Left Foot, Right Foot…

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Does any one remember this episode?

Today was my first run in weeks.  Sure, I only did a little over a mile, but hey, you gotta start somewhere, right?  I figured attempting the 5 mile Tempo Run on my marathon training plan wouldn’t be wise.  So, instead, I hopped on the treadmill for a quick mile, and then headed to spin class.

Thankfully, I got through my mile with NO knee pain! None at all!  I’m taking this as a good sign. Sure, it was only a mile, but it’s a start!

I think my new shoes helped.

I ordered two pair so that while I train for my marathon I can alternate.

I didn’t realize how badly I needed a new pair until I put them on and remembered, “Oh, so THAT’S what arch support feels like!”

The new pairs are super clean and the laces seem to be a bit shorter which I’m into.  I’m pretty thrilled, even though they’re the same style I’ve been wearing for over a year.

In other news, on Monday, after I blogged, I passed out and was dead asleep by 7pm. Travis woke me at 8 to ask if I wanted dinner, and I managed to stay awake until about 10 before passing out and sleeping hard the rest of the night. I guess I needed the sleep?

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Catherine, May 25th 2011 | Tags: , , , ,
Posted in 2011, life, shoes, training

Oops? Ouch

So, apparently, when your marathon training calls for an “easy” three miler, you maybe shouldn’t upgrade to the rolling hills option on the treadmill instead.

As I was finishing my 3 miler rolling hills, my right foot started to hurt a bit, right where I normally get a blister when I’m running, so I wasn’t too worried. Blisters, I can handle. But, when I got home, and took off my shoes and socks, I noticed not only was it NOT a blister, but the area on the side of my right big toe was slightly swollen, red, and inflamed. I have no idea what is wrong with it, so I iced it last night, and again today, and it’s still really sore.

It hurts to put pressure on the ball of my right foot just near my big toe, and I could only wear sneakers to work today, because my flats were pressing against the bone.

Ugh. I can’t believe I did something to myself on Day 2 of training. What is wrong with me?! So, I definitely took today as a rest day, and will play tomorrow’s Tempo run by ear. Right now, I’m just annoyed.

 

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Catherine, January 26th 2011 | Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Marathon, training

Post Race Thoughts

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Pssst. Did you happen to catch Clare’s guest post here on  Saturday while I was galavanting all over downtown Phoenix?  If you missed it, you should check it out. Clare is the bee’s knees.

After finishing my second half marathon, and slamming out a new PR which was 22 minutes faster than my first half marathon, I’ve had a few people ask me what I did differently.

At first, I wasn’t really sure, in fact, I had been nervous about this race because I felt like I wasn’t as prepared.  We skipped (me and my training buddies, but mostly me,) a lot of our longer runs, sometimes due to weather, sometimes due to not feeling well.  While I was preparing for the Oireachtas (Irish dance,) I had to skip several of my long runs because my knees were in a lot of pain, and I wanted to play it safe. Just before this race though, I felt like I hadn’t done enough quality long runs, and went in thinking “Well, anything better than my first 2:59 will be good.” 

What I hadn’t realized was that, while I didn’t have as many quality distance runs under my belt, all of my shorter weekday runs were done on a treadmill which kept my pace consistent.  Something I had definitely not done before. I’ve always strugged with maintaining pace during my outdoor runs.   Also, my 8  miler, and 10 miler were done on treadmills, with consistent paces kept for both runs.  I guess I really underestimated how the combination of controlled pace training and an almost entirely flat course would affect my run.  While I may not have trained as “long,” I definitely feel like I trained smarter. 

While treadmill running isn’t nearly as exciting, or scenic as outdoor running, it’s certainly served me well during this training.  We’re taking this week/weekend off (I’ll probably squeeze in light cardio on Friday,) but I’ll be starting to put together an even better training plan for my next half.  I’m hoping to do either the San Diego Rock n’ Roll half (June 4th) or the Seattle Rock n’ Roll half (Juen 25th). I have friends getting married in June so it will end up being determined by that.  Then, I definitely want to do Disney’s  half again this September.  It appears I have caught the racing bug.  Have you?

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Catherine, January 19th 2011 | Tags: , , , ,
Posted in 2011, accomplishments, half marathon, training

Uhhh

So, apparently, a lot of traffic is being driven to my blog from “zooanimalsex.wordpress.com”

I know. *shakes head*

Anywho, moving on… tonight’s Tuesday Night Dinner was just three of us, and Travis made a delicious roast beef with cauliflower puree and brussel sprouts!

There was also one of these red velvet cookies

and of course, some red wine.

When I woke up this morning, I was a bit sore from yesterday’s power double work out extravaganza.  It wasn’t a terrible soreness, but my muscles were definitely like “Oh hai, we’re tired.”  So, when I started my run on the treadmill today after work, it was rough going.  It took me about 25 minutes before I felt like I was warmed up enough to really run, and then I kept watching the clock, because I knew Travis was home getting dinner started.  I ended up doing 3.13 miles in about 45 minutes, which is not great, but at least I logged in some mileage.  How do you deal with disappointing runs/workouts? I’ve basically resigned myself to the understanding that not every workout can be great, and I’m just going to try and log better/stronger miles tomorrow.  I will also be watching the clock tomorrow since both Travis and I need to do laundry.

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Catherine, December 16th 2010 | Tags: , , , ,
Posted in food, life, training

It is July, right?

This weekend, we had gorgeous weather in Los Angeles.  The kind of weather people in other states, and countries come to experience.  It was warm and sunny, but not too hot, with a lovely breeze.  It was perfect weather for being outside and enjoying the trees and mountains. Today, I woke up to this:

Really, Los Angeles?  I mean, I will say this, it will make for perfect weather for my run this evening.  The high for today is about 75 degrees, which is comfortable for sure, but,  where is the sunshine we saw yesterday?  This spring and summer have been very mild so far, we’ve had a lot of cloudy/overcast days.  It’s been kind of nice in that it’s been keeping the extreme heat (my apologies to Arizona who clearly thinks I am insane for thinking a mere 90-100 degrees is ‘extreme’ heat) at bay.

Breakfast this morning was cereal with half a banana.  I was hungry, but not starving, and while I contemplated oatmeal since it was all icky looking outside, I wasn’t cold enough, so Joe’s O’s it was.   When I got to work I was hungry again (probably should have gone with that oatmeal) so I had a small granny smith apple.

Last night’s dinner of leftover pasta was pretty good.  We re-heated it in the oven like a casserole and tossed in some sun dried tomatoes.  We also picked up some garlic bread sticks which made a nice addition to the meal.

Tomatoes of the sun-dried variety aren’t my favorite.  I prefer fresh tomatoes, but these did add a nice little kick to the pasta.

This Saturday my training buddies and I have a 12 mile run planned. By planned I mean, we’re planning on running 12 miles, but we don’t have a route yet.  I’m still new to crafting long run routes.  When I do my shorter runs during the week I kind of just pick a direction and go until I reach 1.5 or 2 miles, then turn around and head back.  I did map out our 10 mile route, but because none of the mapping tools show all the dirt trails in Griffith Park things got a little tricky.  It ended up being fine, I made my 10 miles, but it wasn’t ideal.   So, now I am tasked with finding us a good 12 mile route.  My question for those of you who have planned long runs is this:  how do you come up with a good, challenging, but not too difficult route for your longer runs?

One of the problems I discovered as we were going through our 10 mile run was twofold.  One, I had us going up what turned out to be a lot more serious of a hill at mile 6-7.5 than I realized when I was planning the run to begin with.  Two, I didn’t really think to factor in water fountains (I did find 3 along my run which was a total lifesaver.)  Basically, I want to make sure we can get in 12 miles without wanting to die at the midway point because idiot me included a massive nearly two mile hill in the middle. =X

I’m going to keep playing around with the loops at livestrong.com and dailymile.com but I’d love to hear your advice for planning a 12 miler. :)

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Catherine, July 26th 2010 | Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Eating, food, goals, Griffith Park, life, Los Angeles, Runyon Canyon, training

Carbo-licious

It’s Friday, which means it’s Bagel Friday, my second to last Bagel Friday (whatever will I do?!)

Cheesy carby goodness. Yummmm.

Mmmmm cream cheese!  I know a lot of people are super into nut butters on their bagels, but I don’t know that I could do it. I love cream cheese in a way that is probably totally inappropriate.  Because the bagel  was so carby and good, I wasn’t hungry for lunch until about 1:30.  However, because I simply grabbed leftovers from dinner last night and didn’t make any upgrade plans, lunch was another carb fest.

Leftover Four Cheese pasta from Bossa Nova.  The pasta and sauce kept its flavor which was nice, but since it was a cheesy sauce it became kind of gross and greasy when re-heated.  I am definitely looking forward to some greens and protein for dinner tonight.  It’s a good thing I took some chicken out of the freezer to thaw.  I’m in a bit of a food coma right now.

This week has seemed to just fly by for me.  I can’t believe it’s already Friday! I’m meeting my training buddies for an extra early 7am run tomorrow. Thankfully this week we’re only doing 6 miles though. Last week’s 10 miles was a real challenge.  I ended up logging a total of 20 miles last week, definitely the most miles I’ve ever logged.  This week however, has been depressingly void of miles.  I’m going to attempt a run tonight.  It just felt like the running gods were against me this week.  I was exhausted and my hip was still a little sore on Monday, Tuesday we had TND, Wednesday we finally did our laundry (which is a whole ordeal), last night I was stuck at work until just before 6:30 which got me home too late to fit in a run.  I’ll have to see how today shakes out, hopefully I can get out and home by 6ish so I can log some miles before tomorrow’s 6 mile run.  I’ve been feeling kind of blah all week, so maybe the rest is needed, but I don’t want to fall behind in my training.

My race is only about 6 weeks away! How did that happen?? Eeep!

Question: How far in advance of your races do you tend to get nervous, or do you even get nervous at all?

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Catherine, July 23rd 2010 | Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Eating, food, life, training, work

Exceeds Expectations

This morning C, J and I were planning on running an 8 mile loop through Griffith Park. C had found this loop a few weeks back when we first started (I guess as of this week it would be 3 weeks ago), and we’ve been working up to doing the whole loop which we thought was about 8 miles. Our first week we ended up completing about 5.5 miles, last week we managed 6.5 and this week, after I mapped the course we took on daily mile, I discovered we went almost 9 miles! I think the actual mileage count from daily mile was: 8.95 miles so just .05 more of a mile and I would have been up to 9 :)

The loop is challenging for me, the first mile and a half is up hill, but then a good part of the run is downhill and flat, then downhill again. Once we got to the intersection where we normally take a left and head back, we took a right and went all the way down to Los Feliz before turning around.

On our way back is when things got a little tricky. I am last in the caravan anyway, but I had fallen a bit further behind on our loop back, and lost C and J at bit of a cross road. Instead of going back exactly the way we came, I started following a dirt trail I thought the girls had taken. I went on that for a while, and then when I couldn’t find them decided to cut across back to the road. Well, somewhere along there, we missed each other because they had gotten to the end of the dirt path and went back to find me, where I had gone off to the paved area to try and find them! I think they ended up doing an extra mile in their attempt to find me (Oops!) so they managed to make it almost 10 miles today!

We completed the loop in 2 hours, which gave us a pace of about 13:41 mile. I’m still slow, and still doing a lot of walking, but today I discovered what I think is the appropriate pace for me to be running. I finally found a place where, even though I was tired and struggling (I’m not a natural runner and keeping myself motivated to move forward is a challenge) a bit, I wasn’t out of breath which normally plagues me. I was also able to keep myself running consistently for longer than I had been. Maybe not by a lot, but I can see some progress, no matter how slow it is!

My new shoes were excellent help on this run. I did get a little bit of arch pain in my left foot but not until a few miles in, and after walking a bit, it went away and didn’t come back. The shoes did get a nice break in, and are quite dusty now from the trail running. I guess they can’t stay shiny forever.

I know I won’t be finishing this half marathon in any kind of record time, but knowing that I can finish it, and knowing I’m capable of maintaining a 13:41 minute mile makes me feel really accomplished.

When I got home, I made myself a bowl of pasta with Trader Joe’s Bolognase sauce which was delicious. Just the thought of eating the pasta was so good! I’d only had a bowl of Joe’s O’s before the run. Now, I’m just hanging out in the bedroom with the kitties while two handymen fix some things around the apartment.

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Catherine, June 19th 2010 | Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in Uncategorized

On track

This is what I just stuffed my face with after my 2 mile run. It’s leftover Hamburger Helper from last night. It’s one of the few things that survived the great fridge debacle of 2010. I ate this and a handful of grape tomatoes I just picked up at Trader Joe’s on my way home. Next week, after I get paid and can do a real grocery shopping (and a Farmer’s Market stop!) I will start eating better.

Running Training Log

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Catherine, June 8th 2010 | Tags: , ,
Posted in food, life

Baby steps

I have a confession that won’t shock anyone who knows me. I do not enjoy running, or really exercise in general. I have never had that relationship with exercise that others have. I was never very athletically inclined, and while I did ride horses for about a year and a half, and I did play volleyball in 5th grade, I only made the team because everyone made the team. I did put my whole heart into volleyball that year because I wanted so badly to be a member of a team. I wanted a jersey with a number, I wanted to win a trophy (something I had yet to accomplish.) So, you can imagine my disappointment when on awards night I was one of the only players who didn’t win a trophy. The worst part is that I thought for sure I would get something, most improved (by the end of the season I was finally able to get a serve over the net) or sportsmanship (I showed up to every game and never once complained when I hardly played even though it really hurt my feelings.)

When I found Irish dance is when I really found my outlet, my activity. Dancing never really felt like exercise, or rather, I enjoyed it, so my relationship to dance was clearly different than my relationship to P.E. related exercise. I was terrible at sports, and P.E. and running and those things simply served as an ongoing reminder of that.

In high school, I signed up for the Cross Country team and lasted about half a semester. The reason it ended up not working had more to do with the meets and my Irish dance competitions conflicting than anything else, but I still found no joy in the slogging through Griffith Park and Los Feliz. Perhaps if I had stuck with it, I would have found a way to enjoy running as a sport, but that never happened.

Until my dance injuries really sidelined me, and I moved back to LA and suddenly paying bills had to come before dance classes, I got all my cardio from Irish dance and ballet classes.

Fast forward to present tense, where I have signed up for a half marathon (13.1 miles people) through Disneyland in September. I’m still not entirely sure what exactly possessed me to do such a thing, especially considering my relationship with running.

When Travis left for the first leg of his new job, I did two nights in a row of a 1.6 mile loop walking in the neighborhood. I meant for this to be a warm up as I began my training, but of course, it fell off because I was waiting until after work to do it. Realizing that I don’t have much time left in my training, I decided to suck it up and go for a run tonight.

I managed to make it 2.16 miles, which while not super impressive compared to the 13.1 miles I will need to do in 3 months, is still a step in the right direction for me. Especially considering that I was able to jog most of it with just a few blocks of walking breaks.

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Catherine, June 3rd 2010 | Tags:
Posted in life, Uncategorized