Just had to drop in to say that today I finished the C25k program. I kept it to 30 minutes, but the weirdest thing happened, my legs kept speeding up and my brain had to slow them down. Maybe I won’t be a 10:00/mile runner forever after all!
The full week’s wrap up will be on Monday like always, and check back Tuesday for my final thoughts on the C25k program.
Filed under Running
Ok, one more week to go. Hard to believe! Here’s how last week shaped up:
Day 1: I counted this as my race. Read about that here if you missed it the first time around.
Day 2: My iPod died, taking my C25k podcasts with it. I back to where I started, got home and mapped out (MapMyRun.com is awesome!) that I ran 2.77 miles, so 27-28 minutes.
Day 3: This time, I was set on running 3 miles. I added an extra road to my route, but the heat got to me (again) and I ended up walking a bit to keep my heart rate under control. I need to get used to this heat now!
One more week of runs until I am a C25k graduate! I can’t wait to celebrate this running victory!
Filed under Running
I had to skip a couple of weeks of sharing articles since I’ve been to busy to do a whole lot of extra reading, but I’m glad to be back this week sharing some of what I have found.
A Beginners Guide To Buying A Bike – Active.com. This covers all sorts of bikes, from top of the line Time Trials to Beach Cruisers.
Figuring out Your Sports Diet: Tips for Label Readers – Beginner Triathlete.com. Your nutrition can really make you or break you.
Ironman Life: What It’s Really All About – Ironman.com. A truly inspirational tale of an Ironman.
15 Things You Wouldn’t Want to See While Running a Marathon – Buzzfeed.com. Except the beer, I don’t think I would mind seeing that.
Video of Andy Baldwin setting up a Triathlon Transition – EverymanTri.com. Ok, this is really just for the eye candy. Hello Dr. Baldwin!
Take 5: Fitness Articles are a round up of interesting articles I have found over the course of the week. We might talk about yoga, we might talk about strength training, we might talk about calories and nutrition. We also might just talke a tour around blog land and look at what others are up to. Articles were not necessarily published in the week of this blog post.
Filed under Articles, Food Matters, Gear, Running, Triathlon
On Sunday, May 2nd I competed in my first race since 4th grade Physical Education, the Second Empire 5k Classic in downtown Raleigh, NC.
It was a hot day for a race, with temperatures in the low 90s and high humidity at 2pm. There were a lot of sweaty people roaming around Hillsborough Street.
Since the race wasn’t until early afternoon, Patrick and I got up and headed to church like normal. We left after Sunday School and dropped into Starbucks for a little caffeine bolt. I had been trying to convince Patrick to run with me, but he maintained that he is simply not interested in endurance events (he, the guy who going mountain biking for a whole afternoon).
We got home around 11:30 and I got really nervous out of nowhere. I guess there are a few reasons for this. 1) I haven’t actually run 3 miles in years. 2) I don’t know any logistics for the day…parking, registration, etc, making this sever Type A person extremely unsettled. 3) It’s hot (did I mention that already) and I know its going to be a tough day.
Finally I get dressed, eat a sandwhich and pronounce myself ready to go. On the drive into downtown, Patrick teases me by saying that maybe he will run afterall. I get excited, but question his lack of suitable footwear, and he pretends to be upset that he can’t run in flip flops.
We get downtown, park easily, get my race bib and timing chip easily, and walk around easily. I get geared up and am ready to go. All that worry for nothing. We do a little people watching, listen to the speakers talk about adoption (the race was raising money for an adoption related non-profit) and soon it was time to line up.
Everyone lines up facing the Capital and we wait. Gun time isn’t for 10 mintues. Since I don’t have a running buddy I keep people watching. There is a guy near me running in Vibram Five Fingers and it was amusing to listen to people around us wonder what the heck he was doing in a foot glove. He had earphones in, so people were wondering that very loudly, it was pretty funny. Also, I kinda assumed that race shirts were like concert tees. I mean, you wouldn’t be caught dead wearing the Tom Petty 2010 concert tour shirt at the 2010 concert (I think tour etiquette is 5 years?), but maybe this isn’t the case with race shirts as lots of people were wearing them. I’m still learning the ropes of racing, but I don’t see myself ever doing this. I was feeling excellent up until the point where the announcer said that there was one minute to go. Why couldn’t we just go now? The last 60 seconds were ticking by slowly, but finally we were off!
I had positioned myself towards the back of the pack so there was a bit of shuffling around the walkers and people starting slower than I was (not sure how that is even possible?).
Now, I’m a researcher at heart, so from all of the race reports I have read I knew that I would sub-consciously want to run faster than I needed to starting out, and my legs did indeed feel ready to go. I kept telling myself to keep it fun and easy and finally I found my groove behind two girls running together. They were definitely keeping it easy and around half a mile I realized that I was doing little more than a bouncy walk and passed by them. We passed the old Capital building and headed back up Hillsborough Street to the main crowd and the first water stop.
This seems as good as a place as any to mention the intentions I set for the race. First and most important, I wanted to keep it loose, easy and fun (as mentioned earlier). Since this was my first race I knew that it was important to come away with a positive experience and be ready to go again. Second, I wanted to walk as little as possible, preferably only through water stations. That was all, not much of a game plan.
Coming up to the first water station, I tried to keep just faster than a walk, but couldn’t drink anything so I had to completely stop to take a sip, but after that was able to keep going. I had just passed Patrick taking pictures, so I wanted to look tough :).
Running up Hillsborough Street was super hot. They just put down new pavement on most of the street, so it was nice and black and reflecting the heat up. All I could think was about the marathon portion of Kona, and how this is basically what they run 26.2 miles in. Somehow, that didn’t make me feel any better. I did felt better momentarily when I saw the first place runner because I thought that must mean the turn around spot was close. Then I saw how fast we was running (he finished around 16 mintues) and realized that the turn around was probably far, far away.
So, I’m truding along and a nice race volunteer (thanks volunteers!) tells me that the next water stop is right around the corner. I figure I could use a little break to catch my breath so I can actually drink some water this time, so I start walking, turn the corner and see the water stop…waaay off in the distance. Oh well, the walking felt good, so I did it until I hit the aid station. This second stop was in the roundabout at Pullen Street, and possessed a beautiful sight…a guy holding a water hose with a spray attachment! It was heaven sent. I downed a cup of water, got in front of the water hose, raised my arms and began to spin. Keeping it fun! Finally he told me to move on, which is good or I might have stayed there all day. Feeling refreshed, I picked up running again, this time on the sidewalk where it was much cooler, if not that much shadier.
The run back in was slow and uneventful for the most part. It felt a little cruel that we could see the finish line from so far away, like a mirage in the desert. I had to stop a couple of times and walk a few paces to wipe sweat out of my eyes or take an extra deep breath, but for the most part I was moseing along nice and slow. I could feel my legs pick it up a bit when I got maybe and 1/8 of a mile from the line, I could see Patrick (who went for a beer in the middle of the race, what a guy) and I was ready to be finished! Finally I crossed the finish line in 35:56, well behind hundreds of runners including about 15 kids, 2 moms pushing strollers and a few people old enough to be my grandparents. It’s all good though, I finished and I was proud!
The volunteer had a hard time removing my timing chip, and standing there while she struggled with it was the only time the whole day that I felt like throwing up. I needed to keep moving and get something to drink. Once out of the finishing pen they gave us water bottles and cold wet washcloths which were absolutely divine. A friend I saw on the course came over to chat about the heat after she finished with her boyfriend, then I went to grab some food. They had a good spread of bagels, bananas, grapes, apples and Gatorade. I filled up with a banana, apple and bottle of Gatorade and we found a shady spot to watch the kids 100 yard dash.
I feel like I can smell the sweat just by looking at this picture.
Those kids were so stinkin’ cute! A lot of moms and dads ran with them which was even more adorable. I’m glad that we stayed to watch.
Oh and the best part? On the way home Patrick says, “I wish I would have run it now, just to see what I can do.”
The seed has been planted my friends.
This week was a bit of a roller coaster
Day 1: Uneventful, one foot in front of the other, plodding along.
Day 2: Felt GREAT, ran right at 10 minute/mile and hit 2.5 miles on the head. Could have kept going if I wanted to.
Day 3: Here is where the fit hit the shan. It was so hot, but I wanted to practice in the hot weather knowing that is how my race would be. I ran a new route and got lost in my own neighborhood, and I actually had to stop running and walk twice because, well…I felt like I was going to have a heart attack. This did not leave me feeling great heading into Sunday.
Speaking of Sunday, look for my first race report tomorrow!
Filed under Running
TGIF! Anybody else super ready for the weekend?
This weekend, I plan on being pretty lazy to be honest. Oh, except for Sunday afternoon when I run my very first race!
I’m so excited for the Second Empire 5k! Look for a race report early next week.
Happy weekend everyone!
Filed under Active Weekend, Race, Running
That’s what I told Patrick when I got home from my second ever swim workout on Sunday afternoon. I may have huffed and sounded a bit whiney, but I was beat. After an hour in the pool, I had only managed about 1000 yards. Mostly 25 yards at a time. Swimming, indeed, is hard.
I don’t know why I thought this would be the easier part of my upcoming triathlon. I guess when compared with 17 miles of biking and 3.1 miles of running, 600 yards sounds downright puny. Not only was the distance not enough to worry me, I was banking on those swim lessons I took when I was 5, along with the fact that I grew up with my very own swimming pool in my back yard, a river down the street and the whole Atlantic Ocean less than an hour away to make it easy for me to go this short distance. Apparently, summers spent floating on a raft in your back yard isn’t enough preparation. Who knew?
So yes, swimming is hard, but surely, like running it will get easier. I got back in to the pool yesterday after work and went another 1,025 (I was going to finish at 1,000 again but ended up on the wrong side from my towel and had to swim back). This was my workout from last night, with oh, 25 second to 1:30 minute rest breaks in between:
2×25 free breathing to the right only
2×25 free breathing to the left only
4×25 free bi-lateral breathing
8×50 free ” “(this got me to 600 yards)
4×75 free ” ”
1×100 free ” ” (daaaang this was hard)
1×25 free to get back to the side of the pool with my towel…it’s cold out of the water!
I probably should work on learning some other strokes, but for now I would just like to know that I can finish my swim distance without taking rest breaks in the middle of the lake every 30 seconds or so. Ideally, I would like to be able to swim this whole 1000yds without a break, not including a warm up and cool down of course. I guess I will just continue to build the distance with these intervals, and hope I hit the goal in time for May 29th.
In other swim news, I ordered a wet suit and now I feel all official. The race is expected to be wet suit legal and I had the option of renting one for $50 or buying one for $100. Didn’t seem like such a hard choice since after 2 races I will break even. Also, the week before the race Patrick and I will be at the beach on vacation (ahem, tapering) and I would actually have to rent the wetsuit for 2 weeks in order to pick it up on time (Tuesdays) and be able to practice in it. Now I have my own, or I will, as soon as UPS gets it to my front door. Is it weird to be this excited about a wetsuit? Or is it only something a triathlete (or a person who trains for a triathlon, since that’s all I am now) does?
I hope I look that bad ass.
It’s an Xterra Women’s Volt…an entry level wetsuit for a very entry level swimmer. I’m just hoping it helps me stay a tiny bit warm and keep my hips from sinking. I will be happy with that!
What kind of sport specific toys have you had to bite the bullet and buy? Or find yourself strangely giddy over buying?
Filed under Swimming
Wow, it’s hard to believe that I am 2/3 of the way finished with Couch to 5k!
This week I entered “high school” as some of the ladies on a message board I visit refer to the time when the walk breaks go away and it’s all running, all the time.
Day 1: Felt pretty good. There was a good mixture of running and walking, it kept me on my toes.
Day 2: A couple of 10 minute runs and it was time to call it a day.
Day 3: The big one, my first 25 minutes straight. Honestly I didn’t feel all that great, my legs were dead because of the bike riding. Oh well, there are 3 more 25 minute runs to make up for it!
Filed under Running
This weekend looks to be a bit rainy, so no mountain biking for us. Whatever shall we do with ourselves?
Is your weekend equally packed with fun?
Filed under Active Weekend
It was another beautiful night at Umstead Park!
Next time I go I will try and remember to take my camera to capture it. I don’t really know how to write about it except that it’s wooded and very green, and when I was walking back from my brick run tonight a deer crossed right in front of me. Love.
Oh, the brick run, don’t let me forget to tell you about that one, but it comes at the end of the ride so it will have to wait for now.
First of all, I am really proud of myself because I rode farther than I did last time I was out. I’m not sure of the distance I went but I rode for about an hour and 15 minutes, so I’m sure it was at least another mile. Up a very long hill on the way back too. Go me. I was happy about this because I always think I should be able to maintain the same pace on the way back as I do on the way out, but Umstead seems to have a lot of false flats, areas where it looks like you are riding on flat ground but in reality it is a bit downhill (fun!) or uphill (not fun). I bet you can guess, but most of these are on my way out, and I congratulate myself on how much I have improved and what a fast and wonderful cyclist I have become, only to turn around and curse myself for zero improvement and being slow and plodding along up every hill.
False Flats in Action
Add to that the problems that I am having with my tiny gear (technical term), and I am having to ride up the hills in a bigger gear than my legs want me to. So they get very mad at me and create all kinds of lactic acid. Now we’re having fun.
Anyways, I got to the turn off to go back where I parked about 10 minutes before I planned to (not because I was Speedy McSpeedster, I didn’t look at my watch and didn’t know what time I left the lot), so I rode a bit more. Downhill the whole way, meaning, well crap, now I have to turn around and go back up this thing. Climbing is good practice, right? Right. Grind on.
Ok so finally back to the parking lot, I put up my bike, stretched my legs, fiddled with my water bottle for a minute, anything to put off doing this 5 minute brick run that I knew was going to kill me just like last time. Finally I started to run and, hey, it’s not so bad! Don’t get me wrong, there is still nothing good about it, but it definitely felt like an improvement over last time. And then there was that deer to top it all off. Nice!
Filed under Mountain Biking
Megan in Motion 