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Sunday, November 25, 2012

Turkey Day 5k Recap

This year was the inaugural Lifetime Turkey Day 5K in San Francisco. Since we were home for the holiday, we thought this would be a great way to kick off a day that would be followed by face stuffing.

I got a great deal on registration - there was a Groupon a few weeks back - 2 entires for $29! Can't beat that. My husband and brother-in-law agreed to run with me. They may have regretted that decision when I woke them up at 6AM on day off.

I was pretty impressed with the organization of this race considering it was the first year. We arrived about an hour before the start to pick up bibs and such. It was a little chilly, so we spent a good half hour bouncing around and goofing off to keep warm.



The race started a few minutes late as they were checking in the last of the participants. We were pretty much at the very front of the start line. The three of us started out together, and then Sean bolted off and we didn't see him again until the finish. Dan and I ran together for the first half, but somebody (eh hemmm) had a little too much fun Wednesday night and started to slow down...so I let him eat my dust! (Sorry babe). I was running at a pretty comfortable pace - didn't have my earphones in so no MapMyRun app beeping in to tell me how fast I was actually running. My goal was to finish under 30 minutes...but was really hoping to come in around 27 minutes....

Welllll....to my surprise I finished in 24:20! Holy cow...how the heck did that happen. I did not feel like I was running under an 8:00 minute mile - I mean at that pace, you're pretty much flying right?! Well, it happened, and I am damn proud. Obviously that was a personal best for me...in finish time and pace. I usually struggle to run a few miles at 8:30 - how I finished a 7:50 pace is beyond me. Guess I really wanted to work up an appetite for our afternoon feast.

Sean finished under 20 minutes. Beast! And even Mr. Slowpoke finished in an excellent time - somewhere around 27 minutes. I swear these boys were trying to show me up. Well, your efforts worked fellow - made me push myself a little further. Thanks!

This is my last race of the year, now the main focus is tough mudder workouts and not gaining a metric ton from eating too many holiday cookies.


Friday, November 23, 2012

This Thanksgiving I Spared a Turkey

Thanksgiving was a little different than usual this year - we decided not to go to Arizona. After going to Vegas in September and Michigan in October and with plans to go to Arizona in December - it just didn't seem all that feasible. So this year I hosted my own Thanksgiving - and to kick off the day we ran the inaugural Turkey Day 5K in downtown San Francisco! More to follow on that...

So...Thanksgiving dinner. Let's begin by saying we live in a small apartment and with that comes small appliances. I don't think a turkey would fit in our over - so I settled on making pot pie. I had every intention of making turkey pot pie - but when realizing turkey breasts were almost $8 a pound the week of Thanksgiving, I changed my mind and bought 3 pounds of chicken breast for only $8. So, I happy to report, I saved a turkey this year.

I love pot pie! It's seriously one of my favorite meals - my mom makes a mean pot pie. I'm not the greatest cook, but I pulled it off after about 75 calls to my mom. Not sure how she managed to cook her own dinner with my calling every 12 seconds. It was lots of work - but it turned out to be delicious. Dinner was accompanied by a roasted squash salad with a homemade apple cider vinaigrette, green bean casserole (another classic) and a walnut pie (thanks Sean).


Look at this masterpiece! 

Hope your holidays are off to a good start! 

Sunday, November 18, 2012

Weekly Workout Summary

Monday (11/12)
Walk 3.0 miles

Tuesday (11/13)
Nike Training Club
Walk 6.5 miles

Wednesday (11/14)
Walk 4.0 miles

Thursday (11/15)
Nike Training Camp
Walk: 4.5 miles

Friday (11/16)
Woo, 2 trips to the gym. Good run in the morning, and back again to blow off some steam in the evening.
Treadmill: 3.76 miles / 34:29 mi, plus 1/4 mile cool down
Treadmill: 4.25 miles / 39:04, plus 1/2 mile cool down

Saturday (11/17)
Gym: Tough Mudder workout #2

Coming Soon: Turkey Day 5K on Thursday! Gobble Gobble!

US Half Marathon Recap

Wow, this post is long overdue - I mean the race was only 2 weeks ago. Where does time go?!

I had the pre-race jitters / extreme excitement the night before the race. Daylight savings time started and I was up to see the 1 o'clock hour happen twice - freaky! Regardless of being up late, I woke up at 5:30 feeling rested and ready to run.


Ready...set...


Go! (such a dork)!

Probably one of my favorite things about this race, was that the start was in Aquatic Park - a quick 1 mile walk from my apartment. This meant no dealing with busses or cabs at the crack of dawn. The husband was up until about 3AM playing video games (men!), but was nice enough to wake up early and walk me to the race start (ahh).

I got to Aquatic Park a few minutes before 6:30 and the sun was already rising. The weather was beautiful, but I knew we were in for a scorcher. As much as I LOVE the indian summers here, I would have preferred for it to go away until Monday. I'm used to running in 60ish degree weather, not 75ish degrees. Also, fog would've been nice - not a fan of running in direct sunlight, I'm kind of a vampire like that. Runners in San Francisco are seriously spoiled - almost perfect running weather year round, I can't really complain.


Sunrise

Compared to The Giant Race, I felt like this race was much more organized  I easily found the start line and didn't have to deal with confusing corrals and funky start times - guess that's the advantage of a fairly small race.

The race was set to start at 7:00, I think it started about 10 minutes late. Had to remember to pace my self, i tend to run my fist few miles pretty quick. I was happy to see that my first mile was 9:23, not too fast, not too slow. My goal was to be around 10:00 min miles - BUT someone didn't really look at the course map and the hills, my god, the hills. I mean, I knew we were climbing up to the Golden Gate Bridge, but really, I had no idea we were so many hills on that route. Also, to my surprise the bridge...the bridge is not flat? Say what?! I think dying my hair blonde for the last year really killed some brain cells. What was I thinking?


Look at this chart - up, down, up, down, up, up, up! 

So I'm complaining a lot about the hills, but in all seriousness the course was beautiful! I managed to rip my arm band off and snap a quick pic as I was getting on to the bridge


oooh ah! 

Once getting across the bridge there was a nice little path downhill, but what goes down, must go up...wait. And so the job up the hill began...again, and then back across the bridge. I remember thinking, get me off this #$%& bridge. And then it was over. Did I mention it was really hot out! Well it was. 


Mile 10 (I'm in blue) Thumbs up! 
Photo compliments of a nice spectator that posted to flickr

I was feeling surprisingly good around mile 10, maybe it was the Gu kicking in. My pace picked up for the next 2 miles, which felt great. I was thinking maybe I can PR. But then I hit a wall, the heat was getting to me, I had some hot spots in my shoes, and really - who puts a hill in mile 12. Sigh. I could see the finish line and I gave one last burst of energy to get me through the finish. 


Mile splits

Sadly, I didn't PR. I blame the hills. But I have a 2nd race under my belt. Woo hoo! I collected my medal and awesome new water bottle. The race didn't want to waste thousands of plastic water bottles, so they gave everyone a wicked red reusable bottles and had filling stations just past the finish line. Love this green city! 


Notice red bottle. And that sweet medal around my neck. 


Close up! Take a look at that puppy. 

My awesome hubby was waiting at the finish. I saw him in the stands, he missed my finished, but I was super happy to see him watching for me. 

Finish Time: 2:18:48
Pace: 10:36/mi


After the race I was famished. So naturally, we went to IHOP. All the mom and pop places were crowded, but IHOP, not so bad. I even brought a towel so my sweaty bum wouldn't be sitting directly on the chair. How polite of me. Thankfully, they didn't sit anyone really close to us. I mean, I reached out to take a sip of my chocolate milk and got a whiff of a man who hadn't showered in weeks...oh, wait...that was me. Gross. 


Fruit Crepe...YUM!

I tried to eat healthy, but honestly, I was hungry like 20 minutes later. I had the munchies all day long. So I had my hubby bring me snacks on the couch, while I relaxed with my feet up in compression socks. 


Look at those nasty tan lines. 

Whew! Long post. Hope you made it through. Until next time...

Sunday, November 11, 2012

Weekly Workout Summary

Monday (11/5)
Walk: 3.0 miles

Tuesday (11/6)
Boot Camp at 24 Hour Fitness has been renamed to Nike Training Camp. Good times!
Walk 4.8 miles

Wednesday (11/7)
Walk 2.0 miles

Thursday (11/8)
Nike Training Camp
Walk 3.0 miles

Friday (11/9)
Hubby was out with friends. Came home to find my bro-in-law sitting on my couch watching TV. Can you say creeper? JK. He said he was headed to the gym, I had plans to clean the bath tub. Upon invite, I gladly accepted, I mean, really, who wants to clean the bathroom. Not me.

Gym:
Standing Lunges: 45# Bar, 5 sets of 5
Leg Press: 135#, 5 sets of 12
Calf Press: 135#, 5 sets of 12
Barbell Chest Press: 45-56# (woah), 5 sets of 5-8
Dumbell Curls: 10#, 5 sets of 10
V-Grip Tricep Extensions: 45-65#, 5 sets of 10
Bicep Curls: 45#, 5 sets of 8

Walk: 3.0 miles

Saturday (11/10)
Can you say TOUGH MUDDER. 4 month countdown has begun, and so has the training!

Gym:
Treadmill warmup: 1.25 miles
Box Jumps: 3 minutes
Side Jumps: 4 sets of 16
40 Push Ups
Chin Ups (assisted): 8 / 4 / 16 on the cheater machine
Lat pull downs: 50#, 3 sets of 10
Incline chest press: ~30#, 3 sets of 12

Walk: 3.0 miles

Sunday (11/11)
REST, duh!

Walk: 2.0 miles

Sunday, November 4, 2012

Weekly Workout Summary

Monday (10/29) - Uh again, didn't make it out of bed on vacation to do any kind of workout. If I knew this was going to happen I could've brought smaller luggage. I'm cursed with big feet, do you know how much space those Nike's took up in my bag?

Tuesday (10/30) - Again...does walking through the airport count?

Wednesday (10/31) - Finally, back on track. Was surprised how well this run went after a week off. Unfortunately I wasn't prepared for the rain, so I walked my butt to the gym and ran on the treadmill.

Treadmill Run: 4.52 miles / 43:05
City Walking: 3.0 miles

Thursday (11/1) - Last run before the race. Felt good to be outside again.

Ran Outside: 4.0 miles / 37:38
City Walking: 2.0 miles

Friday (11/2) - Resting up for the big race

City Walking: 5 miles

Saturday (11/3) - Resting up

City Walking: 2 miles

Sunday (11/4) - US Half Marathon! Holy Hills! I didn't think it would be that much work to get up and over the bridge and back. I think at least 50% of the race was up hill, or that's what it felt like. I didn't set a PR, but I guess I'm happy with my finish time.

Ran Outside: 13.1 miles / 2:18:48

Total
Running: 21.62
City Walking: 12.0


Saturday, November 3, 2012

US Half Marathon Expo

Tomorrow is the big day, it's only my second half marathon. I'm really excited - the weather is looking to be gorgeous and who wouldn't want to run over the Golden Gate Bridge and look out over the Bay.

This race has it going on - their website, Facebook page and emails have made being a participant easy. I've been able to find all the info I need, I'm hoping tomorrow goes just a smoothly.

The expo was being held today at the Sports Basement in the Presidio from 10A-6PM. I love this store, but the city buses don't get you all that close to the store. Lucky for us runners, the race arranged for shuttles to take us to and from the expo. The shuttles were easy to find and were running on time. I scored a seat on the first shuttle at 10 this morning.

The expo was set up in the back of the store and was easy to navigate. I was able to pick up my race number and tee with ease - then there was plenty of time to explore all the vendor booths. I picked up some great goodies - vendors included Honest Tea, Zico, Clif, Lara Bar, The North Face, 5-hour energy and a few others. There were also booths promoting upcoming races including: Turkey Day 5K (which I will be participating in), See Jane Run and the Grapes of Rock Half Marathon.


Here's some of the treats I brought home. Yum!


And of course the race tee. This is an awesome shirt, it's made by Greenlight Apparel. The shirt is super soft and they are a company committed to social and environmental responsibility. Also, the race bib has my name on it, pretty neat. They also had the option to customize, but I couldn't think of anything clever at the time - so they just put my name in. 


My favorite part of the expo was getting 15% off my purchase at Sports Basement today. I found a pair of Mizuno Wave Rider 15s - they usually retail at about $100, but they were marked down to $65, plus I got the 15% discount. I've been looking for a second pair of shoes to run with, so I was excited to get such a sweet deal. I've read a lot about these shoes on SkinnyRunner's blog, and can't wait to start running with them next week. 


Well, that's all I've got today. I'll post an update tomorrow with the race results! Hoping to finish in 2:10:00 or less. We'll see what happens. 

Thursday, November 1, 2012

Hello November!

So it's been a few days...okay, more like a week and some days. I was on vacation in Michigan. I had every intention of running while on vacation and even had plans to make a post or two. But you know how it is...sleeping in until 9:30 every day just sounded so much more fun.

I'm back in the Bay Area and it's already November, and that mean's my race is just 3 days away! I caught up on a few runs since being back, hope my week off doesn't affect my overall performance. I'm pretty excited about this race, the course looks pretty awesome! And the weather is supposed to be pretty amazing on Sunday, 73! Can't beat that.

I'll follow up in a few days with a recap on the expo and race.