes and cheese. I feel spoiled. Can I request that these girls are always in my boys classes???? I did hear that the casserole was pretty darn tasty though.

Jack Frost 10k today~
I had an easy run today right around 10 minute miles I think. I ran with my friend Patty who right after CIM with me last year was diagnosed with RA. Its affecting her hip joints a lot and running far doesn't feel the best but she trained for this race and by golly she was going to do it. We both forgot our music so we chit chatted and caught up. I also ran with Teri who was supposed to run with us at CIM but she was hurt. I felt so blessed to get to catch up with them both! The miles and the mud from the trail portion flew by, we had to modify the course a little because the creek was up and the trails were slick and before we knew it we were at the 5 mile mark. I finally felt like I had gotten warmed up and I sped up a little to run Patty in strong for her target race. Although we came in at just over 1 hour I know I could have pushed it harder but wouldn't have had nearly as much fun. I love our little running community and I was so glad I got a little time with my old training buddies.

Jack Frost Rocked... and we got jingle bells and a cute t shirt too! Fleet Feet Chico did it again.

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

CIM 2010 review

I've started several posts and they all end up so long winded. Here is the short(er) and not so sweet version.

I had signed up for the relay when I was still injured and had a "back up plan" in place in case i didn't get better soon enough to run the full. My friend TD and Bernie were running it with me. Both of them made their relay legs into 2 legs so they could get about a half in. TD the first half, Bernie the second. I also ran with Liz who was trying to get a PR since she seems to always come in right around the same time.  4:25-4:30 mark haunts her... 

We went to the the expo and got our stuff then headed to Lucca for dinner. They didn't have on the menu what I've eaten the last two years and instead of asking I went with the spaghetti and meatballs. Since gluten is not my friend I should have known this was a disaster in the making. My tummy was in shambles the rest of the night. BIG FAIL #1. I drank Nuun the day before to make sure my electrolytes were balanced even thought my tummy is not the biggest fan. BIG FAIL #2. I went to bed early! That's a good thing... but sleep eluded me. Good thing I slept well all week. At least something was going right.

Sunday morning:
We got up at 4:30am and ate... I had a bagel... BIG FAIL #3. Bagels have gluten hu? yea... I know this but they are easy and I was afraid the Hyatt's breakfast would just be more bagel type foods anyway. So I ate it. Good for fuel, bad for the tummy.

We met Liz at the Sheridan and boarded the buses in a breeze. The ride was uneventful while I ate breakfast and drank some more water. We expected the weather to be wet and planned accordingly. Liz stripped out of one layer of her clothes and should have left our jackets in the sweat check too. The weather was not warm yet but the streets were wet and the air was balmy even at 6:15am. We met the group at the #1 pump at Chevron station after our first bathroom stop and got a group picture. When I get it I'll post it. We did a little warm up and headed out.

I had little to no expectations for this race. The longest I had run was 16 miles and hadn't felt my best through a lot of the program. My speed workouts were modified for various reasons but mostly to keep from throwing myself back onto the injured list where I lived in boredom the whole first half of the year.

The race started and off we went. Less than a mile in it was too hot to tote the jacket... first unzipped and by mile marker two it was around my waist. I felt OK and Liz and TD kept up a decent pace. We hung in close to the 9:30 pace once we cleared the cluster of of slower paced runners and kept up good time. Liz was feeling it early though and she had some inner hip/groin pain. She thought if she ran faster or slower it would help... then she ran faster so it would be done with sooner. Sometimes it was hard to keep up. BUT for me miles 1-15 were hard but fun. I thought this was going to be a breeze and I took my GU chomps at mile 4 at mile 8 and mile 12... but by the time we got to 15 my GI track was done with it...We did say goodbye to TD and our Jackets at mile 13.8 or so and we were on our own. It never rained and in fact it got really warm, not good for long tights but that's what I had so that's what I used.

Miles 15-19 were close to tragic and 3 potty stops to boot.I lost Liz in there somewhere and I don't even remember. It was not pretty and I'm not fond of reliving those miles at all. Miles 20-23 weren't as bad but they weren't good either... actually I can't tell you much except that I don't remember much other than I saw coach Paul and he told me where the next port-o-potty was, I saw his wife, little girl and Tiffany from our group and I saw my husband who had little to no sympathy other than "you better get going"... I looked as bad as I felt and he didn't want me to stick around long enough to go jump in the truck and give up. Those miles were just putting one foot in front of another. At mile 22 they were giving out GU packets. I do remember asking for a vanilla and eating it but I didn't remember eating it or I would have realized it was orange not vanilla, but I did find the wrapper in my little pocket thingy later.

At the mile 23 marker I felt a little more like me. I wasn't shuffling anymore and my feet weren't killing me they were finally numb. It did hurt more to walk than run so running was an easy choice.I passed several of my running friends and touched base with Julie and Donna for a mile or so in there. I gave Kimmy a little pep talk and waved and cheered on Beth and Ellen from those last few good miles. I went from shuffling at an 11+ minute pace to a 9:30 minute pace that felt like I was flying. I came in at 4:39:14 and although I didn't have high expectations I was pretty disappointed at first. Then I realized that no matter what the time, a marathon is more than 26.2 and running the perfect race.Its more about giving more than your all and getting it done. I definitely did that... and I got lots of new blisters for the effort.

I do have to say my hubby (FFP) and Liz's and my kids met us at various places along the route and gave us great inspiration and met us at the finish line with beautiful flowers. That made all the pain, all the potty breaks and the crampy tummy, made the endless miles and the one foot in front of each other to just the next street mentality, the super negative self talk, the blisters and sore feet and tight hip all worth it. Because if they see that I can overcome these things and still cross the finish line. That I can start and finish something so hard even with all the adversity... that I will set an example of the thing that they can try and not give up on too. I'm a lucky mommy, a lucky wife and a dedicated runner. That warm December day it all showed.

Thursday, December 2, 2010

I've got the fever

Three years ago I started on this journey... first by half marathon then on to run the full. I logged so many miles and bought so many shoes and gels and socks and running clothes that my wardrobe looked more like I lived at my local running store. Since then I've run several half marathons, a 20 mile race, 10k's, quarter marathons, a few 5k's and one more marathon until Sunday when I run my 3rd. My plans include harder races for the Winter and Spring and the RTO for early Summer.

I can't count how much running is like being pregnant. The starvation, the cravings, the eating everything in site, the exhaustion, the vivid dreams, going pee every half hour because I drank so much water and the falling asleep at parties or going home early and not drinking during training. Of course I don't blow up like a balloon and if I do my core work, cross training and go to KOR I get a rock hard body instead of gaining 50lbs like I did with my first pregnancy. But sometimes the running is not even enough to starve off that baby fever.

I run because it makes me feel good.... but I also run because I want a baby and we are SO done having babies. I need an extreme outlet to get me through... training for a marathon does that for me, or at least it helps.

My name is Tina Mickelson,  I have baby fever... so I run .