Uptown 5 Mile Race

October 31, 2011 by 4 Comments

Hey guys and gals!

Another race recap here!  Last weekend I ran the Uptown 5 Mile race in downtown Dallas.  Laura was originally going to run the 13.1 Dallas Half Marathon but she’s recovering from an injury and rebuilding her mileage so she offered me her bib for the 5 miler.  

The course went through uptown Dallas, along a bit of the Katy Trail, and through downtown Dallas.  I couldn’t have asked for a better day for a race.  The weather was absolutely perfect.  The scenery was amazing along the course and I had an amazing run!

The first 4 miles were pretty easy.  I just trotted along and enjoyed the scenery- and saw parts of Dallas that I hadn’t seen before.  Once I got to the Katy Trail I almost got run over by a roller blader (do people still roller blade??) who got pissed at me for being in his way.  Ummmm… okaaay.  I think the hardest part of the race was the last mile, which was completely UPHILL!  Gah, I do NOT understand why race planners do this!  It was torture!  My time ended up being 59: 37 which is pretty darn good for me!

          imageimage

 

I also learned the significance of wearing proper socks during this race.  Look what happened! Sad smile 

2011-10-22 08.25.05

 

Ouch!  I do have proper running socks, but they weren’t clean so I just grabbed the first pair of socks I came across that morning when I was getting ready.  Big mistake, definitely learned a lesson!

Stina and Laura’s cousin Jennifer were there running the half marathon.  Total badasses!  I’m SO proud of those two!!!

10.24.11-051

That’s one good looking group of ladies!

 

I do have some complaints about my race though… I have to say the 5 miler was quite obviously not important at all to the race planners.  The whole 5 mile race felt like a complete afterthought.  There were booths and entertainment set up for the half marathon portion but none of that was going on for the 5 miler.  I felt like they made it fairly obvious that the 5 mile race didn’t really matter all that much.  And the race was also longer than 5 miles.  I stopped my Garmin at 5.2 and I still wasn’t at the finish line.  I’d say the course was probably like 5.3-5.4?  I had a good run, but I would probably not do this race again.  I don’t think I’ve ever felt so insignificant in my life. I definitely don’t like feeling like that, so why should I give them my money in the future for it- know what I mean?

 

Anyhoo- Just about another month until my half marathon and I am SO freaking excited!  I had a glorious 8 mile run yesterday that left me super pumped me up for the race!

Later gators!

dcfb33fa1087c7abe7ecac74bdff501e5

Filed Under: Races Tagged With: ,

Oktoberfest 5K

September 22, 2011 by 6 Comments

image(source)

This past weekend I ran the Oktoberfest 5K and got another PR!!  35:34!!  YAY!  I’m getting much faster- it’s so exciting!

This race was eventful in many different ways-

1. I got a speeding ticket on the way to the race (seriously I usually drive like a granny- the one time I speed I get a ticket. Bah!) which made me almost late for the race. 

2. I wasn’t able to find Laura and her cousin Jennifer and they had my bib for the race.  So I ran the race without a bib(hey I paid for the race, I wasn’t about to not run in it!).  The whole time I was terrified I was going to get in trouble for not having a race bib on and I don’t really think I ran as well as I could have.  Moral of the story- pick up your own race packet, you never know what might happen on the morning of a race!

3. I got to see my friend Laura run for the first time in 5 months!  She’s been injured and this race is literally the first time she’s been able to run in a very long time.  She looked so happy when Jennifer and I spotted her running up to the finish line.  I very seriously almost cried. (which basically IS crying for me cause I’m dead inside Winking smile ).  I’m so proud of her!!

4. Another PR!  Who AM I and how did I get so fast?!  My next goal is to get into the 34s!

5.  They ran out of water and snacks by the time I crossed the finish line but they had plenty of beer. (seriously?!)  So I rehydrated with a beer.  What? 

 

Lessons learned from this race…

I did not take a single picture!  I have got to start taking pictures at races so I can be not lame for copying and pasting the logo from the race website into my blog post!

I’ve got to work on running hills more!  (which I’ve been doing this week- more in my post tomorrow about my 1/2 marathon training!) My calves were screaming at me by the end of the race.

Pacing.  I’m still not good at it.  I still have no ideas for this one!

I did better on the food thing before this race- I had half a bowl of cereal before I left the house and this worked so much better than what I have been eating, which was dry toast.  My problem is that I can’t handle eating much before a race- it sits like a rock in my stomach and gives me horrible stomach pain when I’m running.  But the toast wasn’t quite cutting it and I was getting hungry during my runs.  I think the cereal’s going to work for these shorter distances. 

 

Make sure you come back and check out my 1/2 marathon training recap tomorrow!

dcfb33fa1087c7abe7ecac74bdff501e5

Filed Under: Races Tagged With: , ,

Labor of Love 5K

September 16, 2011 by 6 Comments

On Labor Day I not only did I get to run a 5K and get a new 5K personal record with my time, but I also got to cheer Mandy on in her first ever 5K!

9.5.11 076

Mandy, Jennifer and I before the race.  Thanks Laura for taking pictures for us!!

Mandy did AMAZING!!  I was so so proud of her, and I was so glad I got to be there to see her run her first 5k!  Go over to her blog and see the most epic finish picture ever!  And Jennifer is a total badass- she finished her 10K in just a little over an hour.  I’m totally inspired!

 

So please remind me not to do this race again.  The hills were insane.  I’m talking FOR REAL insane.  Like my legs were sore for 3 days after this race insane.

Even with the crazy hills, I managed to get a new race PR- 36 minutes!!!!  I’m SO excited!

9.5.11 081

 

IMG_4841IMG_4839

 

Things learned during this race…

  • Eat more before the race- I was hungry 5 minutes in and all I could think about was eating a bagel the whole entire race.
  • I need to work on my pacing more- it’s really hard for me to keep a steady pace.
  • I need to do more training with hills.  This should be remedied soon because the weather is now below 100 degrees so I can actually go run outside.

 

Oh, and p.s. I just started training for my first half marathon.  This first week of training has been a little rocky, but I’m going to tweak my schedule a little and I think I can make it work better with my schedule.

p.p.s  I’m starting a race tab up at the top of my blog!  In this new little section of the blog I’ll be recapping races and posting my schedule of upcoming races.  Check back occasionally and see what I’ve got going on!

dcfb33fa1087c7abe7ecac74bdff501e5

Filed Under: Races Tagged With: , , ,

Running Revelations

June 14, 2011 by 4 Comments

All this time I’ve been running I’ve been doing it wrong and I didn’t know it!  Since I’ve really been into running lately I’ve been reading a lot about it, mostly for inspiration more than anything else.  But along the way I’ve learned a lot and I realized I’ve been doing some things wrong and hurting myself without even knowing it.  Here are a couple of the things that I’ve learned about recently…

Stride rate, or leg turnover. 

Did you know that most elite distance and Olympic-class runners crank out a stride rate of over 180 strides per minute?

Taking too long of a stride slows a runner down because it increases impact and, because of that, injury risk- it sends shock throughout  the lower leg and shins possibly affecting your hips as well.

Shorter lighter steps are the way to go!

This is something that I have really been practicing lately.  I was definitely trying to take much too large of a stride. So I practiced hitting 3 strides per second (that comes out to 180 strides/minute).  It felt silly at first, but I noticed I was able to run faster AND my foot and knees didn’t hurt!  Shock of all shocks!  I’ve been having terrible pain in my feet while I’ve been running and to think all I needed to do was take smaller strides!!  I’m still working on this and I will be for some time- it will take a while to really get it ingrained in my head.

This is also helping me with the next thing, which is…

How your feet strike the ground.

We have the tendency to let our heels strike the ground first and then push off from there.  From what I understand we should be landing midfoot and then pushing off of the balls of our feet.  The force of impact is much much greater when our heels hit the ground first than it is when our midfoot does.  Again, sending shocks throughout our joints causing pain and injury.

Here is some interesting info on that.

So I’ve also been working on this!  This is very hard for me because I was in marching band for 11 years and we were taught to ALWAYS lead with the heel and roll our feet from there.  This is so stuck in my head that it’s very hard to change and it has really been a struggle for me.  But I’m working on it- and I’ve also noticed a lot less pain in my feet from doing this too, so yay!

 

Anyway, there are just a few things I’ve been learning lately, hopefully I’ll have more to add to this list soon- remember I’m no doctor or running expert! Use caution when trying something new while running!!

Also, I’m also thinking of transitioning to some minimalist shoes… anybody know anything about this or could give me some good suggestions/books/websites??

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With:

June fitness challenge

June 6, 2011 by 5 Comments

My May fitness challenge was a total success!!!  And so was the bread machine, which was my reward for the May fitness challenge!

So it’s June now!

I gave myself a bit of an exercise break after my 10K last week- I pretty much only walked and did yoga.  My knee and hip have been hurting all week so I’ve been trying to take it easy (I’m getting old!).  But it’s a new month and that means that it’s time for a new fitness challenge! 

Also I’ve decided that in July I’m going to start training for a half marathon.  There are several that I’m looking at in the fall, when I pick one I’ll let y’all know!  (I was going to wait till Feb for the Cowtown, but I figured why not do one sooner since I’m so pumped about it right now?!)

June Fitness Challenge

Goal 1:  Keep running, but cut down on my mileage a little.  I’m going to aim for running twice a week this month, but I’m going to run no more than 3 miles during a run- I want to work on consistency and maybe picking up my pace a bit.  Honestly I don’t really care much about how fast I run- it’s all about the distance to me.  But I think it would be really cool if I could consistently run around a 10 minute mile.  And I’ll also lift weights on days that I run.

Goal 2:  Ride my bike/take spin class more often!  A couple of my coworkers take a spin class on Wednesdays at noon, so I thought it might be fun to join them!  Also, Laura…. let’s go biking again soon!!!!

Goal 3:  Go to kickboxing more consistently.  I won’t be working on Mondays again for a while, so this should be easy since my fav kickboxing class is on Monday evening.

So in summary, my goal is to work out 4 days/week this month- two days running and lifting, one spin class or biking, and one kickboxing class.

 

Reward:

I’m going to get a Garmin Forerunner 305 as my reward!

 

image

(click on picture for source)

I want to run outside more and I want to be able to keep track of my pace and my mileage- especially since I’ll be training for a half marathon.  These things are soooo cool- it’s like a GPS in a watch! 

I’ve also found some pretty crazy good deals on ebay.  Can’t wait to get this!!!

 

I’m super pumped about this month’s fitness challenge!  And it starts riiiiiight….. NOW!!!

DCFB33FA1087C7ABE7ECAC74BDFF501E

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: , , ,
Next Page »