Picture of the week (not)

Haha... here's me during a recent TNT track workout. We were doing time trials... I guess I was more focused on my pace than on the camera that was apparently on me. DOH!

What's your motivation?

Some people love working out - like my boss, for example, who often goes on 2 hour bike rides at 4AM in the morning with those headlight helmets. And that's on a work day! I am not one of those people. I don't necessarily hate it either... the hard part is getting me out there. Once I'm in my workout clothes and in the gym or out for a run, I am fully committed.

I like having this marathon goal because it keeps me honest about my workouts - for the most part anyway. Before I started my training, I would go weeks without exercising at all. Bad Audrey. Maybe I don't work out as often as I'd like, but I'm not doing too bad. Even in the laziest of weeks, I'm still working out at least three days of the week - better than nothing, right? :) And without fail, I've managed to always make the Nike club runs on Saturday mornings. Only because I know there is no way I could manage double digit distances on my own.

If you need some motivation, here are some interesting tidbits from a Men's Health article, 20 Ways to Stick with Your Workout. This was obviously written with guys in mind, because there are some that I know guys do, but I don't often see with girls (see #2, "Make a friendly bet"). I am an example of #1, "Sign up for a distant race".

I found the last one particularly funny:

20. Blackmail yourself

Take a picture of yourself shirtless, holding a sign that shows your e-mail address. Then e-mail it to a trusted but sadistic friend, with the following instructions: "If I don't send you a new picture that shows serious improvement in 12 weeks, post this photo at hotornot.com and send the link to the addresses listed below... " (Include as many e-mail addresses—especially of female acquaintances—as possible.) "It's nasty, but extremely effective," says Alwyn Cosgrove.

Week 6 Wrap Up

My schnazzy new Polar watch lets you program an "event" and provides a countdown on the default display. Today my watch tells me that I'm 34 days away from my marathon. 34 days! That's like a month away!

With almost a third of my training completed, I feel like I should have progressed a little bit more at this stage - maybe a little fitter, a little faster - but I am definitely logging the miles so I feel good about that part.

This past week was our recovery week which I definitely needed. Taking CW and JL's advice, I've been using my foam roller more often which seems to be helping. I felt sore during the week so I only managed one 2 mi run on Tuesday. I had to skip my TNT workout because I had a conflict but also because they did hill repeats this week which would not have been good for me. I was back in business by the weekend - I did the Nike 12 mi run in SF on Saturday (which, as I had expected, was the Embarcadero route, aka Tourist Central) and the Nike 6 mi run in Danville on Sunday. Both routes were flat out and back courses. The Saturday run was the longest flat course I've run this season so I felt that sort of gave me an idea on what to expect for Chicago. More on that in a separate post.

Nike freebies this week... two pairs of Nike dri-fit socks AND two tickets to the Alice Now and Zen Fest! Woo-woo! Performers include James Blunt, Joss Stone, and Gin Blossoms. Not sure if I will go, though...

In total, I accumulated 20 miles this week. This weekend, we'll be back in the Presidio and our long run will be 18 miles.

I swear I am not being paid by Nike! (although I should be...)

So FINALLY I have my new running shoes... a little late in the game probably, but I think I will be OK. I've selected the Nike Air Zoom Vomero+2. No surprise I picked Nike... I mean, all these free Nike runs are just a big marketing push to promote their running shoes. You're encouraged to take advantage of the free shoe trials so during last year's training runs, I ran in both their Pegasus and Percept shoes - they both have good cushioning and are designed for neutral feet.

So this year, I planned to get one of those but I wanted one that would be Nike+ compatible, meaning they have a built-in socket in the sole of the left sneaker for the Nike+ sensor that would then communicate with your iPod nano.

I sort of had a good idea of the kind of shoe I needed, but just to be sure, I got a proper fitting at a local running store, Running Revolution in Campbell. They checked my arches and then videotaped my feet from behind while I ran outside down their shopping strip. My feet didn't really pronate (turn in) so I was good to go with a neutral, cushioning shoe.

I first bought the Air Pegasus+2007 which is a decent deal at $85. My normal shoe size is 6 1/2 so I bought that first but then I decided it was a little too snug so I exchanged that for a 7. But I don't know... it still didn't feel right and it didn't have the same form factor as my previous Adidas and Asics running shoes. So that's when I switched over to the Vomeros. I guess it's little bit more of a higher end cushioning shoe with the higher price tag of $120. It felt more comfortable and it got a good review in my recent Runners World magazine. Plus I found out it's actually the newer version of last year's Percept (there actually isn't an older Vomero) so I knew it would be a good match for me. But I made the same mistake of getting too small of a size so I had to exchange it for a 7 again. Problem is that this shoe is sold out everywhere so I had to deal with a lot of shipping time...

Anyway, after purchasing and returning three pairs of running shoes, I finally got my winners for this season. Even though I just received my personal pair this weekend, I had been training with them anyway during the shoe trials so I know they work well during the long distances. I just need to break in my new ones now. Sometimes I think I could maybe have gone with a 7 1/2 since they don't feel that big when you're actually running but I don't have any more time to putz around and the 7's still feel pretty good.

On to my second Nike purchase - the Nike + iPod Sport Kit. I actually bought this a long time ago, probably with the first Pegasus sneakers, just haven't used it. I took it out for a run on the treadmill to test it out and it gave me really bad data... I was jogging at a really slow pace, maybe 12:00 min/mi, and it was telling me that I was doing 9:30 min/mi! I tried calibrating it on the treadmill, but it still gave me bogus numbers. I was so disappointed... especially since I had been waiting to get these Nike+ compatible sneakers. I talked to some of the other runners on the Nike runs that used the kit and I learned they calibrated theirs on a track since your stride is probably different on a treadmill.

So this weekend, I finally took it to the Campbell track on my way up to the Nike Danville run and got it calibrated. It's easy to do - you set your iPod for a 400m run and then run one lap around the track, being careful to hit the buttons exactly at the beginning and end of the 400m loop. And I'm happy to say that the thing actually works!!! It was definitely accurate with the mile markers on my training run and the pace readings were the same as what other runners were getting. Not only that, the numbers it gave for "calories burned" pretty much matched exactly the ones on my Polar watch (which uses my heart rate to calculate).

It's a pretty cool tool. You have a sensor in your shoe and then a small receiver that connects to the base of your nano. The screen will actually display your pace and distance completed. Not only that, there's a voice that will speak and let you know your distance and pace. There's different settings you can use and it doesn't really bother me at all. When I did my 6 mi run on Sunday, I just selected "Basic Workout" mode, so it only spoke once around the 20 min mark and told me my pace and how many miles I've run. Today, I selected "Distance" mode for a 4 mile run so it let me know every time I completed 1, 2, and 3 miles (but didn't mention my pace) and then when I had 400m left - it would give me updates every 100m and then "congratulated" me when I finished the 4 miles. There's also another feature called "Power Song" where you pick your song which it would then play anytime you hit the center button.

And there's more! You then hook it up to your computer and then when you visit the nikeplus site, it will automatically read your data and store it for you. Here's a screen shot listing all my stored runs so far:



And then you can select a specific run and get more details:



There's other things you can do, but I still need to explore all that. I definitely recommend the kit if you already have a nano. It's only $29! And you don't necessarily need a Nike+ compatible running shoe. I've seen runners stick the sensor in the laces of their shoes and I think they also sell little pouches as well that you can lace up. It may not be as accurate, but I'm sure it's accurate enough.

And that ends the Nike endorsement for today... (actually, I may have a couple of other comments, but I'll save those for a separate post.)

Week 7 Wrap Up

Well, I sort of feel better from Saturday's run. I feel a little bit of soreness/strain on the side of my right knee which I've googled to identify as my lateral collateral ligament (LCL) - or not, I'm not really good at anatomy. I've iced a little bit here and there and I will be taking it easy this week so I'm sure I'll be fine in time for the weekend long run.

I've also been experimenting with food stuff during these runs. We get Clif Shots on the Nike runs but I tried a power gel this week and I liked it a lot better. Not as thick so it's easier and quicker to get down. I also tried Clif Blocks - way too much work for me. I also plan to try the GUs as well.

It was funny because I was having an IM chat with my old roommate PB, successful finisher of the Comrade Marathon, and he had asked me if I tried eating real food like bananas or cookies during my runs. I responded that I hadn't, followed by the question, "Are there any advantages to eating real food?" A second later I realized how funny that sounded!

I was also surprised when I realized no one from my running group needed to take a bathroom break during our four hour plus run on Saturday. I wonder if I'll need one during the actual race? I definitely am not going to hold it! I just checked the course and it looks like they have the "portojohns" stationed throughout, so I should be OK.

I only ended up running three times this week for a total of 26 miles. I should be logging more according to my Runners World mag, but oh well. Since this is a recovery week, our long run this week is a "short" run - only 12 miles! Yippee! :)

Fundraising Status to date

Quick shout out to all my friends and family supporting me with their donations to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society:

Alyssa
Amanda
Arlene (Ate)
Bammy (Tita Bammy)
Corey
Danielle
Doug
Fran
Jen
Karen
Lucita (Tita Luchie)
Marcie
Matt
Mike (Kuya)
Nimesh
Rachael
Sab
Shannon
Stacia
Victoria (Mom)

You rock! Together, we've raised over $1600 so far! :)

19 MILES!!!

A new milestone... yesterday, we did our 19 mi run! It was originally supposed to be an 18 mi run where the planned course was only 17.75 mi, but we kept missing our turns so we'd have to go back and get on track. There were three of us that had gadgets measuring our pace and distance so we knew we were over 19 mi when we finally got back to the home base. I finally calibrated my new Polar watch so I was happy to hear that it was pretty much in line with the other two girls who where using the Nike plus kit.

Unfortunately, I still have much to learn about my watch. It definitely can do a lot of things so I will have to spend time reading the manual. Someone wanted to know what the actual time was and after flipping through several screens on my watch, I gave up. I told her how long we had been running and we sort of just guesstimated the time based on when we thought we started.

This was definitely my most challenging run so I'm glad we now have a recovery week. Normally, I feel pretty good during these long runs, but by mile 15, I was definitely in that zone where it's all mental, you know? I was starting to feel a sort of strain or tightness in my right leg... nothing serious, but not the most comfortable. A lot of times, the pace leader will check on us, and normally my response is, "Doing good!" but now it was more, "I'm OK." :P But I felt better toward the end and we all managed to pick up our speed toward the finish.

Again, we were the last ones back but they still had the water, gatorade, yogurt, and bear naked granola waiting for us when we returned. I don't know the exact time of our run, but I know we were over four hours.

I did the ice bath in the bay again. This time, a girl from our running group also did it so it was easier to stay in there longer when you have someone to talk to. Last time, I only managed five minutes. She had heard you're supposed to stay a minute for every mile you ran, so we stuck it out and managed to stay in a whole 19 minutes. It was hard, because it was colder than normal yesterday. Normally, by the time we return, the sun is shining down on the marina. Not so yesterday.

Yesterday's splurge was Jamba Juice's Peanut Butter Moo'd. Wow. It was sooooooo delicious! Like a peanut butter milkshake. Yum yum!!!

I even made it out that night to go to a friend's housewarming party. I sat for most of it... but it was a lot of fun with yummy food! :) It was a party where originally all white attire was required, and then modified to be black and white attire. Well, me and JW wanted to stick with the spirit of the original theme - check out our ensembles!