Race Day- 10k Race

I really liked today's race. I had a much better experience today then I had at our last race on July 4Th. I think the it's because:
-because we didn't work the day before the race. Usually we both have to work.
- we went to bed earlier. Still to late for how early we had to wake up, but still earlier then normal.
- I had a lot more practice for this particular race.
- I had a goal for what I wanted to do as far each mile.
- I had stuck by my interval training as best I could in the last month.

So, here's my recap for today as far as the good, the bad, and the ugly:

So, today was race day.
The good:
1. We were able to pick up are packets the day before so we didn't have to worry about it the day of.
2. We got some free samples like lotion and Luna bars. I also bought some cute pink tech socks that had the race organizations logo on it.
3. This was the first race event that we went to that had so many participants because there were four different races involved in it: the half-marathon, the 10k, the 5k and a one mile fun run.
4. We got a cool tech shirt. Its black and blue.
5. They had tacos and bananas after the race.
6. I was really proud of my husband! He did so good! He did the race in 58:21 minutes.
7. It was so cool because while I was running the race, so were the half marathoners. At one point the winner of the half marathon passed me up with the police motorcade. It was so cool to see how fast he was still able to go after ( what had for him been 12 miles already).
8. We actually got to travel to go to a race, which was a first. It was a 3 hour trip to Irving, which is where we have some friends and it was the first time I had ever been there and it was very pretty. Lots of trees.
9. It wasn't hot at all.
BUT MAINLY, AND I HAVE SAVED THE BEST FOR LAST:
10. I IMPROVED MY 10K RUN TIME 4 AND A HALF MINUTES FROM MY TRAINING RUN!! I DID 2 MINUTES FASTER THEN I WANTED TO DO!!!


The Bad:
There really wasn't that much bad about the race.
- they did not have any water bottles at all before the race. So it was 2 miles before I had any water because I left my water in the car. However, they had 2 water spots that we passed by 2x in route, so basically there were 4 stops to us to get either water or Gatorade.
-There was no 4 mile race sign that I saw. So i was starting to freak out because i was wondering what was taking me so long to reach the 4 mile mark. every previous mile before that i had exceed the goal i had for my self. But when i FINALLY saw the 5 mile mark, I FELT SO RELIEVED when I realized it was not in fact me.
- I seriously probably could have shaved at least 2 minutes off my time if I hadn't had to tie my shoelaces 4 freakin times throughout the race.

The Ugly:
First, the annoyance. That Gatorade was GAWD AWFUL. I appreciate them giving it us, but it tasted horrible. Like soap. Maybe it's just that flavor. But it was horrible.
Secondly, the blow.
I was so, so, so excited to see that they were going to be having free professional sport photographers. That is until I went to the website and saw the proofs of my picks. I look enormous. It is so embarrassing. My husband, who was not at all interested in the sports photos, looks awesome. He has great runners legs. Figures.
I need to be more disciplined in what I eat, because it's brutal to see those thunder thighs of mine. :(

The Lessons Learned:
I don't really know what lesson I learned from here. Other then, tie my shoes better and lose weight. The reality is that if I lost weight, that besides the DUH! benefits of being healthier, would make me faster. I also know that the only way to increase my speed is to increase the amount of time I spend running in my intervals. However, I have become pretty comfortable with my walk 2 minutes, run 1 minute ratios and it will be hard to move on from there.

We are planning on doing another race, just a small 5k in 2 weeks, which we still need to sign up for. I'm still hoping we do that 10 mile race at the end of the month, but like always, it just depends on how far along I have gotten in my long runs( current longest distance run is 6.62 miles, 3.38 miles short of 10 miles, which is a lot)
I really recommend this race. It was awesome. Pretty course, nice weather, nice amendments, the whole works.

This is a YouTube video that was on the NEW YORK Marathon's facebook page about a man who lost 120 pounds through running and eating healthier. Its really inspiring and beautiful and has coldplays " fix you" song,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SbXgQqbOoU

Eva and me and a new trail

So, today was the first time Vince and I have ever gone to the Wells Branch Trail. I'm not even sure if that's exactly what it is called, but we had both seen it separately while we were out at work making deliveries. Its in the Wells Branch subdivision, and not far from our home.
Because it is a new trail route that we weren't familiar with, we wanted to run a short run. Since I had just run 6.62 miles 2 days ago, and we have the race in ONE WEEK, we are taking these next couple of runs until the race easy. No long runs.
Which is why we decided we should take our Scottish Terrier Eva on the run with us.
Now although Eva has run with us twice before in the last 5 months, once at Old Settlers Trail and once at Lake Pflugerville Trail, Vince was the one walking her. We were doing training runs with me because Eva is like me and out of shape and can not keep up with Vince's pace.

But today was the first time I walked Eva by myself while Vince did his own run. And it was HARD. First off, in one hand, I had a water bottle full of Gatorade, my cell phone, and in the other, her leash and my ipod. And of course, my running shorts have no pockets. And also I forgot doggie bags. I must of had to stop for a total of 6 minutes with all the Eva interruptions: stopping to smell other dogs on the trail, pooping, looking and running away from the ducks, sniffing the dead turtle :(, and extc.
Now, to her credit, I was proud of her because she kept up with me the whole time and did not have to be dragged at the end or carried like the last 2 times. I think it is mainly because she did not stick to one side of me while I was running with so much in my hands that made it hard.
But the trail itself was very cool. I ran past a park, a lake, ducks, a lot of people mainly walking ( very different from Town Lake, way more beginner friendly and laid back) and some really nice houses.
Also, if you notice from that picture on top, at one point me and Eva ran through a tiny tunnel that was underneath the street and when you came out of it, it had this big mirror that you could see yourself in, it was really random.
Mainly, I just ran out at first not knowing where the trail went and then just decided to do this same loop around the main park about 5 times. The first 4 times I did it with Eva, and then Vince was done with his run and I did it my self. It definitely feels freer ( is that a word) to be able to run without a 23 pound dog.
I'm happy we found a new place to run and I'm glad Eva was able to hang with us this time. Maybe one day we will do a race with her!
Oh and that was the first time I ever ran with Gatorade and not water, I thought because it was a short run and I didn't want or need gels, that it would be a good idea, but it wasn't. I don't recommend it. If you are concerned about electrolytes, just do what we usually do and bring Smart Water/gels and then follow it up with Gatorade when you are done and a cold glass of chocolate milk when you get home for the muscles.


This half marathon isn't even until the end of January, a little over 4 months away, and already 700 people have registered for it. It's one of the top half marathons in Austin and it's one I hope me and Vince will be able to run. Considering I just barely ran more then 6.5 miles, Im a LONG way off from 13.1. But still, I like to think I could one day be able to do one, if not this one. My sister did one last year and Im very proud of her for it.

http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3M/en_US/HalfMarathon/Home/

Town Lake and me, the long awaited reunion.

I haven't run on Town Lake since May. Its been a little over 4 months. And oh how I have missed it! To be honest, this is only the 2nd time I have run there. It takes a while to get there from our house, about 45 minutes and especially early in the day, the traffic is bad. But if you wait to late, you have to deal with the heat.
The reason why I love running Town Lake is cliche and has been stated so many times, but still, I love how Austin it is. There is so much diversity! So many people walking with their dogs and baby strollers. People that are crazy in shape, women in their forties with abs that i would give my husband up for and men in their sixties with abs, pregant women running. We've run in several places and never have we seen so many people that we're in such good shape. Man, did I feel fat. But anyways, its the most similar environment to a race that I have been to so far which I guess is why I like it so much. Also there is so much to look at. I walked/ran past bridges, rails, kayaks, and the lake! They also have two water stops that have water and some sort of gatorade drink. I wish I would have planned my route more along the restroom as I only saw one and after 2 stops at the water stops and drinking about 16 oz of my smart water and 2 gels, I REALLY had to pee.
But yeah, I love town lake! I just hope next time I can go even further and hopefully, it won't be 4 months before we return!!!






Back when this list of the best things in running came out in Runners World, I wasn't really running. I didn't know anything at all about running. Now, I barely know anything... :)... but still, barely is better then nothing at all. This list is really cool and is kind of like a crash course in running:
http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,7120,s6-239-281--13339-1-1X2X3X4X5-6,00.html

Sometimes it takes two, but not today!

Last week, I ran what had, up till the point, been the furthest I had been able to run. I was finally, finally able to run a full 10k distance( plus. 6 extra) and it was all thanks to my husband running with me the whole time and keeping me on track.

It ended up being the fastest I have ever run in 5 months of running, even faster then all of my race paces. So, of course, I was really thankful and happy for his help. But also, because I am a pessimist by nature, I had to view this sucess as a cause to worry about my chances of succeding on my own.

If my fastest pace and furthest amount run was when I had someone running with me the entire time, how would I succeed on my own? Because I have always been the type of person who runs from discomfort, pain and discipline, Im sure it is easy to understand how I severly improve when someone is next to me saying, " Run. Walk faster. Let's go. Start running. don't stop." So, even if I do want to punch him in the face because Im tired, my husband is an excellent training partner. He doesn't stray from the plan and tries his best to help me achieve my goals.

Which is why when I ran my run today, I was really relieved. Although I wasnt able to maintain as good a pace as when Vince ran with me, I ran longer! Six and a half miles may not be a lot to most people, but it took me so long to get to 6.2 miles that I am just relieved I was able to run further then that on the very next long run! I took Vince advice and tried to walk faster on my walking breaks, and I think it definetly helped!

Disclosure: In the interest of being honest, let me say that I did run on Friday. And it was a gawd awful run. It was late at night, only 3.48 miles and I had a horrible pace. I didn't want to write a blog on it cause it put me a bad mood. But reading the post I mention below helped put things in perspective. But no one needs to tell me Im whiny. I pretty much got that :)



This is a post I came across through Runners World's Other Voices Blog. It may be the most elegantly, emotionally heartbreaking post I have read on running. It's hard to read this and complain about the heat, a bum ankle or blisters, or whatever.
health interrupted- Post," I still remember running"
http://katehooks.blogspot.com/2010/03/i-still-remember-running.html

Out with the Rain, In with the Treadmill

This is what the weather was like today. I wanted to run, but not in sloppy, hard rain in the dark with cars and apartments that are doing a bad job of keeping the lights lit!!! grrr!
So, I was resigned to using the treadmill.Although I don't like the treadmill, it is handy when the weather is 100 degrees or in this particular case, just horrible. I am definitely not looking forward to when the weather gets brutally cold. Will I woman up and just put on the layers and run? Or will I be so chicken that I do nothing but treadmill runs? As Enya says, only time will tell. Hmm. I have been noticing that a lot of my pop culture references are outdated, but who knows what those crazy kids are listening to nowadays?
Anyways, maybe I trash talk the treadmill in haste, because today was actually a pretty good run. I feel like maybe we have reached a new level in our relationship. I'm serious. It could be that.
Or it could also be that I listened to my husband's advice from our training run on Sunday and tried to walk faster on my walking breaks. I'm still doing my intervals of walking 2 minutes, running 1 minute and for a while I was reaching a standstill with no real improvement. So I thought I need to do something else. But actually having the discipline to strictly adhere to your intervals, even after an hour, can be harder then it seems. Or maybe it's just me.


I thought this was interesting because runners usually bemoan running uphill, when actually you need to be careful running downhill. But I think because running downhill feels so good, you are more inclined to not think about how you need to be careful. And it's weird because i was just talking with my husband about the plus side of treadmills being that you can increase the incline and in a sense it's almost like mock hills. And he was saying he read it's actually better to decrease the incline to make it more like a decline because the impact of running on the road is harder then on the treadmill and if you run a lot on the treadmill that your feet will not be prepared for the beating it will take when you do road races. Either way, that is a mute point with me because i do most of my running ( out of like 67 runs, Ive run now about 3 on the treadmill) outside.Still, read Nike's running tips, they are pretty cool:
http://inside.nike.com/blogs/nikerunning_training-en_US/2010/09/07/tip-be-mindful-on-the-downhill

The Best Run Ever- 6.26 miles!!!

View Brushy Creek Training in a larger map

This title for this post was not chosen lightly. Nope, it sure wasn't. Not only was it the longest I have ever run, not only did I finally run the full 10k distance, not only did I actually run a tiny bit further, not only was it about .75 longer then last weeks LDR( Long Distance Run) but it. was. my. FASTEST. pace. ever!!!!!
And the only reason why I was able to do it was because my husband ran the whole race with me!
He trained with me on this whole run and helped me keep on target the entire time. He said the biggest way to improve my time was to walk faster on my walking breaks. We did an interval run of 2 minutes walking, 1 minute running, except for the last 4 minutes I just did a fartlek. But what I liked was that he made sure sure that I ran the FULL minute and that I did it the ENTIRE time.
Im really grateful but also feel a little spoiled. Its not like I can have Vince with me for all my runs. Eventually when I do races and for most of the practice runs, I will be myself. Will I be able to push myself as hard as Vince does when he runs with me? Probably not. So then how will I be succesful if I do not have much discipline? I won't. Sigh.
But I don't want to be negative and not acknowledge how big of an achievement today was for me. And though I don't think I could have done it without Vince, hopefully I will remember what he tells me and continue to improve!!

This is a pair of shoes I designed for myself on Nike+ website. Yes, they are 185.00 dollars before shipping. No, I would not spend that much money on shoes. Yes, my last pair were 35.00 dollars, orginally 90 dollars on sale from RunTex. No, I don't know if the cushioning on these particular pair are the best for me, especially considering my current pair have way too much stability (its made more for overpronators like my husband, whereas im more of a neutral). But most importantly, I don't care! These shoes are pretty and I WANT EM! Go design yourself a pair, I promise its cool!
http://nikerunning.nike.com/nikeos/p/nikeplus/en_US/commerce/nikeplus?ll=en_US&ct=US&pid=345202&cid=1&pbid=INSPI_207490_v9_0_20100505&path=AMPlu0908&piid=16820&p=PDPiD&metricsId=216911791

One of those misleading runs...

So, after a pretty good run yesterday, perhaps I got a little ahead of myself. I thought that despite the rain today, it was going to be a good run. The temperature was cool and I was happy we were running at Old Settlers Trail which we haven't run in forever. Plus my pace was better yesterday then it had been for most of last week. I think I just thought today would be a better run because of that.
Well, it started out fine and then started to fall a part bit by bit. My calves started to feel stiff, my ankles started to hurt and as the elevation increased, I just felt so tired. I think a large part of it was obviously not drinking enough water the day before and the fact that lately I haven't been doing as many runs back to back because I got tired of being so sore. But the easiest way to get more runs in is to run more and so I figured I should try to run 4 times a week if I can from now on. But I still have one more run, my long run tommorow, so hopefully I can improve my pace. Its 23 days from now and I still haven't run 6.2 miles yet! grrr!! the aggravation!




So, if any of ya'll have ever heard of the social networking site, FACEBOOK, as Im sure you have, there is a page called Run Austin that you should add as your friend. It has good advice on running, events and input from other runners in the area.

http://www.facebook.com/RunAustin

The little run that made 200 miles!

Who would have thought that 1.83 miles would make 200 miles?! Sound odd? Well, before today's run, I had exactly .5 miles to go to make 200 miles run since April 12th, 2010 when we first started running. And I wasn't to sure about today's run because it was before I had to go to work early in the morning and I've haven't run before work ( when I had to work in the morning specifically) in a while. But I was pleasantly surprised by the run. The weather felt great, it was about 75 degrees, which is the nice thing about running at 7.50 in the morning, the traffic wasn't too bad, although I did get stuck at a light for about a minute and thankfully, my ankle wasn't really hurting me. I felt kinda guilty about today's run to tell the truth because it was the first time I had run all week. And not running monday, tuesday and Wednesday is not like me. I strive to do at least 3 runs every week and that's hard to do when your first run of the week is on a Thursday. I know I will be running tomorrow morning (friday) and have a long run planned for Sunday. Still, Im a little disappointed in myself because I wanted to run 4 days this week like I did last week. I was able to get 13 miles last week, which is my general goal. I've only had that or around that distance like 2 or 3 times. Although Im not really a fan of running around our block, it is by far the most convenient. Without the drive, it makes starting early way easier.
Since Im not going to put a map up of where I ran because it's by where we live, I thought I would put a running memory pic up. The pic below is one of me and my husband right before our very first race ever!


So, I don't know how many of you are from and or live around Austin, but we've got a pretty cool sub place called Thunderclouds. The first time I went was in the one in Round Rock where we live. Then I use to go to the one by ACC campus when I was a student there a lot. More recently, I would frequent the one by airport when I use to work by there. At any rate, they are famous for having a race every thanksgiving. Im thinking about maybe doing it. Its a 5 mile race, which we have never run before and is ( according to their website) the LARGEST 5 mile race in texas:
www.thundercloud.com - look under Turkey Trot

End of the Month Recap

The picture above is from the 10k that we are going to be doing at the end of the month.

April-
12 runs,34.5 miles,
average run= 2.88 miles per run
************************
May-
15 runs,43.3 miles,
average run=2.89 miles per run
*********************************
June-
12 runs,39.2 miles,
average run=3.27 miles per run
*******************************
July-
11 runs, 38.0 miles
Average run= 3.45 miles per run
*******************************
August
13 runs, 44.6 miles
Average run= 3.43 miles per run

If you only have 1 MINUTE, check out this video that Runners World Daily Blog put up the other day. It's so cute!! TWO CORGIS RUNNING ON A TREADMILL! Nuff said.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjdQa-yc0QM&feature=player_embedded