Another week, more miles!

Well, the ice bath did help. Sunday I was sore, but I did some IT Band stretches which made a huge difference. I think it may be time to get a sports massage.
Last night I ran at Lake Chabot. I did 5 miles. I forgot my watch (can you believe that!) so I think I did about 43-45 minutes. I was running a little slow. It has been really hot here lately and going up and down hills after running 16 miles, this was more of a recovery run.
Going to see Wicked tonight, so I'm not sure what I'll do for running. I may just run around the neighborhood for 40 minutes (~5 miles).
With the hurricane that hit New Orleans, I wonder if they'll have the marathon in February. My heart goes out to all of those people.

16 miles complete!!

Wow, didn't know if I would make it all the way...but I did! :)
Since we are getting into the high mileage, the coach has slowed us down. Instead of 9 min/mile we are now doing 10 min/mile. The first 10 miles went very fast. We are really use to running 9 min/mi and it took a bit to slow ourselves down. By mile 12 and with the heat really starting to set in, we slowed down quickly. We were in Walnut Creek, so it was in the mid to upper 80s with partial shade. The last mile was very slow. In the end, we ran a total of 16 miles in 2:40:34. We were just 34 seconds slow! Not bad when you consider the heat! Next week will be a nice recovery week of only 8 miles. Amazing, isn't it...8 miles is considered easy now!
The one thing I have to keep in mind is that I'll be doing this all over again in November and December with a different group (New Orleans training).
Once I got home, I plugged the tub and let the icy cold water fill the tub until it covered my legs...sat there for 10 minutes, and then let the water out. I then took a VERY hot shower. Doing this helps rid the muscles of lactic acid, which causes the muscles to be very stiff (I probably would have a very hard time walking tomorrow if I didn't do this!)
I guess we'll see how much it helps!
Have a great week everyone!

Pain!!

Last night I decided to go over to Alameda to run. It was getting close to dusk and I didn't want to run at Lake Chabot in the dark. The trail gets very dark with the shade of the trees, and there are some holes in the trail that I didn't want to twist my ankle in. Well, after 4 miles of running, I noticed the left side of my hip was a little achy. Nothing too bad, but I should have just stopped! Instead I was thinking of my total mileage for the week (~33 miles) and wanted to make sure that I hit above 30 miles. Last night I did some of my stretches including taking a clinder of hard foam and rolling the side of my leg on the floor with it. VERY PAINFUL, but needs to be done. This stretches the IT band (runs for the top of the hip, across the knee to the ankle). Imagine a piece of taffy that's been in the frig. Take it out and if you try and bend it into different shapes, it's probably going not going to move to quickly (and possibly break.) Like the taffy, the IT band takes a lot of working on before it's able to be malleable.
I woke up this morning and PAIN! It hurts when I walk and when I step up. When I take steps down, it actually doesn't hurt at all (weird?) Tomorrow is a 16 mile run. Not sure what's going to happen. It's really going to depend on how I feel tomorrow morning. I'll still go, but I'll talk to the coach to get an ok before I run.
Injuries suck!

New pair of shoes in sight?

Well, I now have over 200 miles on my favorite pair of shoes, Brooks Dyad 3. Shortly I will be off to buy about two more pair before the stop making them! (I must be a runner, I have a line item for running in my monthly budget!)
Tuesday's run was the typical Lake Chabot run. 5 miles @ 8:29min/mi. Not too fast, not too slow. I had done some bike riding Monday night and I could tell the difference!
Wednesday's run, EBFRW at Lake Merritt (I seem to run near water all of the time, must be the Pisces.) 6 miles @ 8:20min/mi. Would have been faster but I took the first two miles slow running with the Jeff before I took off to finish the last 4 miles.
Thursday...not sure where I'll run yet. I'm thinking I may need to start running more hills (Lake Chabot) to prepare for the 1/2 marathon at Lake Tahoe. The first two miles of the race is uphill!

Saturday is the big day...16 miles!

Week 11 finished, week 1 to come...huh?

I know, the title doesn't make sense. 11 weeks done and week #1 to come? I've decided to not run the Honolulu Marathon, but to run the New Orleans marathon instead. The N.O. marathon is February 5th, 2006. Why the change?? The Honolulu Marathon is scheduled for December 11th. That is the same weekend that the group that I sing with, Oakland East Bay Gay Men's Chorus has their holiday concerts. When I first found this out, I was upset. The last holiday concert was done on the first weekend of December, and I thought that it would be the same this year. But other schedule conflicts created the move to the second weekend. In order to do everything, I asked the training program director if I could move to the New Orleans training, and the answer was yes. So, all of the funds that I have raised so far will be transferred over and I have a new fundraising deadline of early November.
One issue that I face is the training doesn't start until September 10th. On September 10th I'm scheduled to run 18 miles. So I need to figure out when I'm going to move over to the New Orleans training schedule. I hate to start with a long run of 3 miles (especially since my weekday runs are no less than 5 miles) but I don't want to be running 20-milers a few months before the marathon.
So what it comes down to is that I'll have an additional two months of running behind me before running the marathon. I'm anxious to run a marathon, but another 1/2 marathon will have to suffice. I'm running in the Lake Tahoe 1/2 Marathon, October 8th. I'll be there for a wedding, so I decided, why not run a race!?!
Btw, 7 miles Saturday. We ran a little fast so we secretly added another 1/2 mile before heading to the finish line. Shhh, don't tell our coach! :) Next Saturday = 16 miles!!

More miles...

Wednesday I had a great run of 6 miles with EBFRW. Jeff and I took off at the beginning and finished in just over 48 minutes. Really good time! Finished with some pizza in Alameda with the gang.

Thursday I decided to run to Lake Chabot. Why drive when you can run!?! I made it to the top of the VERY BIG and LONG hill that I normally walk up for a warm-up and decided I had enough of the lake. I turned around and headed for home. When it took me a fraction of the time to get down, I thought I needed to run a little more, so I took a few turns through town before heading back home. Ran 5.3 miles in about 44 minutes. Not bad for running that hill. My shins are yelling at me today ("What the hell did you do to us!?!"), so when I go home (after going for a workout at the gym) I'll ice them and hopefully make them happy again! :)

Tomorrow is an easy day, 7 miles! Then a 4 hour choir practice. Busy, busy!

Everyone have a great weekend!

7 miles...A Recovery run??

I never thought that I would say that, it's ONLY 7 miles. No big deal! Crazy!

This week will be pretty much the same as the past 11 weeks! Ran last night at Lake Chabot for 5 miles, tonight at Alameda (Bay Farm or Harbor Bay) for 6 miles, tomorrow another 6 miles and then Saturday is the group run of ONLY 7 miles. It's actually a good thing that is only 7 miles. I have choir rehearsal at 10am, so I'll be able to do both, with about 5 minutes to take a shower and get ready! :)

Fundraising: still $2,130 of $3,000 raised. Time to send yet another round of reminders!

A breakdown of donations:
Co-Workers $795
Friends $510
Family $125
Garage Sale $700

Thanks to everyone!!

14 miles...check!

Over the freeway and through the streets to a 7 mile marker we went! (get it?, over the river, through the woods...)

It was a cool and cloudy morning...perfect running weather! 8 am seemed a little early to be running, but I managed to get there on time! We started at the Berkeley Marina. We ran across the freeway (I-80) on the pedestrain bridge onto Addison Street (I use to work on Addison many years ago.) Up Addison to San Pablo Ave and hung a right. Went left on Dwight Way up to Shattuck Avenue. Right on Shattuck Avenue down past the Berkeley Bowl, a couple blocks past were Shattuck runs into Telegraph, we turned left on 42nd Street. (Tabitha and I shared a studio apartment on the corner of 42nd & Telegraph years ago!) Over on 42nd Street to Broadway and left on Broadway to the Kragen Auto Parts parking lot for mile 6. (Again, the building next to the parking lot is where Tabitha lived before we got our place in Jack London Square). Up a hill on Broadway, back down and then up a Real Hill! It was a good two/three blocks long, almost to the Highway 24 overpass...Mile 7! Then we turned around and went back! It was different running on the sidewalks of major streets in Berkeley and Oakland. Not something I thought we would do since we have so many wonderful trails around the marina. But, it was nice to see were I had lived and worked a few years back!

During our runs we do "walk-breaks". Now some people in the running community think that is cheating. They believe that if you don't run the entire way (26.2 miles) you are not running a marathon. Well anyways, we run for 7 minutes and walk 1 minute. Near the end, it was getting hard to start and stop like that. It sort of felt like I was getting off of a horse when I started to walk. Very weird.

When I got home I continued to do more streches in hope that I would become a stiff mess! It really paid off. I still can't bend over and touch my toes, but I can get out of the chair without making a face!

Week 10 = 14 miles

Last night I ran for 52 minutes. I'm not quite sure how far I went. I was running in the streets around the house. I would guess that I ran about 6 miles or so. There's a really cool website (www.sueandpaul.com) that uses Google maps and a pedometer that measures distances. I'll do that later tonight.

Tomorrow is a big day...14 miles! This is the longest distance so far. I made a mistake today...I had a lot of coffee, and I mean A LOT of coffee. Not good in regards to hydration. I'll make sure to drink a lot of water tonight and tomorrow before the run. I'm really awake though! :)

Garage Sale this Sunday. Sort of last minute. Depending on what I have on-hand, I may postpone it a week or two. I may need a little break!

I'm back! (I think)..what day is it?...huh?...what the...?

Boy, what a week it has been (crap it's only Thursday). We went for a mini-vacation/camping trip after my run on Saturday and returned Monday. Nice taking Monday off. Traffic was light coming home. Got back to the office on Tuesday and received a phone call wondering where I was at. I totally forgot that I was giving training Tuesday and Wednesday! Well, I packed up my stuff and went over to the other building for two days of training. During that same time I needed to finish putting together two reports. Plus I had choir practice, an A's game and try to fit in some running, plus working each night until 11:30pm each night! Whew! I'm ready for a vacation!

So with that said, my mileage for this week will be a little low. Only 4 miles Tuesday. I'll be running 6 tonight and then, drumroll....14 miles this Saturday. That will be 2 hours and 6 minutes of running!!

Fundraising: $2,130 of $3,000 raised!! Only $870 to go!!!

Most recent donors: Nancy Larsen, Pat & Auggie Hoggatt, Aidan Toombs, and Karl Brown. THANK YOU!!

Still going...

Had a nice run with EB Frontrunners on Wednesday around Alameda. Jeff and I did intervals (run faster for 30 seconds, 60, 90...then jog a minute, repeat) I was a little nervous doing them when I was 4 miles away from my car. What if I got too tired, what if I hurt something? It made me step out of my comfort zone which was good. Now I know that I can run fast during a 6 mile run and still be able to finish with no problems.
Last night, John and I went over to Alameda and ran along the beach. I found this new path (well, new to me!) that goes from Bay Farm Island (or Harbor Bay, whatever you like to call it), crosses the water to Alameda, on a path along Alameda beach and then back. It's about 6 miles out and back. The best part is the first mile (and last). The path is a single lane that goes behind the beach front houses. There are plants that are 6 feet high and the path is dirt/sand. Feels more like an adventure than exercising! I think I may need to find a few more trails to run to keep things interesting. Maybe some trailrunning shoes. I think I may have a problem, I'm constantly thinking about the next pair of shoes I'm going to buy. I have one pair that I just love (Brook's Dyad 3) which are impossible to find on any website, and Asics GT2100, which are everywhere, but I'm not sure if I really like them. I really need to find a discounted pair of Brooks, mine has over 175 miles already. And socks. I wore a pair of socks last night that did not agree with me. I have a blister between my pinky toe and the one next to it. Amazing how such a little thing can cause sooo much pain.
Tomorrow is a 6 mile long run. This is a recovery long run since last weekend was 13 miles. The week after we jump to 14 miles! Woo hoo!

1/2 Marathon Pics

Click on this link to see pictures of me at the SF 1/2 marathon!
http://www.marathonfoto.com/index.cfm?RaceOID=27892005M1&LastName=NIESS&BibNumber=25183
For some reason I have seem to run with my thumbs up. It's like I'm saying, "yeah...I'm doing good...everything's great." I'm weird, I know.
Last night was a nice 5 miles at Lake Chabot that started out at about 8 min/mi, then 8:30 min/mi, and slower and slower until the last mile which was 9:30 min/mi. Not bad for just running 13.1 miles that Sunday!
Tonight is 6 miles with the EastBay Frontrunners in Alameda. Nice flat course.
Fundraising update: $1,920 raised, $1080 more to go!!