Random comments

Ive been very loosely following the Ryan Shay half marathon training program. I think it is the June 2007 issue of Runnersworld. Today it called for 12 miles- 6 easy, and 6 at half marathon goal pace + 20 seconds. So just a little slower than race pace.

I chatted with Cynthia, Karen, and Julie for the first 5 miles. It was nice outside and already totally light outside when we left at 6:30 am.

I spent the last several miles thinking about Marcie, hills, and our race in 2 weeks. Im very excited for this event coming up so soon. Im still apprehensive about the hills. Marcie, have you been training on hills? Do you have hill strategy? Do you go down hill full speed? Or hold back with hopes of keeping your knees protected? Hmmm. Still not sure what to do here.

I still feel fairly inexperienced with half-marathons. Im wondering how much to taper the next 2 weeks? Just one week of taking it easy, right?

Im debating if I need to sub out my muscle class 3 days before the race- I always worry that Ill twist, pull, whatever something. Muscle always seems risky to me!

What do you guys avoid/do in the week/s leading up to a race?

And what about sex the night before a big race? A yes, or a big no? Okay- dont comment on that one! We can keep it G-rated! But something to think about! (o:

A post I wrote on my blog a while ago-Garmin Addict

Yep, it's true.

I not only eat cold cereal,

which according to some is the consumption of pure evil,

(and as you know "you are what you eat", which means I'm p... e...-shh don't tell anyone!)

BUT, I also have an ADDICTION, to my Garmin Forerunner 305.

It was a gift from Santa, (who looks a lot like my hardworking hubby) this past Christmas!  A couple of my friends, also Garmin addicts advised Santa on the purchase!  They guaranteed him that it could do everything I wanted and more.  And so Santa really scored!

For those of you who know nothing about the Garmin other than the picture of the contraption up above, the Garmin Forerunner 305 watch goes around your wrist and the chest strap goes around uh, your chest, no, actually under it.  Good thing, huh?  Anyways, together these amazing pieces of technology can-

pin point where you are on this planet,

tell you the date and time,

tell you how fast you are moving,(mph),

show you the route you covered (ooh, someone's watching you!),

tell you the elevation change,

tell you how long you've been moving,

stop recording info if you stop for a stop light or

for your dog to drop a log, or as in my dog's case sometimes a pile of stinky hot fuming mush,

tell you your heart rate, 

and if that heart rate is not high enough, 

it yells in an army sargeant voice "Get your derriere moving!"

And of course if your heart rate is too high, it sweetly says,

"Slow down honey, you'll never get to your goal weight if you kill yourself first!"

It also tells you how many calories you've burned and

makes sure those calories come off from the right places to never return!

You want one of these techno gadgets right now don't you!

I wish I had one to sell that did the last two things I said, I'd be set for life!

Oh it also delivers the info to your computer and shows it to you in neat graph form!  This is especially cool!  I've got almost 3 weeks now of recorded workouts on my computer!  Three weeks of documented times that I got my heart rate up for an extended period of time!  It is proof, I have PROOF! And so if my weight doesn't go down I am going somewhere, I don't know where, but I am going somewhere armed with my definitive data that pleads my case and shows that I'm unlike any other human being on this planet and it is not about calories in and calories out for me!  Of course this Garmin gadget only shows the calories out part of the equation but I do have the other side covered with another gadget I might write about some other time.

This blog is about my addiction to the Garmin.  My fear that on the day that the battery went dead and it didn't record my work out that perhaps it didn't really count.  My manic concern when on the day after the battery died, it recorded my workout on the wrong day!!!!!  The high I get when I get home and immediately hook the Garmin up to my computer to download the info to the Garmin Training Center software.  And my obsession with seeing the number of calories burned in "black and white"!  

And while I'm in the mode of confession, I must say that I had bacon this morning!  Yes, one of those meats filled with nitrates, pietraits, carcinogens and suburbagains!  It was delicious!  One of my friends can't stand "real" bacon because of all the gross grease that gets left in the pan.  She goes for the "turkey" type.  I look at all that grease in the pan and think, "Yeah, it got left behind so it doesn't go to mine!"   For those who are worried about me, for having partaken of this forbidden fatty food, don't worry too much, I'm sure all the bad bacon attributes were negated by the whole wheat english muffin and cage free eggs that I had with it and the V-8 juice that washed it down.  I should even get some charity points for making enough for DaLynn and Emily.  Gratefully DaLynn partook but Emily said, "I don't want eggs, and I'm not hungry."  To which I replied well if you get hungry, this is what you get!"  A cook has to have tough love don't they!  I get brownie points for offering right?  Maybe even extra for the rejection!  She did eventually eat it.

Back to the Garmin!  I'm hooked!  Sign me up for a support group.  

Bronwyn's Intro. Part 2

(Sorry this is really long!)

OK, so in my last blog, I wrote about my relationship with running.
How I remembered loving it as a child and then after several negative experiences with it in my early teen years, I finally came back around to loving it as a Senior in High School.

And SOOOOOO, if this was the case, why are the years since (and there has been a few, my HS 20 yr. reunion has come and gone), why are the years since not filled with constant running and many many races??

This has been the question I have been pondering since I last wrote.

I have lots of excuses.

Lets see... How about?

College- I remember a few runs around the Provo, Temple, but mostly staying up too late and being more consumed with classes, work and, Oh yeah, BOYS, which I guess were really Young Men at the time. Also during college, can't forget, the FIT FOR LIFE class where I found out I was OBESE at 145 lbs and 27% body fat. That was fun. Oh if they could see me now! I would love to be that weight! Still haven't gotten over that. Anyways by the end of the class I had done the running I needed to and was able to do the mile and 1/2 in the time needed for an A, which I was proud of, even though I was sucking wind at the end, I still did it! As I go over this I really have to wonder why they structure a Fitness class to create such negative experiences?Why not reward improvement instead of measuring everyone against a fixed standard? Anyways, let's see, after college and tying the knot, came...

Oh yeah pregnancy and children!

6 pregnancies and 6 children.

I remember committing to myself with each pregnancy this time I am going to make it through without quitting exercise! And each time I failed!

Sometimes I would pick exercise back up after the nausea and exhaustion which of course was good, but make it all the way through, never happened for me.

The nursing side of pregnancy was even harder. Talk about exhaustion, and the thought of getting up extra early to nurse so I didn't have to run with boulder boobs was never enticing. Add in the fact that in AZ during much of the year, if you miss the chance to go early in the morning, you are in for misery, pregnant, nursing or not!

And so, let's see, I also have the injury excuses. Shin splints being the main issue, of course, because I would try and do too much. Like the time I joined Nancy Brough and her running gang, going from not running to pounding the pavement with a fit group. Not so smart!

I've done this multiple times. I wish I had known then that rest was actually a good thing. When I would start exercising I would usually set the goal of 6 days a week. And if I missed a day I would feel disappointed in myself. And then let weeks go by.

After my last child, Emily, I tried to do things smart. Build up slowly. For me anyways. Took rest when I had to. Iced the shins, etc. I was doing fairly well actually, even did my first and only 10K, the Mesa Turkey Trot. And then one Saturday, after what felt like a pretty strenous workout at the HS track, I came home and broke out in red bumps. My husband said I looked like a bunch of mosquitos had attacked me. I didn't know what it was. By Sunday evening, as they were getting fluid filled I was wondering about chicken pox, which I had already had. Maybe shingles? Then on Monday they were the size of quarters and red and raised and angry looking. I looked like an Alien. Turns out it was hives, an allergic reaction to Valley Fever, a fungus. Anyways, it was quite scary for me. And luckily after a few months, they went away, thank-goodness for turtlenecks! But unfortunately the combination of exhertion and breaking out in Alien spots was connected in my mind. And although I would go out and walk, I was scared to push myself to even walk fast. Or maybe I was just tired from the Valley Fever, I wasn't sure. Eventually I realized I was just scared. It took me a while to get up the nerve to face that fear down. Of course, throwing in a couple of miscarriages didn't help either.

And that brings us up to about a year ago. I'm starting to face down that fear and trying to get in shape again and looking forward to hiking the Grand Canyon in the Fall, when a friend tells me about a lot of success she's had with a bladder surgery. That is really exciting to me! Really, I don't have to live with the issue of incontinence? Mostly it was just a problem during exercise, and sneezing. But still no fun! Pictures from a Gilbert Days 5K years earlier revealed that the problem was apparent to anyone around, despite my best efforts to empty before the race. But to get this surgery in and include recovery time before the hike is a bit of a stretch. It is either that or postpone surgery to after the hike, which doesn't make running much fun in the meantime. I went for the surgery and it went well.

At the appropriate time, I started back into exercise and tried to really go slow. No Shin Splints for me this time!

I'd been running maybe 6-8 weeks, it was end of last summer, and I get this idea to join a Running Club. I thought I would get some personalized instruction to help prevent injury. All they asked was how much I had been running. I told them 12-16 miles a week. They thought that was great considering the heat at the time. They never asked how long I had been running for. Also at the same time, I went to "THEEE" Running Store and got the appropriate running shoes for me. Apparently I was in the exact wrong ones for me, and the Running Guy was surprised I didn't have any problems at the time. I suppose having the "right" shoes and being in a club with experts made me think I could train with abandon. I threw myself into the Running Club work-outs, along with continuiing my own, don't think I mentioned this to the club either. Anyways shortly thereafter, one night after a Running Club workout, my achilles felt like someone had pounded mercilessly on it. I mentioned this to a coach and she recommended rubbing the ball of my foot on a tennis ball. Which I did, and it felt wonderful. I could tell my foot was very tight. And my achilles felt 90% better. So full steam ahead. I went early one morning to the HS track and did stairs before I did a speed workout with Lindy and crew. Well at the end of that workout, I knew I had a problem. I could hardly walk to my car. How is it that you can go from feeling like an athlete at one moment and a cripple the next, so quickly?

Now I finally did some reading and found out the achilles is an injury that is a bugger to get rid of! GREATT!! And guess what else, hills and sprints are hard on it!

Well, what to do? The challenge of the Grand Canyon is looming in the not so distant future. I had hiked it before, and had been running around 4 miles at the time. But this time we were going to hike it North to South in one day. I felt like I need to be running around 6 miles no problem. And I definitely had a problem. I could hardly walk. After another trip to the Running Store, could it be the shoes? It happened when I got the new ones, "No, it's just tight calves" so here's a calf stretcher, which also helped the pain, again about 90%.

At this point I didn't feel like I had much choice but to rest it. I wish I had gone to a physical therapist who could have helped me keep exercising, but I didn't know one who would, and I was scared of the cost. Resting helped slowly, and I vacillated about what to do about the Grand Canyon. I really wanted to do it. But what if it made it worse? What if the pain got bad and I got stuck in the Grand Canyon? It seemed that if I stretched my calf, the pain would loosen up, quite a bit. So I finally decided to go for it. And I made it through the Grand Canyon without having to take a helicopter ride out! Me and Advil and Tylenol and lots of calf stretching made it through the hike. Not in the kind of shape that I would have liked but I did it. And amazingly, I didn't feel like I had made it much worse.

So then why wouldn't this pain just go away??

Shortly after the Grand Canyon I went for a walk, and the pain just started throbbing, and I could barely make it home. OK, I thought time to really give it rest. I abandoned exercise with the hope that someday I could start it up again without such pain. Part of me wondered if I was just being a wimp though.

I gave it almost 3 months. And it was probably 1 1/2 months before I could notice it getting better.

At the beginning of this year, I decided it was time to get back into exercise. The achilles felt a lot better but I knew it wasn't all gone. Sometimes it would just start to throb at the strangest times, like in the morning in bed. I decided whatever the cost I would see a Physical Therapist and I started with one I knew. I hoped he could help me get exercising without aggravating the achilles again. When he ultrasounded the steroid cream into my leg, wow it felt heavenly. I realized it had been hurting even when I didn't think it hurt. Anyways, my insurance only approved so many visits and the problem was not cured but at least I was back exercising and it was manageable. Meanwhile, I went to the Running Store again, my daughter needed some shoes, and found out the Running Guy was dealing with an achilles issue as well. Now that I'm familiar with it, it seems like I hear about it all the time. He told me he was seeing a Physical Therapist that attempts to break the scar tissue by scraping his achilles and then has him run on it. I took the guys card and decided if I needed to I would see this guy.

I finished the therapy with this other guy and the biggest thing I learned from it was that I don't need to kill myself to see improvement. The exercises he would have me do and the rate at which he increased the challenge was so small. I realized I have a tendency to overdo it. At which point you are probably thinking I am a slow learner too. Yep I am.

After doing some more reading in my running books, I happened onto a 13 week program for a beginner to eventually do a 10K. I decided that would be good for me to start out as if I was a beginner because I actually was. One thing this book taught me too, which seems so obvious now, and I don't know why I didn't figure it out on my own given my experiences, but it is that ONE INCREASES IN CARDIOVASCULAR FITNESS FASTER THAN ONE INCREASES IN MUSCLE AND SKELETAL FITNESS. This explained to me why I would always feel like running faster and longer but then get injured when I did. Having a regimented plan has helped me not to overdo it. It has been hard to walk as much as it says and rest when it says but then I feel so much better the next run! I have so much respect for the expertise that has gone into this program. The little variations in the workouts seem so minor to me when I look at them, but when I do them, I realize it is just what my body needs.

Anyways I have come to realize although running seems like such a simple sport, it really isn't. At least I can find lots of ways to mess it up or mess myself up with it.

And so these are my excuses for explaining why my relationship with running has been a series of fits and starts. And in the end, I can hear my son's Cross Country Coach saying, they are just that EXCUSES. He has compiled a list of Excuses that is pages long, that have been said to him over the years. And I know myself that there are many runners who wouldn't have been stopped by my excuses. I so admire Lindy for running through Melissa's pregnancy, even doing a Marathon. It just blows my mind.

I guess I just haven't been committed enough. I'm hoping to be a committed runner for the forseeable future. I have just finished 9 weeks of this 13 week program with only one missed workout due to flu and achille's issues. Glad they were together. And I ran for 4 weeks before that. So I am going on 3 months of running. I know this is nothing compared to most but it is good for me.

Having this achilles issue has been a pain but at the same time when I run without pain now I really appreciate it. I know what a wonderful thing that is! And I've learned that I can see results without overdoing it.

So here's "the long rest of the story" from my HS days until now. I hope that the next chapters of my relationship with running are not filled with excuses but more commitment and more enjoyment of a sport that is both simple and complicated at the same time.

I was just thinking this morning, how I so enjoy the simplicity of just putting one foot in front of the other. I love focusing on that. Probably as you can tell my thoughts get so crazy the rest of my life.

So I don't have so much experience as some of the runners on this blog, and it is rather intimidating but I enjoy reading it all the same and getting inspired, so thanks!

Bryn

Mixing it Up

Since I ran the race on Sunday I wanted to mix up my workouts a little this week. For some reason I was feeling like I don't really like running and maybe I need to just back off for awhile so here's what I tried.

On Tuesday I rode a stationary bike at the gym for an hour. My heart rate peaked around 120 but I did get through several chapters of a pretty deep book.

On Wednesday I walked all over the sweaty, stinky zoo with my daughters kindergarten class. Jennifer and I decided it counted as a workout, especially since we had to carry all their stuff around and lift them up and down to see the animals.

On Thursday I decided to go ice skating. My 12 year old daughter is a figure skater so I spend a lot of time just sitting at the rink. Yesterday I got some rental skates and hit the public skate session while she had her private lesson. I wore my heart rate monitor so I could see how good of a workout it would be. I was surprised that after only two minutes my heart rate was over 140. It stayed between 140 and 150 as I whizzed around the rink for 28 minutes. I was feeling really good and thinking that I needed to do this every week when I hit a turn and all of a sudden my feet went out from under me and I landed hard on my tail bone! I gathered my pride as well as all the stuff that had fallen out of my pockets and made it to my feet. I really wanted to get off, but wasn't willing to let anyone see how bad it hurt (I know a lot of Mom's at the rink.) So I sucked it up and continued on for 12 more minutes. I have a new found respect for my daughter when she complains about a hard fall - I tried to tell her it happened while I was working on my double axle but she didn't believe me. :)

So, after my fall and a restless nights sleep from a sore butt I hit the road again today. Five slow, steady miles, no Yasso 800's, no speed work, no goal in mind. It was great. I guess I really do like running - I better sign up for St. George right now before I change my mind.

Cheating on Yasso 800's

This morning I did my speed intervals. I took the girls in the double stroller and off we went. This is the usual drill on thursday mornings. Its one of my favorite runs of the week. Not so much because of speedwork. But because of the girls, and being outside, and just getting to go when we are ready. No rigid schedule. That will change as the weather gets hotter, quicker in the day.

I like to do "Yasso 800's". Because I pretend that Im running a marathon. Only its over in less than 5 minutes! But I tell myself- "Run fast, this is the one that will tell me the time Im going to get at St George this year!" Its just a little motivational trick I use on myself. Its fun. Today I was excited, and have to brag a little, because I got a 3:33 on one of them! That's a (stroller) record for me!

So the theory is, that what you get in minutes and seconds, is what you will get in hours and minutes, on the full marathon. So if I had a good day, maybe I could get a 3 hour, 33 min. marathon. Only not really, because I cheat- Bart Yasso, he works up to doing 10 of these in a row. And he says to give yourself a recovery between each of them- the time that the last speed interval took you. So I shouldve only taken 3 minutes, 33 seconds to recover before the next speed interval.

My cheating method- I take a half mile to recover. I run fast for a half mile, and then I recover at a jog for a half mile. I also cheat because I only do like 4 or 5 hard intervals. Not 10.

So Im proud of my 3:33. And I think these (cheating) Yasso's are beneficial to my running. But I guess they wont trully predict my marathon time until I follow Bart's rules.

If you want to read about Yasso 800's, Ive included a link:
http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,7120,s6-238-244-255-624-0,00.html

The Story of My L.A. Ragnar Team

This is a motivating story that I wanted to share with all of you as an introduction to the team I'm co-captaining for the L.A. Ragnar at the end of this month. I think that it is great for all to read this inspiring true story as written by Tracey Martinez. It is a real life story that rings true the quote on the blog home page from The Penguin - "The miracle isn't that I finished, the miracle is that I had the courage to start." After reading this I know that one day I could do a full! :) Hope you enjoy!


This is a story about me (Tracey) and my best friend (Mike). We are both in our late 30’s and up until last year neither of us had ever thought of doing a half marathon or "several" half marathons or a 178 mile Ragnar Relay let alone anything else that required "that" much exercise. In May of last year Mike had the "lap band" surgery and he started losing weight. His progress was doing great but at that point he was not exercising much. In June I found out about the Disneyland half marathon coming up the end of August and being a huge Disney fan I mentioned I was going to sign up. When I told my "athletic" friends they chuckled and said "you know that is 13.1 miles right?" When I told Mike he said "great so lets sign up" and that was how this whole fun, crazy idea started. High school injuries destroyed Mike’s knees years ago so we knew he would not be able to "run" but he did start walking and training to maintain a pace under a 16 minute mile. We hear that people train for months to complete just one of these events and we did to but that is not where the story ends. By the time the Disney half marathon was here we now had the great idea that we should do the half marathon at Disney World in January of 2009. We had not even completed our first half and we were already going to do another one in 6 months. I completed the Disneyland one in just under 3 ½ hours but around mile 10 Mike was having trouble taking in water and keeping it down so his pace slowed down. He crossed the finish line in just over 4 hours so he did not receive a finisher’s time but more importantly HE FINISHED IT. At this point he had lost 75 lbs, I was so proud. I knew he could do it and even made up a t-shirt to give him at the end that said "THERE WILL BE DAYS I DON’T KNOW IF I CAN DO A HALF MARATHON, THERE WILL BE A LIFETIME KNOWING I HAVE." With our feet blistered and muscles aching we limped around Downtown Disney and plotted our next event. We decided we would do a "half marathon a month between now and Disney World in 6 months". Somehow this seemed like a great idea for the guy who started out at over 300 lbs and the girl that considers chocolate a major food group. (Did I mention I had a brownie the morning of the Disneyland half marathon (-: cuz it was yummy.)

The Lompoc half marathon was the third week in September and our feet had almost healed so we were ready to do it all again. The week before Lompoc my right leg had a horrible pain that kept getting worse. On Friday I went to the Doctor and they diagnosed me with a blood clot behind the knee. The next day Mike completed the half marathon with another friend of ours. This time he not only "completed" it but he finished 30 minutes faster then Disneyland. The Doctor informed me I could not compete until I am no longer on Coumadin (blood thinner) and that would be about 6 months. By now we had already decided it would be Long Beach in October, Pasadena in November, Las Vegas in December, and then Disney World in January. This was Mike’s big chance to back out and wait until "we" could do them together but he decided to finish what we had set out to do.

He completed Long Beach and with that he had done 3 half marathons in 7 weeks. On the morning of Pasadena the race was cancelled due to the Loma Vista fire and with such short notice he could not find another half marathon in November.

By around November I started looking for half marathons that "I" could do once the Doctor cleared me hopefully the beginning of April 2009. Mike decided he would keep doing these half marathons up until April and then "with me" after that. Each event we went to I would be there at the beginning, middle, and end cheering him on. I mean how many "big" people do you usually see at a half or full marathon. Mike and I decided even if we came in last it was more important that we tried in the first place. Since I no longer worried about the pain and blisters I had the time to look for new races and challenges :-). Then I ran across this race called a "Ragnar Relay". From the moment I opened the page I loved the story about "beach bunnies...and you and 11 of your friends....going 178 miles....and how the rest of them would support you with water, cheers, and love". I told Mike about it and showed people we work with the web site. I told them how fun it looked and they said yes until I explained it was 178 miles in 24 hours then they said I was crazy. I explained how we (Mike and I) would need team mates and again how "fun" it would be. About this time they started to remember I (me) had this blood clot but I promised I would be better by then so I would be participating.

In December we went to the expo for the Las Vegas marathon and there it was...the Ragnar van. I am sure the nice young gentlemen and ladies there thought Mike and I were crazy but we stopped and chatted their ears off about how much we wanted to do this. We said we were not sure if we could complete all 178 miles with our "semi" in shape team. I explained to the people in Vegas that we are "looking for some really fast runners that are willing to lose". They were so nice and encouraged us to go for it. We came home and told our co-workers and friends that we just had to do it. We have watched so many of those videos and my favorite quote is from "Friends, family, and a fool" when this lady is holding a water bottle to her head and she says "this is fun except for the running part". I kept telling our team just don't think about the running part. Our team keeps pointing out to me that all "those people" are skinny and in shape. So we have decided to bring some "bulk" to the race. We know we won't come in first and we will be thrilled to come in last because at least we will know we made it. Signing up for this race has inspired some of the team to join a gym. I am proud to say I will be the biggest cheerleader out there because I think it is awsome that my friends are doing this with me as we push ourselves beyond what we thought we could do.

As for Mike....he completed Las Vegas but somehow I ended up with a cheerleader outfit?? :-) I believe he said if he is doing these half marathons then I get to wear the cheerleader outfit. I even have a picture of me next to the Ragnar van while wearing it. January came and Mike could only sign up for the FULL marathon at Disney World so that is what he did. He was a bit disappointed because he got to mile 24 and they picked him up. He had 7 hours to complete the marathon and at mile 24 he was at 6 1/2 hours so he was really close but the blisters were slowing him down. This was his FIRST full marathon and if your keeping track that was 5 half marathons in the prior 6 months. At this point Mike has lost 115 lbs. He does not realize how much he inspires myself and his friends. He is someone with 2 bad knees that was once classified as "super morbidly obese" but yet he has not let that slow him down. He may not be "running" but he is definitely an inspiration for people to get out and start moving.

In February he finally took a month off to let his feet heal but he has decided to make up for it in March by doing 2 half marathons a week apart.. Come April you will see us at the Ragnar. We plan to start doing half marathons together again from May to Sept when Disneyland comes around again. After Disneyland the only one definitely planned is the Goofy challenge (a HALF marathon on Sat and FULL marathon on Sunday) at Disney World in January 2010.

I have walked in five 3 day 60 mile events to raise money for breast cancer and I know how much I enjoyed ALL of the people I walked with then. I am so excited and can not wait to experience the Ragnar Relay with over 60 other teams.

Have you registered???

Who is entering the St George Lottery? Remember to put Marcie's email address in the "group field". I hope to see 5 comments to this blog soon!!! Dont stand me up! I need all my friends to suffer with me this summer- as we train through the heat. It will be Awesome! (o: