Where are my socks?

And so I run .... I have good days and I have bad days .... days where I feel on top of the world and days where I wonder where I will get the energy to get my running shoes on and hit the street. Weekend warriors they calls us. I guess that's appropriate. Running is definitely a whole body experience and I realize that every time I hit the street. I have seen what running has done for my body, soul and mind and I have vowed to myself to never stop running unless I am forced to due to an injury (knock on wood). Nonetheless, some days are definitely easier than others. I find myself paying attention to everything I have done that week or that day. Did I eat enough? Did eat too much? Did I eat the right foods? Did I hydrate enough? Did I get enough sleep? How is my stress level? All of this plays a part in how well I can train and ultimately run on race day.

Despite the fact that I am training for my fifth marathon, I have only been running since May 2006 and I ran my first Marathon in October 2006. I am still a "newbie" at this running thing and I often wonder if I am pushing myself too hard. Back in May 2006 I started training as a Run/Walker for SF Nike Women's Marathon and graduated to the runner's group by August. By race day I was able to run the entire marathon with walk breaks every water station. My overall pace for that Marathon was 13:20 and taking into account that it was my first marathon and that Nike is probably not a good choice for a first marathon, (the endless San Francisco hills), I was happy with my time and my pace. Not even a year later and I have run three other marathons with a best time of 4:33 which puts my pace at about a 10:28. In less than a year I have cut off almost three minutes off my time. I figure that if I continue training the way I am now, and continue to listen to the experts, I will eventually reach my goal pace of 8:40 and qualify for Boston. I want to qualify for Boston by my fortieth birthday (a year and a half away) and while I think it's possible I may be asking too much of my body at this point. I have to continually take into account the fact that I cannot train everyday like a super athlete. I still have to work, care for my children, go to soccer games etc... and still find the time to train. I am not privileged enough at this point in my life where I can just run.... I have other things that are a priority too so I guess I am cutting myself some slack and letting myself off the hook at little bit. After all, I also want to enjoy my runs and my training. Yes, even the intervals.

So here's what going on currently. I am still training with Fleet Feet and I am more aware every time I run with the group, that the trainers are following a schedule that is very likely to get someone injured. The trainer for my group commented today that she is concerned with the schedule as well. Of course that did not go over real well with me. So the bottom line is that I will continue to train with the group (I paid for the registration and I won't quit now) however I will modify what needs to be modified and work on not injuring myself. We received the full marathon training schedule this morning (up to now we've been following the half marathon training schedule) and our miles from week to week go up weekly with no recoup miles in between. In addition to that, the schedule has us doing between 70 and 100 minutes of "interval" training on Wednesday's. The interval training is really nothing more than long miles because we are not really doing intervals but just running "really hard" for 70 - 100 minutes. So if we're doing these long miles on Sundays and then doing between 7 and 10 miles of "really hard" running on Wednesdays, we're really not having a chance to recuperate from the long miles and in addition we are not training our body to improve our pace. Every Wednesday we're just told to go out and run "really hard" for x amount of time. No intervals at all ...

I found out that I paid the registration to have running buddies which in and of itself is not so bad but I was really hoping to get more training ... live and learn.

So ... I'll keep running with the group while at the same time following Galloway's training guide for the 4:00 marathon. I'm going to start going out to the track and following Galloway's and Carmichael's (Armstrong's trainer for New York Marathon) interval training guide. They discuss similar methods so I'm going to give it a try. Stay tuned ...

Today our group ran 12 miles. I came in at 2:02:11. Can't seem to get out of that 10:00 minute plateau. Soon though ... soon. My foot starting hurting pretty bad about mile 9 and got increasingly worse until it was burning again and I began to limp slightly. The new shoes have been great so I don't know what happened today .... I've put about 52 miles on the shoes thus far and with the exception of today my feet have felt great. I laid my running clothes out last night - everything that is except my socks and when I got up this morning I couldn't find my Thorlo's and ran with an old pair that do not provide enough cushioning. I did not like how they felt at all. Perhaps that's the reason for my poor performance.... a pair of socks? That's why they call them "training runs" I guess. Where are my socks? Probably at the bottom of the laundry basket .....

Lack of creativity should be illegal ...

I have developed an obsessive habit which involves reading license plates. Well.... OK ... the personalized ones. It amazes me how people can drive around town with unintelligible words on the back of their cars ... The ones that annoy me the most are the ones that obviously mean something but for the life of me I can't figure out what. I sit behind them at the stop light and read the plate every which way I can think of with every pronunciation possible and still I come up with nothing ... What the heck does it say? There have been times I have been so curious (ok and slightly annoyed) that I have been tempted to follow them just so I could ask what it means. Honestly, some of them make no sense at all! But even worse, are the ones where when God made their brains they forgot to stop off in the creativity line .... These are the people, who for lack of creativity, do the next best thing: they put the car's model name on their plate: my favorite from this week: seen on the back of a Toyota Corolla: Corolla. Perhaps they didn't know any other seven-letter words?

No running today. After a 10K race on Saturday and 10 miles yesterday I decided it was time for a break. I'm going to bed early, perhaps a little TV ... and well ...maybe some ice cream?

Stay tuned ... The Runner Chik will soon be at it again ...

And she keeps running ...

Ok. So it's been a month since my last blog and yes ... I continue to run .... My life has become busier and at times more complicated and trying to manage my time appropriately has been somewhat of a challenge. I crave running and I am consciously working on my pace but I find that it is often a challenge to find the time to run. I continue to run after work which means I am more tired than I would be if I ran in the morning but there is no way around that at the moment. On the weekends I run in the morning and I find that invigorating. I wish I could start every day with a run....

For those wondering, my foot condition has improved dramatically and this is due to rest and new shoes, but primarily new shoes. I only bought the shoes a week ago and I have already seen the difference. Thanks to John at Fleet Feet in Pleasanton I am once again wearing the appropriate shoes. John hooked me up with my first "real" pair of running shoes last June and I ran my first marathon in them. He hooked me up with Brooks that time and they were great shoes. Shortly after, I discovered the Nike + system and I switched to Nike shoes to accommodate the chip. I did well for awhile but in the last three months I have a seen a dramatic difference in the amount of pain I feel in my foot. So ... I paid a visit to John last week and I am now wearing Brooks again. Goodbye Nike + for now (I miss it terribly) but I am checking on a few things that may allow me to use it again. For now, I am back to wearing a watch again and my feet feel great.

Three weeks ago I ran the Disneyland Half Marathon. I was shooting for 2:00 and ended up running a 2:17. Not bad considering my feet were hurting like hell (literally they were on fire because I was still wearing the Nike's) and the temperature in LA was over 90 degrees which did not help at all. The Disneyland people had raised the flag from a yellow to a red before the race even started due to the heat and threatened to raise it to black if the temperatures rose even slightly more. We had a 6 am start time and it was already warm when we caught the shuttle at 4 am. I am used to running races in the Bay Area and the valley (SF, Santa Cruz, Sacramento) and temperatures are usually in the mid 60's to low 70's. I had great time running the Disneyland race but the heat nearly killed me ...

I put 15 miles on the new Brooks right after I bought them last week and then ran a 10k in Mountain House today. I finished first in my division with a pace of 9:15 which put me at the finish line at 57:22. My goal was to finish in under an hour so I accomplished my goal ... Mountain House is located just below the Altamont and there was a lot of wind coming off those mountains today. When we started the race we were running directly into the wind which made it extremely difficult to maintain a decent pace. I tried to draft behind a couple of other runners but was only successful at this for a short period. We were running into the wind for about the first half mile and then we had a side wind which was not as bad. By the end of the first mile the wind was behind us giving us an extra "push." I was at the 1st mile marker at 8:02 so I was not that disappointed with my pace but I also knew I had gone out a little too fast. I had to take two short walking breaks at about halfway through the race and I was concerned about not maintaining my pace. Because the course was a loop (which I hate) we were running into the wind again at mile 3.5 and again at mile 5 'till the finish line. I've run with wind before but usually side winds (especially in the Bay Area) and while not pleasant, certainly do not require such strenuous effort to maintain pace. All in all, this was a great race in an absolutely wonderful community and one which I will definitely run again.... Great people, nice medals, some good post race food, and beautiful scenery (one of my major requirements).

I plan to run Bridge to Bridge in SF at the end of the month, Cow Town Half Marathon in October and possibly Four Bridges half as well. Bridge to Bridge is one of the most beautiful runs in this area and has great pre and post race entertainment. Possibly the best I have seen yet. Bridge to Bridge is a 12k and my plan is to beat last year's time of 1:17:14.

Stay tuned ...

In my last post I mentioned joining a running group. I did and it has proven to be somewhat disappointing ... I will continue to train with them but .... more on that later. I miss Charlie .... you taught me so much.