Almost There!

We finished up our second to longest training run before our race this past Sunday and the feelings were mixed. Two of us felt great, the other two weren't feeling it. Unfortunately, Bonnie's mishap with the dog and sidewalk might have had something to do with it. All in all though, aside from the brief setback from my injury, I don't ever remember my friends and I having such an easy transition into training for a half. In fact, it's been so pleasant, I think some of us will be signing up for another one soon after. Poor Caryn missed all this fun and still doesn't know that we're signing up for another race! Marisol's GPS registered 11.7 miles and under 10 minute pace, while mine is below. Interesting how different products measure differently. We all agreed that we liked Marisol's better.

I'm back!

I purposely stayed away from posting for a while because I was quite depressed about getting injured and also rather scared that I might not get better in time to train for the Nike Half Marathon in 5 weeks.  My family and friends also noticed that I'm a lot grumpier when I can't run.  I think everyone is happy that I am back to running again.  Pool workouts at 9 PM are not fun, no matter how hot it is outside.

Today was my first day back on a real long run with all the girls and it felt great.  While the earlier start time did a number on our stomachs, it sure saved us from the heat.  I forgot my GPS watch, but I  think I actually run faster without it, because I'm not always checking it, or maybe it's the fact that we all carried water and didn't need as frequent water breaks.  It was a good thing we had two other backups with GPS.  In either case, we were blazing the trails at an average 9.5 min pace for almost 9.5 miles.  In this heat, I would say that was pretty good.

To top off the great run, I was able to celebrate another year of getting older with four amazing ladies, who are willing to brave the elements in search of a Tiffany's necklace.

Get Better Kwan!!

It's been two weeks since we all ran together, an almost 8 miler through the Heritage Trail, and the paseos behind Helmers! It was a hot day, and I remember feeling queasy afterward from the heat, but all in all it was a pleasant run. Not so for Kwan, who has been out of commission ever since:( She doesn't remember specifically injuring her ankle, but has been unable to join us on a run, because it has been sore and swollen!! Her doctor mentioned "perineal tendinitis", I truly hope that is not the diagnosis:( I am hoping she can join us for part of our run tomorrow, or at least coffee! We miss you, and need you to navigate (I have a Garmin, but am directionally challenged!) I speak for everyone, when I say "Get Better Kwan, we miss you!"

Heat Exhaustion

It had been almost two weeks since I ran due to a rather hectic schedule so I was a bit nervous about today's run. Not knowing how I would feel, I didn't know how far we were going to run. We did the same hilly long run as last time through the paseos of Northpark and Northbridge, but started instead at Peets Coffee and headed toward the train bridge. I think this route was a little closer to 9 miles. It had been so long since I ran that I got out of the habit of bringing my Garmin so we weren't totally sure about the miles, but I'm pretty sure it was further than when we started at Lowes and that was 8.8 miles. I wasn't feeling all that great during the run, but I attributed it to the lack of running the last week or so. I now think it was not drinking enough water the last couple of days, coupled with the fact that we had just come back from Vegas on Monday after several days laying in water, but not drinking it. When our run was done, I felt really terrible and nauseated. I also felt my heart rate increasing even though we had stopped. I have been feeling rather terrible today and have had a mild headache and had a nagging suspicion that it was heat exhaustion. After reading up on the symptoms, I'm now convinced. I guess even those of us who have been running a long time forget how dangerous it is to run in this heat,especially with the humidity. I have to say, this is the worst I have felt after a run in a long time. I will definitely have to prepare better for a run in the heat next time. Hopefully my friends have fared better than me today :)

Web MD Heat Exhaustion

They Liked It!

I thought we needed to start adding hills into our long runs to get ready for the Nike Women's Half Marathon in October, so I thought of a route that might do the trick. I wanted to add the hills toward the mid to later part of our run, just like what we'll be facing in San Francisco. I just wasn't sure how Bonnie and Caryn were going to feel about. I have to say, when I told them this morning we were going to add hills this morning to our long run, the look on Bonnie's face was priceless. Her jaw literally dropped. We started from Lowes because I was sick of running the back side of the river trail from Peets, off of the train bridge because it is brutally hot there with no shade. We headed toward Copperhill and cut toward Cheseborough Park through the dirt trail where we hit our first set of hills. We took a quick sip of water at the park and then headed into the neighborhoods of Northpark, which gave us more hills. When we finally reached the paseos, the trail gave us alternating ups and downs until we finally came back out at Bridgeport Park. From there, we finished as usual along the Lowes trail. Caryn and Bonnie did quite well and didn't complain once and in fact were commenting on how shady the paseos were and how nice it was to run without having to dodge the cyclist. The only drawback with the paesos is the concrete. It's a little harder on the feet. All in all it was a good run and longer than I expected to get out with 8.8 miles total. Poor Patty was on the road again, but I'm sure what was waiting for her was well worth it.

Still Running

We have been busy....

The Detour

We started out earlier than usual this morning not knowing how hot it was going to be and also not knowing exactly how far we were running. Based upon our last run together at Central Park on Thursday night, we weren't very hopeful. Patty had a busy schedule so she opted out of our run. However, we think she really just ditched us to run with her hubby at the beach and who would blame her. It is promising to be a scorcher all week, but the earlier start time really kept our run rather cool and shadier along the route. We decided to start our run the same as last week from Lowes and headed towards the Iron Horse Train Bridge. We figured we would adjust our route based upon how we were feeling. After we crossed the train bridge, curiosity got the better of us so we decided to check out how far the trails goes west under the 5 freeway. There were a lot of cyclist coming from that direction that we had not passed already so we began to wonder where they were coming from. As it turns out, the paved portion of the trail stops under the freeway as before, but there is a nice leveled dirt trail that actually continues next to the water treatment plant all the way along the Old Road under shady trees up to about where the Del Taco is. The view wasn't the greatest, but it was shady and the dirt was a welcomed change. We think it goes even further, but decided to head back since we had already hit 4 miles out and didn't know how much further we wanted to venture. We needed water on the way back so we decided to head to Heritage Park before heading back to Lowes. I knew we would be close to 9 miles, but it turned out to be exactly that. I don't think any of us planned on running that far, but the detour was a nice distraction that we really didn't notice the miles.

Train Bridge Trail

We finally got to run from the Iron Horse Train Bridge Trail in the direction we wanted to without climbing any fences. When we started it was so nice and cool, the perfect running weather, but I knew it wouldn't last long. By the time we were headed back down towards Peets, the weather had warmed up and we were looking for shade along the route. Shade wasn't the only thing we were looking for on the way back. When we stopped for water at the turn around, Patty realized she was missing one of the nose pieces on her Oakleys. If one looks at the pace and sees dips in the pace, it's because we were stopping at anything that looked small and black. We even came close to picking up a dead fly. Now wouldn't that be someting if Patty actually tried to stick it on her glasses? Oh the trouble we get ourselves into! Our runs are never without some adventure.

Train Bridge Run

The Train Bridge is finally re-opened, which will save us precious minutes, standing at the gate, trying to decide whether to climb the fence, and trespass to be able to run across it!! We will just have to look back fondly at all the times we squeezed through the fence, actually jumped over, and nearly fell into the ditch underneath, ran through the brush, braving the homeless, and the coyotes who live in the riverbed, and the time we tried to get Caryn to convince the city workers to let us just run around their gigantic hole in the ground:)Today was the grand re-opening of the historic bridge, and we joined the SCR's in a run that began at the bridge and continued on the trail to Copperhill, and then back to the bridge to cross over for the finish. We decided to park at Peet's and run to the start, which gave us a mile each way, then we took the trail to Decoro and back to the bridge, which we figured gave us a total of at least 7 miles! The city had a nice ribbon cutting ceremony, which we did not stay for, but instead, ran back to Peet's for Lattes and Egg McMuffins. The new trail is very nice, and will let us legally run across the bridge without risking arrest, or worse a broken hip!! Happy Father's Day to my Dad and Hubby, and yours:)

No Regrets

I absolutely dread the thought of going to the track to do intervals.  Even while doing the interval workout, I'm cursing myself and the people running it.  So why do I continue to go?  I go because I know that when the workout is over, I will never regret going.  I have never said, "I wish I didn't do intervals tonight", but when I didn't go and had no excuse for not going, I ended up regretting it.  Tonight was especially tough with the heat and of course wouldn't you know it, mile repeats. 

We started out with the usual infield warm ups and then 12x100's with easy, fresh, easy, good.  I really don't know the difference between fresh and good though. We then did 3-mile repeats with a 200 meter recovery in between.  The only thing I skipped were the 200m recoveries.  My recovery was walking over to my water bottle and catching my breath for a bit. I then finished with a couple of cool down laps.

As the school year draws to an end, I know my friends are looking forward to running in the cooler morning air. Perhaps then, they won't mind an occasional evening interval workout at the track.