Thursday, June 28, 2007

Might as well get this over with

So I ran the 5K last night.

Yes, we had a heat advisory warning. And yes, I was feeling sick before the race. But I decided to run it anyways hoping it would pass. Well, no it didn't. I wanted to DNF half a mile in!

The girl that I usually run 5Ks beat me for the first time. Another girl I know that ran 3 miles for the first time on the treadmill 3 days ago beat me.

So essentially, I SUCKED!!!!

End of story.

On a better note, I'm so stoked about Saturday!

Here's a hint... :)



And finally, thank you for your comments on my last post! I'm glad to know I'm not the only one who feels like that.

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Grrrr!!!!

Okay, sorry but I just have to get this out of my chest.

I live in a townhome and the surrounding area is a common area. We don't have gates or anything so although I do own some land, anybody have access to all the lawn area. For the most part, this doesn't bother me.

My house is one of the end-units, and as such I have bilco doors with outside access the basement. Today, I was inside my house minding my own business when I hear a bunch of loud thumping coming from the outside and reverberating throughout the house. When I checked outside, I saw a bunch of kids catapulting themselves onto my bilco doors.

Now, I would have just told the kids to stop it and that's it. However, this is not the first time that it happened and today, their mothers were just standing there talking to themselves and watching this all happen! Now, I don't know about you all but I was raised to RESPECT OTHER PEOPLE'S PROPERTY!!!! Granted, it's all open area, but it's still MY HOUSE! How would they feel if I go to their decks and act like I owned them!

I was nice enough and respectfully told them to stop what they were doing and the mothers apologized. But I shouldn't have to do that! They're adults, they should know better!

Here's another thing. Sometimes, when I come home from work I have to wait to park my car IN MY OWN DRIVEWAY because for some reason, the kids like to congregate in my driveway. They have their own driveways, but there must be something special about mine! Often times, the kids goes off to who knows where but they leave their bikes in the middle of my driveway and I have to wait until the mothers realize that I'm actually home and they quickly scramble to retrieve their kids bikes.

Is it too much to expect everyone to have some courtesy, or common sense?!?

Okay, am I overreacting? Am I just being a beotch?

Sorry, just gotta vent. Whew, now I feel better! :0)

Monday, June 25, 2007

Girl Crushes

Okay, I don't swing THAT way. But I do have girl crushes. The obvious one is Angelina Jolie. Doesn't most straight women (as well as straight men) have a crush on her? :D


But here's another one of mine:



Natalie Morales! Host of NBC's The Today Show!

First, she went to my alma matter - Rutgers University. GO R U!!!

Second, she has a good fashion sense. I love her outfits!

Third, she's good looking and healthy looking. Although I do admit she could use some muscles.

Fourth, I love her hair!

And fifth...she's a runner! She has run 5 marathons, 3 of which are the NYC Marathon. In fact, she finished her last marathon in 3:31! That's good enough to qualify to the Boston Marathon!

Pretty cool, IMO!

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As for last Saturday's race, no, I ended up not doing it. In fact, I didn't run at all that day. I decided that I want to keep running as long as I can, so I gave my knees a much needed break. :)

BUT...I resumed my training with a 6.7 miles run first thing this morning. WOOHOO!!!

AND...I do have a race this Wednesday. This is the one I'm really looking forward to. It's a pretty big race for a local 5K with approximately 800 runners. And the best part...tacos and margaritas after!

The only downside is it's supposed to be hot and humid this Wednesday, with temperature peaking in the mid-90s. The race is supposed to start at around 7 pm, but I'm sure it will still be hot. I need to hydrate well in the days leading up to the race.

That's all folks! Next update will be another race report! :)

Friday, June 22, 2007

To race or not to race

That is a question, indeed!

There's a 5K race tomorrow that's only 5 minutes away from me. I'm thinking of running it as speed work. For some reason, no matter how strong my intentions are, I can never run as fast during training as when racing. So here are my options:

  • Run the 5K race. Use it as a speed work training. Partake in the festivities. Then, run an easy 6 miles later on, either on the trail or the treadmill. It is my scheduled LSD after all. :o)

OR

  • Just head to the trails and run 10+ miles LSD. Save $20 registration fee in the process.

I do have another 5K race this coming Wednesday after all. This one is I am DEFINITELY running. It's after work and I am already registered. Plus, it's sponsored by the local Tex Mex restaurant, which means all you can eat tacos and margaritas afterwards. How can you pass that one up? :-)

Hmmmm...decisions, decisions.

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On another note, I'm surrounded by junk food! Someone brought in upside-down pineapple cake and it's tempting me! Then, I just got an email for free donuts! Luckily, my office-mate is not in today. She tends to snack all day and it makes me hungry when I hear her munching on pretzels.

So far I'm holding strong.

Have a fabulous weekend everyone!

Thursday, June 21, 2007

Britain's Got Talent

Saw this on the Today's Show this morning. Talk about a bona fide Cindrella story! Phone sales man one moment, recording artist the next!



Now, I did more digging about this guy in youtube.com (gotta love that site!) and saw his audition video. Had me bawling! What's up with that! And I swear I'm not PMSing. :)

----------------------------------------------------

Katiefeldmom - There are spoilers already for Deathly Hallows? Yikes! I better be careful. That is one of the reason why I will not go on these midnight bookstore parties, much as I want to do it since it's the last book of the series. My friend did that for the last book and some teenage jerks were already screaming the ending while she was still waiting in the line.

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Summer readings

This is what I've been reading lately:

Pathetic, huh? LOL. I do hope it helps solve my knee issues. I'm itching to run more than 3X/day but don't want to aggravate my knees. The exercises outlined in this book seems to be helping though, so we shall see.

Actually, what I'm really waiting for is this:


Come on July 21!!!!! :0)

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Thinking about a bike

My friend, who is an avid cyclist, suggested this bike. Price-wise, it's not that bad. I'm sure there's going to be additional expenses for accessories.

I'll have to check the bike stores though. I heard that sometimes, they have used bikes on sale for discount. I don't want to do craigslist because I want a bike that will actually fit my size. Luckily, I am surrounded by bike stores around here since I live right by a popular trail.

My friend also told me that you never forget how to ride a bike. I think it's been 20 years since I've been on a bike. I hope she's right!

So for next year, this will definitely be on my wish list in my quest for a duathlon. ;-D

Friday, June 15, 2007

The race report y'all been waiting for

J/K (LOL)

So please bear with me, but here's another race report. ;-D

The race was on a Wednesday night and less than 10 miles from my work, so I went there directly from work. The weather was cool, perfect for racing! It looked like it was going to rain at any second, but it never did.

I had some minor problems leading up to this race. The online registration was supposed to end June 11. When I went to the website that day, the online registration was already deactivated. I emailed the contact person and he didn't respond back. So needless to say, I ended up paying the on-site registration fee - a steep $25 total.

I got to the race early enough to register, bathroom break, stretch, relax, etc. I've been having some issues with the knees, so my goal was just to have a great race - whatever that may be. A sub-30 would be great too! Remember, my last 5K was a disaster! So any improvement from that would be GRRREATTT!

I took it easy on the first mile. It was mostly downhill, which was awesome! In the beginning, people were passing me but when I glanced at my Garmin I was still running at a nice low 9 min pace so I tried to ignore the other runners. This strategy seems to work since I started passing a lot people starting around the 0.5-mile point and only a couple of people passed me until the end of the race.

The last leg of the race was through the high school track, which they dubbed an "Olympic style finish". I gave it all I had as I sprinted to the finish line because there was a 9-year old kid just ahead of me and there was no way he was going to beat me! LOL.

I did beat the kid to the finish line. YEAH BABY! LOL. But then again, there were tons of kids that finished way ahead of me, so it was all good fun!

My Garmin said I finished in 29:03 at 3.07 miles. Official finish time, as posted on the website, is 29:01. So I did beat my goal which made me VERY happy! Not a PR, but close enough.

The post-race spread was pretty good - mini pizza, pork sandwich, 2 types of cold-cut sandwiches, pasta salad, etc. They also had the customary fruits and energy bars. The best part was the iced coffee, which I happily took for the drive home.

Overall a great race, despite the registration issues! I had tons of fun and will definitely do it again next year!

I was kicking myself on my drive home though. I passed by Cold Stone Creamery, and I didn't stop to get some yummy ice cream! I completely forgot until it was too late and I just didn't feel like backtracking. I could have used one. I'm dreaming of it as I type. ;-)

Now, that wasn't so bad, was it? :o)

Thursday, June 14, 2007

I think I've lost my marbles...

Okay, as if running is not enough. I've recently been entertaining the thought of doing *gasp* a duathlon!

As long as my body can handle it, I'll never give up running! But there will come a time when I will need more of a challenge. Nuts, huh?

But, I will most likely not get into it until next year. This year, I want to focus on completing a half marathon or two (or three). ;-D

Plus, I need to get a bike and figure out if I still remember how to ride one. I haven't been on one since grade school! LOL.

What brought this on? There's this guy on the RWF that is about the same level as me in terms of running. He actually finished just a couple of minutes ahead of me at the Broad Street Run. Before he took up running, he lost A TON of weight! It is really inspiring! Anyways, he recently did a duathlon on a whim, although he's been thinking about it for a while. The way he related his experience was really funny, especially the fact that he rode a cheap bike while everyone else were in bikes that cost $$$$. Turned out that he didn't do too bad! He didn't win anything, but he was far from last!

I started reading up on duathlons a bit, and it seems like it's just like a 5K race. There's the people who's out in front to win, then you have the middle-of-the-pack athletes, then the back-of-the-pack athletes. So really, it's a friendly environment.

I already have the running down (sort of), and I really enjoy spinning. So I guess I have that base to start with.

What do you all think?

As for the Tony thing...much as I would love to sign up to him it's probably not realistic right now. It's mostly due to expenses. I completely forgot that I have a big vacation planned, plus some minor house works that I want taken care of this summer. Not to mention, the spinning bike that I've been saying I was going to get soon! I have to get my priorities straight, right? So I'll just have to forego the Tony thing for now and revisit later.

Oh, and I did run the 5K race last night! It was really fun and I was happy with the results. More details to follow. For now, I have to clean my house since my parents are coming over tomorrow. I just need to get that duathlon thing off my chest. :-D

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Crazy thoughts

I'm thinking of hiring Tony's services. Just to see if it would make a difference. He seems to be doing wonders for a lot of people.

I've still been consistent with my workouts, but I need an extra oomph. I'm not looking to compete in figure or bodybuilding, but I want to get achieve that great shape that I can't seem to get to. I'm not looking to get even more skinner or anything. I just want to change the shape of my body. Right now, I'm just this straight skinny log. I want some shape in my arms and legs and a six-pack. All those good stuff.

However, I still want to keep going with the running and half marathon plans. I wonder if he
could customize a plan to incorporate those, or is he going to make me give it up?

I'm still running, but had to lower my mileage this week. One, because I have a 5K race tomorrow night. And two, because my knees have been feeling wonky these past couple of weeks. It's not bad, and after a session of yoga last night, it actually feels better. I've been diligently wearing my knee bands for every runs, doing tons of leg/knee strengthening exercises, and those seems to help a lot.

If the thought of hiring Tony is not crazy enough, I'm tentatively planning on running three...and I repeat, THREE, back-to-back half marathons this year. One in September, one in October, and one in November.

The Philly Distance Run in September and the Philadelphia Marathon (doing the half) in November are already planned. BUT, I'm going to the Philippines for 3 weeks around Oct-Nov timeframe, coming back in November the week before the Philadelphia Marathon. I still plan to get some long runs in during my vacations (God help me!), but I found out that there's the Atlantic City Marathon (with a half) in October, before I leave for vacation. Since I have to maintain my half marathon base between the two Philadelphia halfs, why not do a training race in between? Does that make sense, or is it too much?

Oh, did I mention a possible 10-miler race in August? This one will be by the beach (Sea Isle City, NJ), but I'm leaning towards NOT doing it. The course is like on the boardwalk for the first couple of miles, then the beach for the rest of it. I have never run on the beach and I heard that it's a challenge running on sand. But I was told by someone who ran it last year that the majority of the "beach" run is actually on packed sand near the water during low tide, so it's not bad. The only loose sand running is the transition from boardwalk to the packed sand. This is not a done deal yet, just one more crazy thoughts running in my head. :-)

That's it for now. Oh, and expect a race report of tomorrow's 5K soon! Even if I suck like I did on my last 5K, all the gory details will be here! Hope you're all not sick of me talking about running and my race reports, but it is part of me. :-)

Monday, June 04, 2007

I want to go to Africa!

You gotta watch this video if you haven't yet! It may be disturbing towards the middle, but trust me - it does have a happy ending. :)



Edit: I checked the video posted here, and seems slow to load. I checked youtube and it seems like this is a popular video (3 million + views) which could explain the slowness. But trust me, it's worth the wait! Anyways, you can view it from youtube directly here: Battle at Kruger.

Sunday, June 03, 2007

The race report I wish I never had to write

To make a long story short, I ran a 5K race yesterday. In a Cliff 's note version, I sucked sucked sucked! I contemplated just not writing anything about it and pretend it never happened, but we can't always have good days, right?

Okay, now that's out in the open, here's the long version.

Two weeks before the race, I haven't really ran as much as I wanted to due to some issues with my knees. My knees were not exactly hurting, but kind of sore and wonky. I took it easy the week after by just running in a relaxed fashion. I did not do any speed work to give my knees a break, although I got two 6+ miles run in the week of the race.

The morning of the race, I knew I was outside my comfort zone. It was super HOT and HUMID!!! I have never ran in this type of weather before! I usually run first thing in the morning, usually before most people wake up, so it's still pretty cool. I also felt thirsty all morning! I drank a lot, but not too much that it would make me want to pee during the race. Perhaps I should have drunk more?

So I got to the race, did my thing, lined up, then we were off!

I'm not too familiar with the course since this is the first time I'm doing the race and the organizers never published the course map, but it turned out to be a hilly course. Which is fine under normal circumstances since my normal running routes are typically hilly. However, the heat and humidity really got to me. It felt like the sun was beating on me throughout the race and it was hard to breathe with the humidity. I ended up walking to the two water stations, plus (I'm ashamed to say) other walking breaks.

To top it all off, my shins were burning on and off for the first two miles. I thought to myself Are you kidding me? I haven't had shin splints in months!!!! There were also instances where I felt sick & nauseous.

I have never been so happy to see the finish line! As I neared it, I dug deep and tried to find some strength to finish strong. Surprisingly, I did and I sprinted to the end.

I don't know what my official time is, but my Garmin said it's 30:59. However, the course is not certified and it is actually 3.2 miles. I hit the 3.1 mile marker at around 30:17. Still a disappointment since I wanted to beat my PR of 28:50.

I stayed behind for a little bit to partake in the post-race festivities. Since this race is to raise money for arthritis, they had this drink called "Joint Juice" which I happily tried.

I didn't stay long since I didn't know anybody there. I went home and suffered the worst migraine! My knees were kind of sore and I admit that it was totally my fault. I should have worn my knee straps, but I didn't want to get a tan line of the knee straps on my legs. Yeah, really stupid!

I was so depressed about the race that I pigged out throughout the day! I never realized I could be an emotional eater!

So that was yesterday. Today, I feel a lot better. I iced & elevated my knees last night and today they felt a lot better. Also, no shin splints! I was so pissed at yesterday's performance, I ran 6.25 miles today on the TM, which helped me feel better. I wore my knee straps during the run and so far so good!

So here's the plan...I will continue to do leg exercises to strengthen my knees. In the meantime, I'll be wearing my knee straps during my runs until I build up enough strength in my knees. I will also try to get used to running in the heat - I have 3 more 5Ks planned for this month alone, so there will be plenty of opportunities for that!

Isn't it funny? I've always considered myself a cold weather wimp. Well, it turned out that I'm a hot weather wimp as well! LOL.

As for the eating, well chalk it up to one day of madness. I'm much better now. In fact, I just made my meals for the week. I made some turkey tacos and Rachel Ray's Spaghetti and Meatballs "Stoup" - BFLized of course (or as much as I can).

In retrospect, yesterday's race wasn't a complete disaster. I have to admit, I looked good in my outfit of running skirt & Nike tank top. ;-) Unfortunately, no pictures.

I guess another good thing is that I did not DNF. There were times that I definitely wanted to give up.

So that's it. Live and learn!

Oh, and I'm signed up for my first 1/2 marathon in September. I signed up early this week. No turning back now!