Category: Geek Girl Runner

I was telling a friend about my running program this past weekend and she suggested I consider entering the City to Surf this year. It’s a 14K course starting in the city and ending in Bondi Beach. Thousands of people do it, but a lot of them just walk. I’m thinking about it. It’s ambitious, to be sure, but I definitely wouldn’t expect to run the whole thing. It might just be good to have as a training goal so I don’t get complacent with my 5K runs. What do you guys think? It’s not til August so I’ve got a while…

The official site for this year’s Nike Women’s Classic Run is up, so I now have a date to work towards: June 15. That’s seven and a half weeks away. They’ve changed the location this year though. We’re doing it out at the Olympic Park. Hmmm, I wonder if that means there won’t be as many hills. (There’s no course map yet, so I can’t check.) Hills are my nemesis.

In other training news (Coach), I decided to work the fartlek training some more last weekend. I jogged for five minutes to warm-up, then started alternating four minutes of hard running (well, hard for me, anyway) with one minute of walking. To my amazement, I finished the 5K in 36:30. That’s a new personal best, I think. Hell, it’s five minutes faster than I did it a week ago! I couldn’t believe it. And that’s with the treadmill on a slight incline, too! I guess part of the problem with the treadmill is that I know exactly what my pace is, so I tend to set it there and not push myself. With the fartlek though, I just concentrated on running as hard as I could for the four minutes.

Okay, so the fartlek raised my overall pace. Does that mean should use this technique during the race? Or is it just for training purposes? Because I gotta say, breaking the distance up into small chunks is mentally a lot easier for me right now. Whaddaya think, Coach(es)?

Well, I gave that whole “fartlek” thing a try tonight since you all recommended it. It was pretty tough. I did a quick warm up and then started alternating three minutes running with one minute walking. I was surprised that my overall pace didn’t seem to drop, considering how much I was huffing and puffing during those last sprints. I managed to finish my 2.5 km in less than 20 minutes, and I hit the 2-mile mark at 24:00 exactly. That’s pretty sweet. Even if I do the last mile at a crawl I shouldn’t have any trouble coming in under 40:00 for the 5K. (I feel I must report all this to you guys, as it’s like you’re my collective Coach.)

Help me, oh running gurus! I will again be doing the Nike Women’s Classic 5K run this year, and I really want to improve on last year’s time. I’ve got about two months to go before the race. I’ve already managed to slice off a few more minutes but I’m worried that I’m not training as efficiently as I could. I’m currently running the full distance once a week, with mid-week sessions about half as long. (Of course, I’m doing all this on the treadmill and I know I should be running outside, but it’s getting chilly here and I need to justify my gym membership, dammit!) So, can you hook me up with any links or information about proper training plans? Should I concentrate on improving my time over the whole distance or on building up gradually? Anything you could give me would be great…

I feel like Forrest Gump. These are my magic running shoes! I thought I’d take it easy today, seeing as how I haven’t been to the gym in nearly a week and I’m still wary about my back and my Achilles tendon. I figured I’d just do a mile or two and see how I felt. Well, I felt great! I breezed through the first mile and just kept going. I ended up shaving another 15 seconds off my 5K time (38:15). What’s more, I cut way down on the walk breaks. (I took short breaks after each of the first two miles, and then two more during the last mile and a bit.) And my back didn’t hurt at all! Usually by the second mile it’s practically spasming (is that a word?), but today I didn’t have to stop to stretch it at all. Hooray for the new shoes!

I forgot to mention that I finally got my new running shoes yesterday. These are the ones I got. As expected, I didn’t get the cool scientific high-tech fitting they show in the commercials, but my salesperson was reasonably knowledgeable and these seemed like a good choice within my budget. I’m off to the gym to try ’em out!

Running a mile in just over 11 minutes? Nine months of hard work…

Finishing 5K in 38:30, when it took me 45:44 last June? Four months of pounding on the treadmill…

Having one of the hard-core weightlifter guys congratulate me after my run and observe that I’ve lost a bit of weight over the past few months? Bloody priceless.

Good luck to Jeff and Tricia, who will be running the Chicago Marathon today. I’m just in awe. These two are my new running inspiration. In honor of their feat, I pushed myself to an all new personal best (distance-wise) today: four miles! Along the way I managed to cut another half-minute off my 5K time. I can’t believe I did it. It wasn’t that hard, either, because I tried a new technique: “walk breaks”. Basically, I always thought that walking was, like, cheating. I didn’t know it was a legitimate strategy til Tricia linked that that guy’s site last month. So I tried it. One minute walking for every ten minutes jogging. And it worked! I found myself running at a faster speed because I could tackle each one in discrete units. I’m still a slowpoke, but I’m getting better. I feel pretty good.

(Did you notice how I managed to turn a little “Good luck” message to Jeff and Tricia into a post all about me? *sigh* I blog too much.)

This is it! I’m hydrated and rarin’ to go for the big race. Stay tuned for pictures and results. Wish me luck!

Update: I did it! Well, sorta. The course was actually pretty hard and I had to walk the last couple of hills. I think my increased pace from the “race day adrenaline” made up for it, though, because my time was pretty much the same as it was on the treadmill (despite my unfamiliarity with running outdoors and the pounding heat from the sun). Here are the official results, which show me coming in at 356th out of 663 participants. (Note that I was just beaten by a ten-year-old. Sheesh.) I was disappointed that I had to walk at all, but the Snook pointed out that everybody except the first few runners had to walk the last hill. So that made me feel better. And I was definitely not last. There were hundreds of women running, jogging, and walking, and it felt good just to be out there among them challenging myself.

       

The first is good ol’ number 7929 before the race. (My tummy is really not that round, I swear. It’s the shirt.) I’m squinting because although it’s only 8:30 a.m., the sun is bright and it’s already above 70 degrees. The second is me sprinting towards the finish line. My mouth is open because I’m trying to yell “I’m going to die!” at the Snook but I lack the moisture to form the words. The last is me after the race, wearing my little “participation” medal and picking up my goodie bag of drinks and power bars. Man, it felt good to be done. That was seriously one of the hardest things I’ve done in years.

“That which doesn’t kill us…”
In running news, I’m ridiculously happy to report that today I managed to run the entire 5K (3.1 miles) without stopping! That is seriously, like, a Lifetime Best. My pace is still pretty slow, but at least I managed to finish. Only four more days til the race! I figure I’ll try to run the full distance again Thursday and Friday, and then take Saturday off to rest and hydrate. I’m still nervous, though. My registration stuff came in the mail today, with a map of the course, the T-shirt I ordered, and my official race number. (7929 in the hizzouse!) I guess I can’t back out now. I’ve caught myself secretly hoping for rain a few times. It’s not that I’m worried about physically being able to do it anymore. It’s more like I’m afraid I’ll chicken out mentally and end up being disappointed with myself. Snookums has been very encouraging and has promised to be there cheering me on. Today he even dangled the promise of a skiing weekend if I run the entire race! Mostly, though, I just want to make him proud of me. Being unemployed for eight months isn’t the best way to feel great about yourself. If I can do this, though, it’ll go a long way towards making this last year of upheaval and change feel like it’s heading in the best possible direction.