exciting news :)

Photos: Calvin & me & my mom; my dad & Loren.

My parents put their home on the market (in San Diego) and got a ton of offers on it in just a few days :). They have selected an offer that looks very solid and they are going to come here this weekend to find a house here. They'll be moving here in just about a month! Yay! I'm very happy that I will get to see them more often, and the kids are super excited, too. We have a very good relationship, and I'm looking forward to spending more time with them. My mom retired last year, and my dad is retiring now (though he may work part-time, remotely). They are looking to play lots of bridge and play with their grandchildren :).

more adventures

As if I haven't had enough excitement lately...

Yesterday, I decided to bike for an hour before my doctor appointment and work. I biked uphill for 5 miles in about 30 minutes, and then turned around to come back. After a mile, I heard a WHOOOOOOOSHHHHH sound and my back tire deflated. Stupid me, I hadn't brought a cell phone with me or anything, and here I was 4 miles from home with a bum foot. I ended up biking home very slowly on the rim; my bike is a crappy bike and the back wheel is already bent from an earlier incident with the kids' bike trailer, so I didn't care too much. However, it took me a long time to get home, so I really had to rush to make it to the doctor on time. I was 8 minutes late, but they took me anyway. Whew.

I love the Orthopedic Center at the Univ of Utah - they are great. So efficient! I was again amazed at how good they are, as they got me x-rayed quickly, and I didn't have to wait to see the doc at all. The x-rays were again negative, but my history - specifically the amount of swelling I had - suggested a stress fracture to my doc. The other possibility is tendinitis. Since I really want to race the Portland Marathon, it is important to distinguish between the two. Tendinitis can be raced on, albeit with pain; the stress fracture cannot (at least not without risking much more severe damage). So, Dr. Powell recommended an MRI to find out what is going on. They have an MRI in the building, in the basement. I was able to get an appt for 5 pm that afternoon, after work.

The MRI went fine; I was even able to participate in a research study to see if wrapping the foot in a special material improves the imaging. All it involved was sitting there for a couple extra scans, so it was no big deal. I even got a CD with my MRI on it to take home :). I looked at it, of course, but I really don't know how to read it. Still, it's really neat to see the photos of my foot. If I can figure out how to get the pics in a usable form from the software, I'll post some later.

This morning I had to work for an hour or so, but since it's not my usual work day I didn't have child care. Thus, I had to go in at 5:30 so I could make it to weight training at 6:30. I was a bit late, but was still able to fit in 20 min hard on the stationary bike and 10 min of abs and then stretching. Something is better than nothing. I'm examining my options for fitness in case I have to lay off RW for longer. Probably will get a monthly membership at a public recreation center so I can swim, stationary bike, and/or elliptical if my foot will tolerate it.

family vacation photos

more photos here

Beach Boy

 

Loren & the kids

 

enjoying the sunset

 

sunset at hug point

 

kicking back at breakfast

 

more beach fun

 

on the beach - Michelle and Daddy

 

Camping - breakfast!

 

Portland to Coast photos

The photos are here. Here are some of my favorites.

slow swim

Today I swam in the very nice 50m outdoor pool at Steiner Aquatic Center (photo taken on my cell phone camera right after my swim). It was much nicer than swimming inside; for one, I could see the sun, the sky, and the mountains (a little), and in addition, it was great not to have to turn around every 25 yd. However, it did slow me down - I guess the push off the wall helps me be a lot faster, because my 50m times averaged 1:14. Yeah, slow, but I really don't care. It was a decent workout, with my heart rate around 70% max. I swam for 59:20 and did 2400 meters.

Even though I prefer the outdoor pool, swimming to me is still pretty boring compared with racewalking...though maybe it is comparable to racewalking on a treadmill, which I really do not enjoy too much. Weird that looking at varied scenery makes such a difference to me, but it does, for whatever reason. I'm hoping I can get back to RW soon! Biking is good, swimming is merely tolerable, but RW is what I want to be doing.

My foot is feeling better today. I am not limping too much any more. In fact, after my swim, it felt really good and I didn't feel like I was limping at all. I'm quite eager to hear what the doctor has to say on Tuesday morning.

Six Pistols spreadsheet

For the truly racewalking-inclined, here is the spreadsheet of how each of the team members did on each leg. Pretty impressive work by all.

I know I'm going on about this a bit, but it was a big deal for me :) so bear with me :) and I'll move on soon!

because you asked

Lani asked me what Swedish Fish are. She lives in Sweden, so I don't blame her for being curious; I found out that they really are originally made in Sweden. I personally have only seen the red ones, but apparently they come in several flavors.

From Wikipedia:
In Sweden, the Swedish Fish candy is marketed under the name "pastellfiskar,"[5] literally "pale colored fishes." The fish in Sweden are generally much paler in color and more translucent (save the black fish). In particular, the yellow fish color is almost cream. The taste also differs slightly, the Swedish version being less sweet but more fruit-flavored, especially the yellow one, which is more tangy. The green fish is not lime flavored; the green candy color in Scandinavia is usually associated with apple or pear flavor. They are slightly thicker, have the text "Malaco" instead of "Swedish" embossed, and stick less to the teeth.[original research?]

"Pastellfiskar" are also sold at Swedish IKEA stores under the name Swedish Fish (and a slightly different bag), but they are still the same Scandinavian "Pastellfiskar" rather than the North American Swedish Fish

cool article

Thanks, Elizabeth, for the tip on this nifty article in the Examiner about the PTC relay. It has the official results.

back to reality...

Reality is ugly right now.

1) My foot is hurt :( and I was unable to exercise all week while on vacation (no access to swimming which was all I could have done w/my foot hurt). Ugh! Have not gone that long w/o exercise since joining WW 4.5 years ago. Not happy.
2) I was on vacation so I ate more than usual.
3) The scale was MOST unkind when I returned. I somehow gained 10 lbs (with just ONE bad week of eating and not exercising!). Yeah, at least 1/2 of that was probably water weight which will come off when I eat and exercise normally again, but still, it was NOT a nice number to see.
4) I miss racewalking.
5) If I can't do Portland Marathon will be out $95 entry fee plus $179 for plane ticket (well, at least the $150 change fee. UGH!).

I am trying to be positive:
1) I can still bike & swim.
2) I biked 1.5 hr today; 17.56 miles - half of that seriously UPHILL - from my house up Emigration Canyon just past Sun & Moon Cafe and then back home. I think it was close to 1400 feet of elevation gain.
3) I ate well today and am back on track.
4) Foot is doing better; am off the crutches though maybe I shouldn't be. I am not even limping that much.
5) Muscles are nice & sore from today's bike ride :). Yes, that is a good and nice thing :).
6) Planning another bike ride or a swim tomorrow. Not sure which, but definitely going to work out. It felt great.
7) Doctor appt on Tuesday (w/my sports med doc) and optimistic that we'll figure something out. Maybe I will be lucky and will be able to do the marathon. If not, well, it was still worth it to do well in Portland-to-Coast.
8) I feel confident that I can get the weight back off and I'm only a little concerned about it; an appropriate amount I think.

Had a busy day today trying to get my house sort of back in order. Also had a Team in Training workout to coach (from my car, sadly...) and some piano lessons to teach. So, I still haven't had time to get to the photos. I know... you want to see them... I will get them up as soon as I can. Have some nice race photos and great vacation ones too. I'm glad I have a 3-day weekend to recover from my vacation!

Portland-to-Coast Relay, August 28-29, 2009

***Sorry no pics yet - bad internet connection and lucky to be able to post text!*** Will post pics on Saturday when I'm home.

Portland-to-Coast Relay, August 28-29, 2009

Wow, what an experience!

Loren and I and the kids met Dee, Holly, Mary, and Mary’s son and his girlfriend at the Old Spaghetti Factory for a pre-race pasta dinner on Thursday night. I got some basic questions answered about the race from these experts (I think between the 3 of them they have done it about 25-30 times!), and after dinner we went to their hotel to decorate our van with inspiring slogans such as “Toenails are for sissies”, “Does this van make our butts look FAST?”, “Is it rude to count road kill out loud” (road kill refers to teams that you pass during the race), and “Put on your big girl panties”. Yeah, it was fun.

Then back to our hotel for some sleep. I was quite tired and pretty anxious about how my foot would hold up. I definitely did NOT want to be the one to let our team down! We had 2 goals: 1) WIN the women’s open division (any age competitor), and 2) break the course record, set in 2000 by a 12-woman team. We were pretty sure we could win the race, but breaking the record was going to be tough – it was FAST, and we were a 6-woman team.

The next morning I met everyone at their hotel and then we drove to the race start, where we met Katie & Lisa. We signed in and then had an hour to kill, so we hung out & visited with the other teams. I particularly liked the logo of the “Rockbottoms”, one of the other women’s teams. It was awesome to be around a bunch of other fast racewalkers. The time passed quickly and pretty soon we were cheering on Dee as she started for us.

I was 2nd in the rotation, and so I was getting nervous. We cheered on Dee halfway through her relatively short leg (about 4 miles) and then drove to the exchange. I warmed up a little, and my foot was painful but I definitely felt like I could walk through the pain. Katie tied a bandanna with ice around my neck and I was ready to go; it was pretty warm (around 80 and quite humid, with on-and-off sun).

Dee arrived and before long I was off on my first leg (leg 14). I started out a bit fast but settled quickly into a reasonable pace (about 9:30/mile or so). Pretty soon I had my first roadkill, passing one of the Sierra Racewalkers (a very nice woman named Karen); we never saw their team again, so I guess it was a convincing pass. Not long after that my team pulled up and gave me water, dumping a bunch over my head, too. It was really quite hot by then. The leg was advertised as flat, but it had a slight uphill the last few miles (total was about 5.49 or something like that) and I did slow down as I went. Still, I finished about 15 seconds faster than my projected time from the spreadsheet that Holly had set up for us (she and Mary made goals to meet for each leg for us to break the course record), and did 9:43/mile. Not bad for hot weather, I guess, though I was a little disappointed. 5.49 miles is less than a 10K, and my 10K best is about 9:27/mile, so I was slower than I could do under ideal conditions. However, it was hot, and it was a bit uphill, oh, and did I mention the diesel fumes from the passing trucks on highway 30? Yeah, not ideal. My average HR for the leg was 168 (88% max), so I had pushed pretty hard.

My foot got through the 1st leg OK but was a bit sore, so I iced it thoroughly, changed my clothes, and got something to eat. Nutrition is challenging when doing the equivalent of about 4 fast 10K races in less than 24 hours. You have to eat, but you can’t eat anything that might upset your stomach. During the race, I ate peanut butter & jelly (1/2-1 sandwich at a time), pretzels, bananas, Swedish Fish candy, and Fig Newtons. It worked pretty well, mostly… except my stomach did get upset before my 4th leg, but more about that later.

I enjoyed resting and watching the others do their first legs. Our team was fast… our slowest person could still do 11 minute miles with nary a hitch, and 3 of us were easily under 10 minute miles on the flat portions. It was great to cheer the others on, though hard on my foot to keep jumping in and out of the van. The weather got progressively more cloudy through the afternoon, but remained pretty warm. Still, it could have been lots hotter.

Too soon, it was time for me to do my next leg (leg 20), the one I’d worried about in training. It was 5.77 miles long, with 4 of that seriously uphill --- about 800 or 900 feet total. AND about 2 miles of that uphill was on gravel. Ugh! The spreadsheet said I had to average 11:15/mile for 1:04:41 for the leg; I thought I could do faster, and I did . All that hill work paid off. My foot HATED the gravel road because it was so uneven, and I kept slipping, but I pushed through it all and finished in 1:00:23 for 10:30/mile. Average HR was 164 for the leg; still pushing hard. All awesome. 4 minutes toward breaking the course record! The weather was cooler for this leg (though still on the warm side; I had Holly pour water over my head), and the scenery was beautiful. This part of rural Oregon is gorgeous with the evergreen trees, bucolic farms, and quaint homes on the quiet roads.

After the leg, it was ice, ice, and more ice for the sore foot, fresh clothes, and food. At the next few exchanges, we started to catch up with the teams that had started 3-4-5 hours before us, and it was quite entertaining to see the décor on their vans. The team names were clever, too (“Buns –n- Roses” matched nicely with our “Six Pistols”).

My teammates continued to be quite fast; Mary finished her next leg with at least 2-3 minutes to spare off of the spreadsheet time, and the other teammates finished pretty close to their times. We were building up a nice little cushion for later when we got tired.

I was apprehensive about my 3rd leg (leg 26) because it started late at night (10:20 pm), and that is probably my worst time of day. I am definitely a morning person! But the weather was in my favor. The clouds had given way to mist and/or rain at times, and the weather had cooled off a lot. It was perfect for racewalking. The cool air was invigorating, and in fact, I had trouble pushing my HR high enough for some reason! I was getting tired mentally, I think, and my foot was hurting more. Still, I was supposed to finish the 3rd leg in 59:30, and I gained us 3.5 more minutes, finishing in 55:58 for a 9:42 pace, despite some pretty serious hills (not as much as my 2nd leg, but it was still rated “HARD” in the handbook). Average HR was only 157; I felt bad I hadn’t pushed harder, but it FELT hard, and hey, I was fast, so I didn’t feel TOO bad.

About this time I knew my foot was not good, though. It really HURT to take my shoes off and put them back on. Oh, and I was tired enough that I had done my whole 3rd leg without my shoe insert in my left shoe – when I changed shoes between the 2nd & 3rd legs I’d forgotten to put one of them in. DUH! I just kept icing it and kept hoping it would be OK.

The next few hours were very interesting. I did catnap a couple times for maybe 20-30 min sleep, but things were interesting in the van. Katie accidentally set off the pepper spray she keeps in her bag, causing us to have to clear out the van and air it out, driving with all the windows down for a couple hours (from maybe 2-4 am!). My Nike sweatshirt got pepper spray on it, and I kept getting it on my face & legs until I figured out what was going on. Poor Katie wasn’t sure she’d be able to race again after getting it on her face and eyes; luckily, she had a few hours before she had to race and she was recovered by then.

After that, at one of the exchanges, Mary forgot to put the flashing light we had atop the van back inside. We drove off and it fell off the van. She picked it up (we heard it drop) but it was stuck in the ON position, so we buried it under the passenger seat, and for the rest of the race it was there flashing. We couldn’t take out the batteries because it took a screwdriver, which we didn’t have. Oops. Interesting things happen when you are sleep deprived!

My stomach started acting up about this time. I had taken an Imodium after my 2nd leg (or my first?!? not sure), but it wasn't doing 100% of the job. I visited the port-a-potty one last time before my final leg, and hoped for the best. Turned out that it wasn't a problem. Whew.

I started my final leg (leg 32) at 3:45 am. We were ahead of our spreadsheet schedule by at least 10 minutes. I had to do my last 4.09 miles in 40:13, and I figured I could (though it did have some mild hills). I was pretty tired, but figured I had it in me to finish well. Still, I got out there and was pretty fuzzy-brained. It was hard to push myself, but I kept thinking about the course record and how I didn’t want to let down my teammates. It was definitely the hardest leg, even though it was the shortest and probably the easiest course-wise, but I just didn’t have much oomph left. About 0.5 mile from the end, I slipped on the wet pavement and fell, skinning my right knee and my hands. I got up as fast as I could and kept going, but still, I finished in 40:29, 16 seconds slower than my goal pace. I wasn’t happy with that, or with my ave HR of only 154, but I had done my best under the circumstances. We still had a good cushion of at least 6 minutes (we had a few slow legs just before this).

Well, the cushion didn’t last long. The 4th legs were hard on everyone, and by the time we got to our last few legs, we were very close to the spreadsheet time. The pressure was on for Holly to finish her last leg in her assigned time.

Meanwhile, in the van, my foot was excruciatingly painful. I could barely think about how the others were doing, and had so much trouble getting out to cheer Katie on for her last very difficult leg. Ice finally restored me a little, but it was still so painful as the adrenaline wore off once I had finished my part.

We got to the beach and nervously awaited Holly’s arrival; I was only able to hobble slowly but managed to get out there. We figured that if she could do under 12:20/mile we’d break the record, but with how tired everyone was we didn’t know if she’d be able to do it. Pretty soon we saw her --- and we had 8 minutes to spare! We started chanting “HOLLY HOLLY HOLLY” and she crossed the finish line in 21:45:37, which was a full 7 minutes under the course record. We all screamed our lungs out and joined her for a victory lap on the sand under the finish line. It was such a great moment, and worth all the pain.

Later that night, after the awards ceremony, I did go to the ER and have my foot x-rayed. The pain was so bad in the afternoon that I could hardly sleep (and this after 24 hr of no sleep!) so I figured I had to do it, even though it meant Loren had to watch the kids while I was there. The x-ray was negative, but the doc said it could still easily be a stress fracture, as they do not show on x-ray for 7-10 days. He did say it might just be soft tissue damage. In either case the treatment is the same for now: crutches, ice, vicodin for pain, and anti-inflammatory medication and ace wrap for swelling. After a few days it’s feeling a bit better but I am still staying off of it.

Strangely, I’m not too upset about the injury. It might be the end of my Portland Marathon hopes for 10/4, but y’know what? I had such a great race this last weekend, that I honestly think I will be OK about it if I can’t do the marathon. Disappointed, yes, but OK.

It’s going to be a weight gain kind of week though, with no exercise (I have not gone this long w/o exercise in 4 years!) and lots of good vacation food, but oddly enough, I am not worried about that either. I feel sure I can get it back off again, and really, I’m just so thrilled with our race. A six-woman team WON the race (we were 2nd only to ONE men’s team, but beat all of the other teams in the race) and broke the course record, set in 2000 by a 12-woman team. We were amazing, and I got to be a part of it. That was more than worth everything.

OFFICIAL RESULTS

Portland To Coast tomorrow

Icing my foot right now and enjoying the free internet at Motel 6 downtown Portland. Not a bad hotel, actually --- fancier than the average Motel 6, and pretty cheap for downtown.

Drove here from Boise and then drove around the Portland marathon course since I will be back here Oct 4th for that race. It's a fairly flat course, with 1 medium hill (long and not too steep) at the start and then one big hill about mile 16. A lot of the course is pretty ugly industrial area, but there are some really nice parts of the course, too. Part of the Portland Marathon course dovetails with my first leg of Portland to Coast tomorrow, so that's kind of fun.

Met three of my five teammates tonight at the Old Spaghetti Factory downtown (the restaurant was hard to find... even with a map AND directions. Portland is confusing!). We enjoyed a mediocre meal but good company (the meal was at least predictable which is perfect for the night before a race). Then we decorated our 15-passenger van windows with slogans "Toenails are for Sissies", "Does this van make our butts look fast?", "Put on your big girl panties", etc. :).

The other 2 teammates will meet us in the morning a few hours before the race. I know Dee, Mary, and Katie from other races but had not met Holly before, and will meet Lisa tomorrow morning. Mary is very talented - holds the Master's world record for age 50-54 I think in the 10k track RW; she has beaten me at 5K in 2007 but last summer I edged her out by a little in 5K and 10K. Dee is also very speedy having beaten me in a 5K race in 2007 with a time of I think 28:45 or so. Katie beat me last summer in Spokane at 5K (by 1 second) and 10K (by 7 seconds). We are a fast team :).

Hopefully my foot will hold up...Ollie gave me a good suggestion to tape it. Unfortunately I don't have any tape here and my physical therapist is in Utah :( and can't do it for me (no time before I left - the injury came on too fast). I am just going to ice lots and take my anti-inflammatories and keep my fingers crossed.

I will be unable to get online until next Wednesday, most likely, because we will be camping on the coast w/the kids after the race (unless I cave and hit an internet cafe...). So, if you want to see how we did, check the race results at http://www.hoodtocoast.com/index_ptc.php?i=ptc

Watch out, PTC, here come the Six Pistols! :)

Foot

My foot still hurts. Not good. I think I can racewalk on it but at what cost? Well, my team is counting on me. Ice and my anti-inflammatory are my friends. We will see...

In Boise now and running out of battery power so this is fast. Will be in Portland tonight and will scope out the marathon course for 10/4 as well as having dinner with my PTC teammates. I'm excited... and very afraid about my foot.

busy busy busy

Things are crazy now. So if I usually read your blog/Facebook/whatever and haven't lately, well, please forgive me! I will catch up on them soon I hope. I will be leaving on my trip tomorrow and will have internet Wed & Thurs but not for a few days after that. So I'll try to catch up then, but we'll see.

Meanwhile, workout stuff:
Sunday - easy 3.65 around Sugar House Park. Felt great.
Monday - fast 8 miles with Sue on the Porter Rockwell trail. We did the first 7 at a 10:28 pace and the last mile was fast enough that our ave pace for all 8 was 10:20. Yeah, that was a fast mile. Fun, though! Bad news... my left foot started hurting on the bottom, proximal to the big toe. It just felt crampy and achy when I got home and rested.
Tuesday - track workout; warm up and cool down 1 mile easy plus 4x400 fast. Didn't want to do a lot because I want to be fresh on Friday for the race. Did the 400s in 2:13, 2:11, 2:11 and 2:08. Awesome. At the end, my foot ached again. It got worse all day as I walked to and from my car 2x at work (1.8 miles total) because I had to take my mom to the airport in the middle of the day. I put ice on it and am taking my anti-inflammatory. Loren thinks it might be some tendonitis :( which is not good news.

I'm not going to RW at all until Friday. Let's hope rest, ice, and anti-inflammatories keep this thing in check.

If I don't update before Friday, it's because I'm enjoying my vacation :). Our team for Portland-to-Coast is "Six Pistols" if you want to check our results online.

TNT workout

This morning was a light turnout for TNT. Some were doing the Wasatch Woman 10k (at least 4 and maybe 5 of them?), some were out of town, had to work, or whatever. So we had 3 plus me & Sue. After recommitment, our team still has 22 people on it, which is awesome :).

One runner, Mark, (our fastest) was doing 14 miles today; he's training for Top of Utah and has 20 slated for next week. The other two were doing 10, as they are training for Nike and Dublin and have 16 next week. They are also runners and one of them, Stephanie, is our fastest woman (she does 8:30s on the long runs) and the other is a guy, Dave, who likes to do 10:30-11s. Perfect for racewalking :).

I started off running with Mark, who usually starts at 7:45-8:00 miles and then speeds up from there. I did about a mile with him at that pace and then dropped back with Stephanie, who was doing 8:30s. I ran (yeah, I don't racewalk that fast usually unless doing speed work) with her for about 2 miles and then dropped back with Dave & Sue. We had a route w/3 short out and backs plus a couple loops around Liberty Park, so it was perfect for running a few times with Stephanie & Mark without taxing myself too much. I don't want to run more than necessary, since I do not usually run much, and I am a bit afraid of injuring something at this point. I feel well-trained and fit and want to be sure I don't get hurt now!

I racewalked with Dave & Sue for about 4 miles or so, and then saw Stephanie again on an out-and-back and ran with her for a mile. Went back for Dave & Sue again, and racewalked with them for most of the rest of the time. I did run with Mark for a few tenths at the end of his 14 --- saw him on the last out-and-back and decided to run with him. He was pushing the end of the run (good training for a cutback week) and was running 7-7:15 miles. I did keep up with him for a few tenths, and even chatted about how he almost got bitten by a dog (yikes!) while on the run this morning. It was hard to run that fast, but I did it for a little :).

Went back for Dave & Sue again and finished with them. I kept forgetting to start my Garmin after stopping for water, but I think I did about 11.5 miles in approximately 2 hr, for a 10:26. Racewalked about 7.5 and ran about 4 I think. 10:26/mile seems slow... but Dave did take some walking breaks (~15 min pace) and it includes about 3-4 min of slower walking at the end. I guess I really have no idea for sure exactly how far or how fast I went. Doesn't matter, really! I got a good workout in, and we had fun!

slight change of plans

Up late last night and had trouble getting up... was supposed to do 8 at marathon pace w/1 mile w/u and 1 mile c/d for 10 total. So instead, I did 8.1 at 1/2 marathon pace :). It went well --- 81 minutes for the 8.1 for 10 min miles (about 6:13/km for 13 km). HR was about 147-150 most of the time; however, my Garmin was not charged (? I know I charged it? What's the deal?) so I wore an old HR monitor which doesn't calculate averages for the workout. I also had no idea how far I went until I got home... I just intended to be out for 1:20-1:30 or so and picked a flat route that worked for me.

OK, need to get to bed now because I'm still sleep deprived and have to be at weight training at 6:30 am. Will try to catch up a bit more on the blog this weekend. Still have those pics to post...

so behind

I'm so behind on everything, so bear with me. I have lots of cute kid pics and other stuff to blog about but no time. I have about 5 min now so will write a couple things.

Kids: They are saying the funniest things! The other day we were explaining about #1 and #2 to Calvin (yes, the bodily functions). After we told him about what #1 and #2 are, he said, "So, diarrhea is #3!". Much laughter :).

Michelle devoured cherries at lunch today and made the biggest mess ever. They were all over. She had to have a bath afterward. I got a photo of her covered in cherry juice but no time to download right now. There was even cherry juice on her back, believe it or not. She also has a nasty skinned nose & forehead from taking a header off the swing at school yesterday. The child has NO fear.

***

Workouts:

Tuesday morning track workout: Six Yasso 800s were on the schedule. I was also meeting a friend at the track to teach her some racewalking technique, so I ended up resting a little more in between the 800s than is best, but that was OK because I really wanted to help her out. And I still did them, and did them pretty darn fast. She showed up after I did the 3rd one, so the extra rest was only between the last 3. Here were my times: 4:34, 4:30, 4:31, 4:28, 4:28, 4:26. Niiiice. I felt fast & good.

Wednesday - cross-training; biked to weight training and did a good hard set which I won't list here because of the time, and also did abs.

***

Injury update:

Monday night I got a massage. Lars is amazing and I felt super when I left. He gave my R piriformis lots of extra attention and it helped quite a bit.

Tuesday I went to physical therapy. My therapist agreed that it is probably the piriformis (though there is a small chance it is a disc problem in my back... but he thinks it more likely that it's a RW overuse thing w/the piriformis) and gave me some exercises & stretches to do at home. He also wants me to get some more of my fave anti-inflammatory, diclofenac, from my doc, and take it more often. Good idea :). He said there isn't much more he can do... but did recommend that I get massages at least 2x/month. I guess I can't object too strenuously to that since they feel great.

***

Race countdown: 9 days until Portland-to-Coast. Only 6.5 weeks until the Portland Marathon.

amazing 20 miles

Liberty Park, as seen on my workout this morning.

The weather was perfect for my 20-miler. If I had ordered it up, I would have requested this: clear, calm, and 56 degrees (13C) at 5:35 am when I started out. It got up to maybe 68 (20C) when I finished, and it was a little warm, but still quite pleasant with the usual low humidity (26% right now at 1 pm; was a little higher this morning but pretty good).

I chose a FLAT route to go easy on my piriformis, and since the Portland Marathon is mostly flat (2 hills), I figured that would be OK (though I will do a hilly 20 next, I think, if my leg is a little better). Well, OK, today's route was almost flat. The first mile was downhill, and the last mile was uphill, but other than that, it was pretty much flat.

The first (downhill) mile was in 10:13, with an easy HR of 133. I had decided I'd go very easy today, keeping my HR around 140 if possible until the last 4 miles, when I would pick it up as I've been doing per Bart Yasso's advice in the Runner's World training plan I'm using (modified, but it's close). The next 15 miles (24.1 km)took me 2:39:56 for 10:43/mile (6:40/km) with an average HR of 140. Oh, and I hit the half marathon point at about 2:19. Fast! I guess I've been doing so many hills that the flat seems easy now :). Yay!!!!! The only caveat is that I did have to stop at more stoplights than I would have liked; to get a nice flat route I had to deal with traffic more unless I wanted to do the Jordan River Parkway again - but I am kinda bored with that route and wanted to change it up. I had to stop probably 8 times in the 15 miles, but it wasn't for long each time; I did stop my stopwatch so did not count that time, but it was extra rest I would not get in a race.

Then I picked up the pace and did an average of 10:18/mile (6:24/km) for the last 4 miles (6.4 km). Ave HR for that part was in the low 150s (but really was probably a little higher since I did have to stop and refill my water bottles in Liberty Park).

My right piriformis was only somewhat irritated by this whole thing today, which is good news. I have a massage scheduled for tonight and physical therapy tomorrow, so hopefully we can get a handle on it. At least it's not like the IT band thing that kept me from training, and it seems to be getting better.

I'm SO thrilled with the way my training is going. If I had done a whole marathon at today's pace, it would have been a 4:37! I'm not saying I can necessarily do one that fast (I know I'll have a bathroom break in there somewhere!), but at least I feel a 4:40-4:45 is definitely within reach :).

Camping cancelled

We were packing to go camping, and had about 2/3 of it ready when we got a call that everyone was coming home because of the rain (they'd gone up Friday night and it was fine until Saturday morning's storm). So, we put everything away, and cleaned up the garage a bit (it needed it!). I called my piano students (whose lessons I'd moved to Monday) and got them to come at the usual 4 pm time. Loren and I picked pears from our tree after lunch, and then he went for a massage while I got a quick nap.

I'm kind of glad we didn't go, because maybe I can get some stuff done around here now. Or rest up for my 20 miles on Monday. Or both! Besides, we're going to camp in a few weeks when we go to Oregon for Portland-to-Coast.

So, instead of s'mores tonight we had ginger molasses cookies. I was in a baking mood, and had points from the week as well as from the morning's 8.3 miles, so I enjoyed them thoroughly. Loren LOVES ginger - one of his favorite foods, and it was my privilege to spoil him with some cookies :).

Now I need to get back to my book club summer read - The Stand, by Stephen King. Yeah, it's a horror novel, but a provocative one, and it will be a good one to discuss.

wet & windy Saturday

Wendy & I after our workout & soaking WET.

The weather today: not so good. When I left my house at 5:40 am it was clear (from what I could see, seeing as how it was dark!) and 59 degrees. Not bad! When I arrived at the State Capitol at around 6 am, it was starting to rain - hard. And it was thundering & lightning. Only 5 people had showed up for the workout, and due to the thunder, I told them we'd wait 10 minutes to see if it cleared a bit. Safety has to come first. After 10 minutes, it was still raining, but the thunder and lightning had moved off to the east, so we were good to go. But, 4/5 people decided they'd rather run another day. I don't entirely blame them! 14 miles would have been long in this weather.

My remaining runner is a 1/2 marathoner, and they were scheduled for 8 miles. Off we went! I had borrowed a jacket from one of the runners who left (yeah, dumb coach to leave my jacket, but remember, I thought it was clear not raining!) and that was very helpful. It was nice for 3 miles or so, and then it started to rain harder. By 4 miles, it was pouring. The jacket I borrowed was not waterproof so it didn't keep me dry, but it did help hold in a little heat. Pretty soon I was soaked to the skin. I could feel the water even in my shorts liner :(, and of course my feet were so wet they were squelching. It was windy, too, so I got really cold. My hands were particularly cold. But the company was good, at least :)! If I'd been out by myself, I would have turned around early for sure.

About mile 4.7, right before we turned around at mile 5.2 (we had a detour up City Creek Canyon that made the miles shorter on the return), there was a VERY bright lightning flash and a LOUD thunderclap (it had been quiet until then). Ugh! The thunderstorm was back! Fortunately, there were only 2-3 and then it was quiet again. We were discussing where to take shelter when we realized it had stopped.

Total: 8.33 mi (13.4 km) in 1:29:53 for 10:47/mile (6:42/km). Ave HR 145. Kinda high for that speed, but it was a pretty hilly route.

When I got back my hands were so cold that my thumbs weren't working right. Wendy had to turn the car keys to open my trunk and door so I could get in!

I was never so happy for a hot shower :). Ahhhhhh. When I got home the thermometer said 52 (~11C); not that cold, but with the rain and the wind it was very cold.

Now we're going camping overnight. I hope the weather clears a little; we'll be in the mountains and it is going to be VERY cold. We do have 3-season sleeping bags, so we should be all right. We're going to dress very warmly though!

another long day

Today was another long day. It was a good day, though.

First, my workout: Started at 5:40 am so I could get to work. I did a 1 mile warm-up, 7 miles at marathon pace, then 1 mile cool-down. I did the 7 miles at a 10:29/mile pace (6:31/km). Realistically, my MP might be more like 10:40, but I might as well shoot for the 10:30. It was a good hard workout; total time about 1 hr 36 min and change. Ave HR for the 7 MP miles was upper 140s-low 150s.

Good thing I did a long workout, because today we had Thai food at lunch to thank our summer students for their good work. We have a 2nd year med student and an undergraduate student helping us out in the lab, and they have been doing a great job. The weird thing to me is that I am 20 years older than our undergrad student. She was born in 1990, when I was in college, and the first year I worked in a lab. I have to say this makes me feel old. That, and the fact that I am starting to have to hold small print items farther away to read them. Reading glasses are not far off :(.

I ended up working until 6:35 pm tonight, about 1 hr longer than usual, because it took me longer than I thought to finish up embedding some zebrafish embryos in paraffin for sectioning. Probably should have done them next week, but once I started, I had to finish.

So, by the time I got home, it was quite late, and we ended up going out to dinner. Yeah, good thing I got in the long workout, huh? Still stayed within a reasonable number of points, though :).

I'm unwinding now & it feels good.

miscellany

It's been busy this week, with my 18-miler and then work and the usual house stuff (y'know, laundry, cooking, cleaning, etc.). I like the hard training, but it's difficult to fit in with everything else. I have been trying (and succeeding somewhat) to get a bit more sleep, which has helped. Thankfully I'm home today and can try & catch up on some things and play with the kids too :).

***

Pet peeve: SUVs which are MADE for going off-road over rocks, bumpy terrain, etc., going VERY VERY SLOWLY (i.e. 2 mph) over speed bumps in parking lots. Um, hello?!? I don't get it.

***

Workout yesterday: did an easy 1.7 miles to the track, then 3x1 mile repeats in 9:22, 9:27, and 9:22. Then an easy 1.7 back home. I ate ice cream on Monday night; not a lot, but just a little, and I knew that was not gonna be good for my track workout. Yeah, I had some GI pain and had to go VERY slowly the last 0.2 home because everything just kind of hurt. Anyway, did 6.4 miles in 1:06:xx. Right piriformis was sore for the first mile, then was all right after stretching it out a bit. I have a PT appt for next Tuesday, but meanwhile I might take Nyle's advice and get a massage if Lars is available.

Today: Biked to my weight training class and did walking lunges, bench press, assisted chin-ups (yeah, I can't do them w/o the assist machine - lame!), hamstring curls, hip abductors & flexors on hip machine, biceps, triceps, glutes w/cable, and "8-minute abs" that were very hard --- our instructor led us in a series of 16 30-second exercises. Ouch! I thought my abs were in pretty good shape, but that was a toughie.

Tonight: Going to do a brick workout w/the triathlon team (TNT) just for fun. Swim 200 w/u, 1500 timed, 200 c/d, then 3 mile run (racewalk for me :)!). Loren agreed to watch the kids because I didn't go out on Monday night :).

***

Weight: Have had a very good 3 weeks and still going strong. Has not been easy, but I think I am down a little more. Hard to tell, with fluctuation due to water retention etc. I was officially down 0.6 lb at WW on Monday and that seems about right. Losses are slow at this point, but that is fine. Just want to get down about another 2-3 lb before 10/4 if possible; that might not happen, but at least I'm lower than I was at the end of last summer now :) and at a pretty good racing weight. Still---every lb is possibly a minute off of my time in the marathon, so it matters.

18 miles

Nice weather this morning for my 18-miler (29km)! It was a refreshingly cool 57 degrees F (13.8C) when I started, with the usual low humidity. I actually got a bit chilly at points - along the Jordan River Parkway, where I walked, it has colder spots because of the proximity of the water. My hands were quite chilled for several miles near 3900 South.

I started at 5:05 am, and did the first 3.83 alone (was going to do 4, but running late!). At 5:45 am, I met Sue at Walden Park (5400 South) for 10 miles with her. SO wonderful to have someone to talk with; it makes the miles fly by much faster. I was feeling pretty good until mile 9, when I started having some intestinal cramping. It was minor as those things go, but it did slow us down a bit (it never got too bad, and resolved by mile 13ish). We averaged about 10:51 per mile through mile 14. Then Sue had to go, and I did the last 4 alone. My training plan suggests picking up the pace with 3-4 miles (5-6.5 km) to go on long days, and so I did. My heart rate was in the upper 130s (about 72-73% max) for most of the first 14 miles, and I decided to ratchet it up to 150-155 (78-81% max) for the last 4. I thought it would feel miserable, but it really wasn't so bad... and I was faster than I thought, too! I did the last 4 in pretty much exactly 41 min, for 10:15/mile.

I'm quite pleased with this - if I could crank out 4 miles like that at the end of a marathon, well, that would be great. Yeah, I know, a marathon is much more than 18 miles, but still, I'm encouraged. Last week I was able to do the same thing at the end, but only for 2 miles, and it seemed much harder. Progress... or maybe just more time since I donated blood? Whichever it is, I don't mind. I feel strong and good. Oh, except for that nagging R piriformis, which is still literally a pain in the butt. I have a PT appt for 8/18, so hopefully that will help.

TNT workout - Bountiful Blvd

 Bountiful Blvd is a bad weather omen or something ;). Last time the team was there, in June (when I was rafting), it rained on them. Last time I was there (in February?) with the Spring team, it rained and snowed on us and was cold & nasty.

You would think the middle of the summer would be safe. Not so. We had a cold storm blow in, and guess what? It was 54F (12C), and within a few miles it was raining. Then it was pouring. It rained hard for about 2-3 miles, and then let up, thankfully. Ugh! I wore shorts and a T-shirt as I normally do when it's above 50, but brought my rain jacket in case. I wish I'd worn gloves and capris, too. My legs got cold from the rain and my hands were very cold. But the company was enjoyable, so no biggie - I survived.

I went out with the faster runners who are doing the Top of Utah marathon, and that was good, but even they were slowish on the hills in Bountiful today (they did 10 miles total). I had no trouble racewalking with them at all, and was thinking faster might be nice ;). After 4 miles I went with some of our runners and run/walkers, who were doing 8 today. After some back and forth with the runners, run/walkers, and walkers, I ended up with 9.65 miles at a pretty slow 12:42/mile average. However, my HR was only 121. Probably good for me to have some really good slow miles once in a while! And I'm glad today's workout wasn't too long, since I am going to do 18 on Monday morning.

9-miler

Yup, getting into the longer miles, because the marathon is just over 8 weeks away! Today I was to do 1 mile as a warm-up, 1 as a cool-down, and 7 (11.2 km) at marathon pace (9 miles, 14.5 km total).

I picked a route with rolling hills - nothing too hard, but just a little hillier than the Portland Marathon will be (not so much in steepness - except for the first hill-, but rather in number of hills). I figure practicing with hills a little harder than the race is a good idea.

Here were my splits: 1) warm-up (fairly steep uphill) in 11:54. 2) marathon pace miles (goal 10:30-10:40 on average): 9:52 (downhill, but still... seems fast), 10:41, 10:29, 10:23, 10:56 (uphill), 10:16, 10:53; 3) cool-down 11:31. Total - just over 1:37, and pretty much right on 10:30 per mile for the marathon pace miles. I'll take it!

I felt pretty much fine during and afterward. Even the R piriformis felt decent, with only a few twinges.

Having trouble keeping my eyes open, so I think I'm done blogging for tonight.

quick post

It's been busy around here. I had to go to the dentist Tuesday, and got behind on the housework last week, so am trying to catch up. Plus I baked whole wheat bread from scratch on Monday (Yum!) and this morning I staked our tomatoes (have cages, but they are overflowing them!) and planted some more basil, since something ate the first plants I bought. Also taught 2 piano lessons this morning, and took the kids to a friend's house to go swimming this afternoon. Oh, and wrote the TNT team route for Saturday.

***

In workout news, I did a hard 6.5 mile workout on Tuesday. Was going to switch it to Friday to get more sleep, but then woke at 4 am w/nasty nightmare and couldn't sleep, so decided to just go do it. I warmed up for 2 miles easy, then tackled a very steep hill (~175 feet total in 0.3 miles). I did 9 repeats, though only one was all the way to the very top; 5 were halfway up or so, and the other 3 were about 3/4 of the way up. Then I cooled down easy on the way home. It was a pretty tough workout and my right piriformis was quite sore. I finally made a physical therapy appt, but my PT is out of town until the 18th. Drat. Still, at least I can get in. Of course, it's been feeling better today, since I made the appt. If it is better in 2 weeks I can cancel, but I doubt it will be since it's been bugging me for months.

This morning, I biked to my weight training class and back and did a good hard set of lifting. Hip machine, then hamstrings, chest machine, overhead press, push-ups on the ball, bicep curls, glutes w/pulley machine, and a difficult set of abs. It was good.

Tomorrow: 9 miles planned, 7 at marathon pace.

***

Now: clean up because our small group is meeting here tonight. Better go and get ready. Still wearing my swimsuit (w/a shirt over it) from this afternoon.

14 good miles

Today was a good day. I had 14 miles (22.5 km) on the schedule, and was supposed to push the last few. Sue was going to meet me, but she only wanted to do 8, and had to be done by 7:15. So that meant I had to get up really early, because I wanted to do at least 4 before I met her (I really didn't want to still have 6 to do when she left), and besides, I had to get home to watch the kids before Loren went to work.

I arrived at the Jordan River Trail at 5:02 am sharp. It was 76 degrees (24.4C) and about 25-30% humidity. It was pitch black, but I had devised a nifty light for my fuel belt. Basically, I took one of those LED "dot" lights that comes w/velcro for sticking to walls, etc., and then I sewed some velcro straps for my fuel belt. It stuck right on around belly button level, and provided plenty of light.

I did the first 4 miles as an out-and-back to the south, at what felt like a very comfortable pace. I wasn't paying too close attention to that, but it turned out that I was a little fast (10:36/mile; 6:35/km) for an easy day. I was very happy to see Sue waiting for me when I got back to the parking lot (I was right on time to meet her around 5:45). We then took off to the north for 4 miles; I really enjoy having her with me for the conversation, etc. It makes the time pass SO much faster. Sure wish I could have someone to talk to for the whole marathon. Perhaps if I join the 4:45 pace group that will help. There's always the iPod, which helps too, but talking is much nicer.

We headed back and I was still feeling good, so when I said goodbye to her at the parking lot, I headed south for the last 2 miles (1 mile out-and-back) and decided to speed it up as my schedule indicates. I'm using a pretty nice schedule Bart Yasso of Runner's World wrote for readers training for fall marathons. I've modified it a little due to my TNT workouts, but it's mostly his schedule for runners wanting a PR. He indicates that on LSD (long, slow distance) days that you should speed up the last few miles. So I did. I did the last 2 in 20:35 for about 10:17/mile (6:23/km). My ave HR for the first 12 was 143 (about 75%; OK, a little high for my LSD, oops), but for the last 2 it was 156.

I felt great, though, and am still feeling good except for my darn R piriformis, which is still irritating me. It's not exactly painful, just achy, and gets annoyed when I sit for too long. I seem to be pretty much entirely over my IT band problems on the L leg, and in comparison w/that, this is nothing.

At the end, it was 80 degrees (26.6C). Pretty warm for here for 7:45am. It's supposed to get to 99 today, though, so not surprising. At least it's dry. I did sweat a lot, though, and noticed when I was done that I had a fine coating of salt on my body. If I do a long race in these conditions, I'm going to have to make sure I get enough salt.

Calvin with Rusty & Rosy - video

Rusty & Rosy

 Calvin and Rusty.

Thursday night Calvin and I went to a meeting for people using the software (state-funded!) to teach preschoolers reading and math. It's really great software, and Calvin and Michelle both love to use it. The meeting was informative (though I only had a few questions, really), but I'm mostly glad I went because Calvin loved it so much. They gave him a little book, some stickers, and then the best part was the tour of their building, where he got to meet Rusty and Rosy, the characters from the software program. He was high-fiving them, running around them, hugging them, and playing with their tails. It was SO cute!!!

TNT workout

This morning the Nike team had 12 miles, and Top of Utah had 16; however, only one TOU person came, and he had to leave early to get to work.

I got to go pretty fast this week! I started off running the first ~3 miles (5k) or so, and then switched to RW. It was a long uphill for the first part of the route, as we started at Highland High (next to Sugar House Park) and went up to the zoo, around the back of it to Wasatch Dr., down to 1300S, and back to the start. It's quite a hilly route, but at least it's mostly downhill on the way back when you're tired.

For the first 11.15 miles (18km; I did 14 miles (22.5km) total) I was with runners for the most part, and averaged 11:16/mile, which was a nice pace for me (though I started off fast with an 8-8:30 running pace with one of the guys, and then it was slower toward the end with the run/walkers). Then I walked the walkers in to the finish, which took 45 min or so. They were doing 16-17 min miles, which is the usual for this group. Good thing that the Nike Women's Marathon has a nice long time limit to accommodate walkers.

I could tell from my heart rate that the blood donation is still affecting me. That's OK, though. I expect that to take a few more weeks to get better. If I hadn't have been looking at my pace, I would have thought I was just fine. My right piriformis is still bugging me a little, but other than that I felt great.

Tomorrow I'm going to take it really easy, and then do 14 on Monday morning (at MY pace!) with Sue.

***

Oh, and yesterday I took it very easy. I drove to my weight training class, warmed up on the bike for 10 min, and did the hip machine (abductors and hip flexors), cable pulls for glutes, bench press (I have worked up to 95 lb for 3 sets of 8 now!), and a couple other exercises which are escaping my brain at the moment. Then I did an amazingly hard set for abs, which my instructor and I devised recently. My abs are in good shape, and this made me quite sore! I love that feeling, though. I stretched and left class a little early to get to work; I had put in 40 minutes total.

Interesting day

Alarm went off at 5 am and I pushed snooze... then I heard the doorbell. Maybe I was dreaming? No, it was the doorbell - I heard it again, and so did Loren. Rushed upstairs and it was a policeman at the door asking if the Buick was our car. Turns out they caught a guy in our car and when they saw him, he fled into the alley. They nabbed him and jailed him, fortunately. He had broken into a BMW a few blocks away and then was after whatever he could get from us. We didn't have any valuables in the car, and nothing was missing anyway. Guess they got him in time.

I was relieved that everything was OK, but it did disrupt my plans a little; got started late on my workout. I did 4 miles instead of 5, but I did do the 3 @ marathon pace like I was supposed to. I felt pretty good this morning. The blood donation doesn't seem to have affected slower paces quite as much as track workout paces.

Then it was off to the dentist. I have lousy teeth. I take really good care of them, but just got dealt a lousy genetic hand. I need 1 filling replaced, and there is another tooth that needs a new (albeit small) filling. Grrr. $$$$$. While I was there I made an appointment for Michelle to have her teeth cleaned, too (her first of many!). Yay. More $$$$$. Oh well, at least Loren and I have jobs and can pay for it, even if there are more exciting things to spend one's money on.

Work was good today. I was worried I'd be really tired, but I actually felt decent all day and got a lot done. I embedded some 7-day zebrafish larvae in freezing medium and froze them for cryosectioning. Then I did 10-micron sections and had fun looking at the anatomy. I'm starting to learn what things look like, which is good. Tomorrow I'm going to stain some of the slides and hopefully they will come out well.

After our crock pot dinner (love the crock pot!), Calvin and I rushed off to a meeting about his preschool computer program, UPSTART. It's funded by the state of Utah (amazing that they actually are funding this great program!) and has helped Calvin to learn to read. Yes, he can read now! Anyway, it was good to meet some of the people involved in this effort, and they had stickers for the kids and giant Rusty and Rosy characters (the cute mascots for the program) for the kids to meet, hug, etc. Calvin was SO taken by them - he hugged them repeatedly, high-fived them, and ran around playing with their tails. Very cute. I do have photos but am not going to download them now - too tired.

Then I took Calvin to get some ice cream at Maggie Moo's, and indulged in kids' size cone for myself. Seriously, I love chocolate SO much. I wish I could eat it all the time without consequences. Oh well... at least I controlled the urge to get another cone and/or binge on chocolate at home. The Portland Marathon is calling me, and I suppose the lure of victory must be a smidge greater than the lure of chocolate, amazingly enough. At least this time.

still slow

I wonder how long I will be slow after donating blood? Best guess is 3-6 weeks. I expect that things will start to improve gradually.

Today was the slowest track workout I've had in a LONG long time. I was doing ladders and it was UGLY. My HR was really high despite a relatively slow speed, my legs felt SO heavy, and I toyed with quitting. But I figured that training was training, and slow or not, I would get benefits from it. I was feeling pretty good before I started, because my rest day yesterday really restored my strength. So, I think it was the right thing to do. Hard to know.

Here were my times --- don't laugh, OK?
I did an easy 200m in between each fast interval.
First 200m - forgot to push the timer so don't know the time.
400m - 2:10 (the only decent interval time of the day).
600m - 3:25
800m - 4:49 (usually I do 800s in 4:30-4:35 for Yasso repeats, so this shows how slow I was!)
1000m - 6:05 (um, yeah, this was bad too)
800m - 4:47
600m - 3:35 (wow... really bad)
400m - 2:20 (that's not bad given how tired I was, I guess)
200m - 1:04 (gave this one everything I had left)

I'm happy with this, given how I felt. Hey, it beats the alternative - being injured or not being able to work out for some reason. And it was still good training.

My chafing under my R arm from Sunday is still hurting, but it's a lot better than it was. Liberal application of Body Glide before this workout kept it from getting any worse, thankfully. It was a bit cooler this morning, too, and there was a breeze, which helped a lot.

Tomorrow a little easy cross-training is planned for some recovery - a bike ride to my weight training class.

need rest

A view of the Salt Lake City cemetery and the cityscape from 11th Ave. Rest in peace.

I was going to do my 16-miler tomorrow, but as I did not arrange for a sitter, I would have had to finish it up on the treadmill. I was just not in the mood for that! So, despite giving blood Thursday, racing a hard 10K on Friday, and doing 12 miles with TNT people on Saturday, I decided to do 16 miles myself today.

I probably should have chosen a flat route, but no, I had to choose a hilly one :) because I wanted the nice scenery. Total elevation change was about 600 feet up, then down 200 feet, then up 200 feet, then down 600 feet. Whew.

I knew it was going to be a slower day after the first 2 miles. Yeah, they were uphill, but still, 12:18 and 11:48 were slow times for me for this course. The rest of the miles were in (approximately - didn't always quite get the lap at exactly the right time, but close): 10:55, 10:44, 11:00, 10:42, 11:22, 11:35, 22:49 (2 miles), 11:53, 21:25 (2 miles), 10:20, 10:34. I did manage to make the last few miles the fastest - but of course they were downhill, so that helped.

It was pretty pleasant through about mile 12, other than that I lost one of my water bottles :( from my amphipod belt. It fell off around mile 4 and when I got back there, it was nowhere to be seen. Somehow I didn't hear it fall off (usually I do, but I was listening to a Science Friday podcast from NPR and I guess I was too intent on it?). At about mile 7, I ran into my friend Sara and got to chat for a few minutes, which was a nice break. Miles 7-9 were quite pleasant, from the Avenues to the gate at City Creek Canyon. It was cool by the creek, and I was thinking that I should have gone up the canyon farther (except I didn't want to do more than 16!).

The rest of the workout was HOT. The sun came out and started beating down on me as I went up 11th Ave and through Federal Heights. When I got home it was 74 and humid. UGH. An unfortunate side effect of this is that I sweated a lot more than usual, and had some fairly serious chafing under my arms. I hadn't brought my Body Glide, so I was pretty much out of luck.

I had planned a route that went by several water fountains (City Creek gate, Terrace Hills Dr on 11th Ave), so I was able to refill my water bottle and stay hydrated. I was running a bit low as I got to about 2.5 miles from home (because I'd lost the other bottle), but was able to fill it from someone's sprinkler :).

Even so, the last 4 miles were tough. I really had to force myself to maintain and increase speed down the hills. But I also wanted to be DONE, so that helped. My whole body just felt heavy, and I was tired. I did eat sports beans and a GU and a banana, so I don't think it was the carbs; I just got worn out from accumulated stupidity of overdoing it the past 3 days :).

After I got home, I realized just how tired I really was. I managed to stretch (the piriformis was definitely feeling it from the hills), but from 9 am when I got home until I took a nap at 1 pm, I was SO exhausted. We did go to church, and I somehow stood up and sat down at the requisite times, but it was quite an effort. When we got home, I basically didn't move much off of the couch, and everything felt so heavy. Lifting my arms was about all I could do. Seriously, I have not felt this tired even after a marathon, so I know I really overdid it. I felt much better after a nap, but tomorrow is certainly a rest day. Hopefully I will be recovered enough to do another workout on Tuesday.

TNT workout

We met at the Porter Rockwell trail today; Nike team had 6 miles and the TOU team had 10 or 14 miles (some got off schedule a bit and are catching up). It was 73 and humid; I felt really hot and uncomfortable for most of the workout because of the humidity. Yeah, I'm a humidity wimp after living in Utah for 10 years now.

I was tired this morning. Started off with one of our faster runners, who was doing 9-min miles. Normally that's a pretty easy run pace for me, but not today. The heart rate was pretty high and though I did stay w/her for a mile I was pushing it :(. My hamstrings are a bit sore from the race, and the piriformis is acting up a bit, but other than that I'm feeling good - just tired.

The good news is that I did end up running (not RW) for about 5.5-6 miles and had no IT band problems. Yay! This is the farthest I have run since last November when I first hurt my IT band (not that I'm trying to run a lot, but it's nice to be able to when I need to for TNT). I racewalked a fair amount, too, some with runners, and some with run/walkers (who were mostly running, albeit slowly). Total of about 12 miles at about 11:15/mile on average. Pretty fast for a TNT workout, probably because my walkers weren't there.

Photos here.

First harvest

 Our first 2 tomatoes, from the Early Girl plant. They were amazingly delicious. Home grown are SO much better than store-bought!

"For Mommy"

 This really touched me for some reason. My son made me a picture and wrote "For Mommy" on it :) :) :). I feel very loved.

Deseret News 10K photos

Here are more photos, mostly of my walking buddies.

Deseret News 10K - an interesting experiment

Photo: All of the Wasatch Walkers after the race.

I signed up for this race planning to use it as a training race, so 1) I didn't care too much about my time, and 2) I didn't do much training that was specific for this race, and 3) I did a HARD workout on Tuesday (6x1600m repeats).

So yesterday, when I received a call from the blood bank practically BEGGING me to come in and donate, I decided to do it. What the heck. I have A+ blood, which is really common, but I am CMV-, which is not very common, and required for transplant patients, babies, and immunocompromised people. I did think about the possible effects on my race, and decided that I would be happy with a slower time since it was only a training race anyway. I donated after work, at about 5:30 pm, approximately 12 hours before my race. I figured the worst case scenario was that I'd be slower for the race; I'm healthy and fit and knew that I'd be OK. Besides, it was an interesting experiment to see how my performance would be affected.

Here's an interesting article about blood donation and performance; essentially, when you donate, you give 10% of your blood. They tested some cyclists and found that maximal performance (as determined by testing VO2 max) was off by 8% 2 hr and 2 days later, and by 7% one week later.

Well, I can now confirm this result from personal experience :). I finished the race in 59:45, about 2 min slower than last year, and my worst 10K performance ever. OK, so I've only done four 10Ks, three of them being this nice downhill Deseret News 10K course. Still, I am in great shape right now and should have been able to generate a fast time.

Here is a comparison of this year and last year's split times:
2008 2009
Mile 1 8:52 9:06
Mile 2 8:50 9:03
Mile 3 9:30 9:53
Mile 4 9:27 9:28
Mile 5 9:29 9:44
Mile 6.2 11:47 12:33 (with 30-sec H2O stop)

OK, yes, I did take a long water stop at mile 5.5 this year; w/o that stop it would have been 59:15, but that is still my slowest 10K every :). I was being cautious because it was hot (75 at 6 am!) with some light cloud cover, and I was concerned about hydration after donating blood. I stopped long enough to down about 16 oz of water. I was feeling pretty darn beat up by that point, and I wanted to be sure to finish! I was a little worried that if I pushed it too hard I'd be in the medical tent.

You could also ask if I pushed as hard as I did last year. I felt like I pushed harder, honestly. My ave HR for each mile split was as follows: 153, 164, 169, 171, 172, 173 (1.2). I hit a max of 179 in the last 1.2; theoretically my max is about 190-191 as measured in two of Dave McGovern's RW clinics, so that's 93.7% of max, which is a very very hard effort.

After the first 2 miles I wondered if I'd pushed too hard at the start, because they were so fast. Yes, they were downhill, so I expected them to be fast. I'd probably have been less concerned if I'd remembered that my times from last year were even faster. Regardless, I slowed down on the 3rd mile (mostly downhill but some uphill too) to try and conserve a little energy. Then on the 4th mile I figured I'd better pick it up a little, so I did. And then there was just not much left in the tank for the last couple miles. To be fair, the last 1.2 is flat and then slightly uphill, so it's hard to have negative splits in this race, but still, I really felt I was dying in that last 2.2. I think that's when the loss of red blood cells really got noticeable to me.

Now to put it in perspective: I had LOTS of fun (despite the pain, I just love races), heard fun comments from runners ("How does she walk so fast" "She's WALKING and I can't keep up with her", etc.), finished 10K under 1 hr (not bad) and got a great workout. I still finished faster than probably 1/2 the runners, including one of my current TNT runners and two of my TNT runners from spring. I finished about the same time as a TNT cyclist (who is also a triathlete) I know (in fact, almost ran into her trying to get some water!), and finished 10 minutes ahead of the next Wasatch Walker in the race. There were NINE Wasatch Walkers in today's race, which was AWESOME! So much fun to cheer the rest of them to the finish.

It was an interesting experiment :) and I'm not sorry I did things the way I did. Now I have about 5 wks to generate some red blood cells for Portland-to-Coast, which should be just about right.

challenging week

This is a challenging food week. On both Tues & Wed I had TNT dinners to attend. Tues night was not pretty, though fortunately since it's the beginning of the week I had my 35 points allowance. I didn't use it all, which was good since I really need some to get through the week. Last night I did a lot better but still used some points allowance; unavoidable when eating out.

I'm also overtired. Have not gotten enough sleep due to being out the past 2 nights. Fortunately, tonight I have nothing planned. Unfortunately, I have the July 24th (Pioneer Day - unique Utah holiday) 10K race tomorrow, so I'll be getting up about 4:30 am. Maybe I can get to bed early. Maybe. I'm not holding my breath.

Yesterday my piriformis was still bugging me, so I cross-trained, biking to my weight training class and doing a lot of my hip/IT band PT exercises. Felt good.

Last night I had to drive one of the team members to her home in Orem after the dinner, which took me about 1.5 hr in the car and made my piriformis very unhappy. I think the driving is what is really getting it, not the RW. Anyway, this morning I took it easy because of the race tomorrow and because of the sore piriformis. Just did an easy 3.65-ish miles (~6K) around Sugar House Park in 38 minutes and change.

Tomorrow I'll have a race report at some point.

Killer workout

Today I tackled mile (OK, 1600m, not quite a mile!) repeats again (with 1:20-2:30 rest). I was up at 5:10 am and at the track at 5:45, because it's a long workout. Here's the summary of how it went (interval, time, ave HR):

warm-up 1600m, 10:10, 139
first 1600m repeat, 9:14, 155
second 1600m repeat, 9:20, 160
third 1600m repeat, 9:24, 161 (my legs were starting to feel heavy)
fourth 1600m repeat, 9:24, 162 (tired, but managed another)
fifth 1600m repeat, 9:19, 163 (managed to speed it up - working really hard now)
sixth 1600m repeat, 9:16, 164 (turned on some serious music for this one, and it worked!)

I cooled down slowly and stretched very carefully afterward. My right piriformis is still bugging me from Saturday; it feels fine when I racewalk but just bugs the heck out of me when I am sitting a lot. I sat for most of the afternoon at work today, so that didn't help. I did bring a tennis ball to sit on, which was useful, but I'm still a bit sore. Oh well, it's nothing that keeps me from doing my workouts, so more of a nuisance than anything.

I am VERY pleased with this workout. It's a bit faster than last time I did it, when I ranged from 9:22-9:29 for each (and OK, my HR was a bit higher too, but not much). When I finished, the feeling was amazing. I felt so strong, capable, and yes, beautiful. As a recovering food addict, I can say that that feeling seriously rivaled the most pleasure one can get from food. Hmmm, now if only I could remember that next time I want to overeat :).

Actually, the food has been much better. I am adjusting to the new, lower # of points that my body seems to now require, and as of last night's weigh-in at Weight Watchers and this morning's weigh-in on my scale, I am pretty much back at my lowest weight - maybe 0.5 lb above it, but close. I'd like to lose just a little more before Portland. This week has a lot of food challenges, but I'm just going to take them one day at a time.

My wild & crazy brother ;)

My brother is a youth pastor for senior high, and his charges just completed the parent-teen backpacking trip in the Sierras. While up there, they spent a bunch of time jumping in the lake :). Here's a self-video (?like self-portrait? just made that up) of Alex jumping in the lake.

Catching up again

Photo: TNT workout Saturday. I'm in the foreground, and behind me are Kandice, Randy, and Sue.

Yeah, got busy this weekend & didn't blog. But I'm back :) for those of you loyal readers who still get some entertainment value from this blog.

Saturday we had our TNT workout, and I did about 11 miles (accidentally had my Garmin off for a bit so this is an estimate) in about 2 hr 15 min; this includes regular walking at least 4 miles with the back-of-the-pack people. They are actually getting a lot faster though - our walkers were almost as fast as the slower runners (who were alternating 8 min running w/2 min walking).

TNT workouts are interesting with this team. We have one VERY fast runner (he is shooting for a 3:15 marathon to qualify for the Boston marathon) who was doing 8-min miles to start and finished up with 7-min miles. We have a couple runners who will probably be able to do a 9-min pace for their marathons, and a few who can do 10-10:30. The rest are run/walkers who average probably 13-min miles, and our walkers, who are at about 15:30 right now (improved from 17!). So it's quite a spread and I get to do a lot of different speeds for my Saturday morning workout, which is why I need to do my long day a different day. Yes, I get exercise, but it is not MY workout at all really. But I have a good time and enjoy seeing people improve.

This past Saturday I did 1.2 miles with our fast runner at about an 8-min pace (I was running, not RW, obviously!), then a couple miles with the 10-10:30 runners (the 9-min runners were not there), and then the rest of the time with the run/walkers and the walkers.

***

Sunday I took a rest day. My right piriformis was bugging me because after I did the 11 miles I had to drive 45 min to get home, and it really HATES sitting that long after a workout. It felt nice to have a morning off, oddly enough, and I felt OK despite not working out. Some days when I don't work out I feel crummy all day; sluggish, tired, etc. But yesterday was fine.

***

Today I was flying fast :). The rest day must have helped. Sue (asst coach for our team, and a friend from last year's team) met me at the Porter Rockwell trail in Draper for an 8-miler. We started fast, but what the heck, it was only 8 miles and I was feeling great, so I told her we could go fast (Sue is a runner, and a good one at that, so she usually goes a bit slower for me). We did 8.04 miles in 1:22:21 for an average of 10:14/mile! My average HR was only 141, though --- that is amazingly low for that speed. If the Portland Marathon had been today, I'm sure I would have done very well. I wish I could figure out why some days are just so much better (and some worse, like Nike last year) and then bottle the good days and save them for races :). Hahaha. Maybe today it was the distraction of having someone along; don't know but it sure does help to talk with someone. Too bad Sue is doing the 10-miler in Minneapolis that weekend, or I'd try to talk her into doing the race with me. I have a couple friends doing the race, but we are not the same speed.