Man, I really need a pedicure. As in, I need to strip off the peeling pink polish and upgrade to something else. Maybe turquoise. Or silver.
I notice my toes after taking off my shoes after my latest race. Did I tell you I was running a new race? If not, surprise! If I did then...not a surprise!!!
Today was the Kaiser 5K (and half-marathon, but you know what to do if I sign up for a half-marathon). Two friends were running with the goal of finishing under 30 minutes. My goal was under 39. Two reasons for this-haven't run in a 5K since August, and I have no idea what my running pace is. I run for distance, not time.
Here's a short comparison between the first race and the third:
Race 1 (Giants 5K- 3.1 miles) Race 3 (Kaiser 5K -3.2 miles)
Family watching No family watching
Didn't know people at the start Met up with friends, ran into another friend (surprise!)
Flat course Gentle uphill and down (mostly down)
Time: 37:26 Time: 36:03
Exhausted at end Pushed hard early, exhausted at the end (thought about walking, didn't do it)
Oh, and the lady who was speed walking the course who was ahead of me for the whole race? I passed her in the last 1/3 mile and beat her.
For those keeping track-shaved 1:23 off my overall time. With an extra 0.1 mile added in.
Feeling pretty darn good.
Sunday, February 5, 2012
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Confessions
I'm in a small room with the camera pointed directly at my face.
I haven't run since last Saturday. First, I was sore. Then, I got busy. It's Thursday. This is the second day in a row I planned to go for a run and blamed the weather for not going.
I feel shame.
That must mean I really want to go for a run. Which will happen on Saturday. Which is going to be hard because it's been a week since my last run.
Oh! Only 3 miles! And I have an excuse to walk (haven't run in a week/rain)! for up to 5 whole minutes.
I'm golden.
(For those of you just tuning in, this is how I cope with not running for a week. Actually contemplating joining a gym to run on treadmill. If you've known me for more then a year, you know this is crazy talk. Good crazy, but f*&#ing insane, nonetheless).
PS Sorry for the swearing, Mom.
PPS But kinda not.
I haven't run since last Saturday. First, I was sore. Then, I got busy. It's Thursday. This is the second day in a row I planned to go for a run and blamed the weather for not going.
I feel shame.
That must mean I really want to go for a run. Which will happen on Saturday. Which is going to be hard because it's been a week since my last run.
Oh! Only 3 miles! And I have an excuse to walk (haven't run in a week/rain)! for up to 5 whole minutes.
I'm golden.
(For those of you just tuning in, this is how I cope with not running for a week. Actually contemplating joining a gym to run on treadmill. If you've known me for more then a year, you know this is crazy talk. Good crazy, but f*&#ing insane, nonetheless).
PS Sorry for the swearing, Mom.
PPS But kinda not.
Sunday, January 15, 2012
5 miles!
Vacation running-how to fit it in. This is the title of the book I'm going to tell my friend to write. Hang on a sec.
She said "OK. I'm sure I did a great job with that".
Back to me. It's MLK, so it's Girls Weekend 5.0. In a cottage by some llamas. The plan for Saturday was to do some trail running. One of the ladies did some research and picked a trail. It was billed as 2.5 miles. Which is the exact length on my training schedule.
Five of us set off in my car. We drove down to the park, and into the woods to the start of the trail. Into the Pygmy Woods, to be exact. One took the car to meet us by the beach. The four of us set off down the wooden plank trail. At a fork in the trail, we took the trail marked 2.3 miles. Great! That should get us down to the bottom in no time!
Having never run trails before, here is what I learned.
1. Do not fight the downhill. Just go with it.
2. Mud is not your friend.
3. Skinny trails with sheer drop-offs are still scary. Just keep running and don't look down.
4. In the forest, sunglasses are not your friend. Bring the darn transition lenses you bought for that purpose.
5. Running uphill sucks no matter where you are. Power-walk it.
One fell behind, as running really isn't her thing. We played follow the leader for part of the run. Downhill jogs are really lovely for that. I was the most confident when I was in the lead, because I didn't feel like I was slowing people down. And the run was beautiful, with ferns and trees and the occasional dappled light. We ran along a creek and didn't see any raccoons.
Then we got to the bottom. It must have been, because there was an outhouse and a sign and what looked like a loading area. But we didn't see the beach. We were getting picked up on the beach, so we needed to get to the beach.
So we kept going. My friend's watch tracks distance and beeps with each mile. It beeped mile 3-great! Now I was running further then I normally do. It beeped mile 4-amazing! I wasn't feeling all that tired, and hadn't run 4 miles since the 7K in October.
But we didn't find the beach. It didn't look any closer. The trail was wider, there were people on it, but we didn't see the end.
Then we got to the campground. And saw a few park rangers. And saw some people. And then the ocean.
The 5th mile beep sounded just as we saw the street separating us from the beach. 5 miles. Shock and awe. At myself.
She said "OK. I'm sure I did a great job with that".
Back to me. It's MLK, so it's Girls Weekend 5.0. In a cottage by some llamas. The plan for Saturday was to do some trail running. One of the ladies did some research and picked a trail. It was billed as 2.5 miles. Which is the exact length on my training schedule.
Five of us set off in my car. We drove down to the park, and into the woods to the start of the trail. Into the Pygmy Woods, to be exact. One took the car to meet us by the beach. The four of us set off down the wooden plank trail. At a fork in the trail, we took the trail marked 2.3 miles. Great! That should get us down to the bottom in no time!
Having never run trails before, here is what I learned.
1. Do not fight the downhill. Just go with it.
2. Mud is not your friend.
3. Skinny trails with sheer drop-offs are still scary. Just keep running and don't look down.
4. In the forest, sunglasses are not your friend. Bring the darn transition lenses you bought for that purpose.
5. Running uphill sucks no matter where you are. Power-walk it.
One fell behind, as running really isn't her thing. We played follow the leader for part of the run. Downhill jogs are really lovely for that. I was the most confident when I was in the lead, because I didn't feel like I was slowing people down. And the run was beautiful, with ferns and trees and the occasional dappled light. We ran along a creek and didn't see any raccoons.
Then we got to the bottom. It must have been, because there was an outhouse and a sign and what looked like a loading area. But we didn't see the beach. We were getting picked up on the beach, so we needed to get to the beach.
So we kept going. My friend's watch tracks distance and beeps with each mile. It beeped mile 3-great! Now I was running further then I normally do. It beeped mile 4-amazing! I wasn't feeling all that tired, and hadn't run 4 miles since the 7K in October.
But we didn't find the beach. It didn't look any closer. The trail was wider, there were people on it, but we didn't see the end.
Then we got to the campground. And saw a few park rangers. And saw some people. And then the ocean.
The 5th mile beep sounded just as we saw the street separating us from the beach. 5 miles. Shock and awe. At myself.
Thursday, December 29, 2011
Cold Winter Days
To Do List:
1. Get long running pants.
2. Start blogging about running again.
3. Get out of bed (it is 11:18) and go for a gosh darn run!
It's the end of December, and been a while since I posted. If you are a friend reading this, thank you. Even if you never tell me how humorous my posts are (they are, I know it), how proud of me you are, or how much you love me, I know that you care. (The hard part with self-deprecating humor is that someone might take that previous sentence as a statement of fact, rather then humor.)
To bring you up to speed, I'm still out there running. I average about 9 miles a week-3 runs of 3 miles. Due to work, sketch, and other commitments, that number is a bit lower then I would like. My ideal would be to run 3 miles a day 4 days a week, and maybe do a little something else to keep me limber. (this is the whiny part) It's just hard to get out when it's dark and cold after work, and more fun to go out for dinner with friends or watch Glee. However, there probably isn't another time in life when I will have this much freedom to actually commit to running for distance. Yep, distance. Still proud of my penguin status.
I've registered for a 5K in February, and know I can do the distance. A friend wants to RUN the Bay to Breakers. All 7.5 miles of it. So I've registered for that. It seems to me that I should run a race at about a 10K (6.4) mile length before that. So I'm looking into a few races in April. One is on the 1st and is through the SF Dolphin South End running club and costs $5. It's flat and looks totally doable. The other is the Presidio 10 and has the hill between Chrissy Field and the Golden Gate bridge to run up. That one looks harder and costs 7 times more then the DSE club run. Since they are 2 weeks apart, I might just do both-the first for distance (to prove I can) and the second for the hill running. Anyone want to sign up with me?
I found a training schedule that if I start middle of Jan. will have me ready for early April 10K.
http://running.about.com/od/racetraining/a/10Kadvbeginner.htm
Then, I just have to add in an extra mile to that distance to be able to finish the B2B. It sounds easy enough.
As a reminder, I did ask people to hit me over the head with a 2x4 if I ever signed up for a 10K or half marathon. I'm amending that statement to just include the half marathon. I think to get into shape to run that far, I would need to loose a bit more body mass.
Any pointers on nutrition, stretching, how not to die while running in the cold are greatly appreciated.
It's now 11:33. Still cold out, but I just remembered I own long underwear which I could wear under my running shorts. That is going to be a great fashion statement. Guess I'd better hit the road. It does eliminate my To Do list.
1. Get long running pants.
2. Start blogging about running again.
3. Get out of bed (it is 11:18) and go for a gosh darn run!
It's the end of December, and been a while since I posted. If you are a friend reading this, thank you. Even if you never tell me how humorous my posts are (they are, I know it), how proud of me you are, or how much you love me, I know that you care. (The hard part with self-deprecating humor is that someone might take that previous sentence as a statement of fact, rather then humor.)
To bring you up to speed, I'm still out there running. I average about 9 miles a week-3 runs of 3 miles. Due to work, sketch, and other commitments, that number is a bit lower then I would like. My ideal would be to run 3 miles a day 4 days a week, and maybe do a little something else to keep me limber. (this is the whiny part) It's just hard to get out when it's dark and cold after work, and more fun to go out for dinner with friends or watch Glee. However, there probably isn't another time in life when I will have this much freedom to actually commit to running for distance. Yep, distance. Still proud of my penguin status.
I've registered for a 5K in February, and know I can do the distance. A friend wants to RUN the Bay to Breakers. All 7.5 miles of it. So I've registered for that. It seems to me that I should run a race at about a 10K (6.4) mile length before that. So I'm looking into a few races in April. One is on the 1st and is through the SF Dolphin South End running club and costs $5. It's flat and looks totally doable. The other is the Presidio 10 and has the hill between Chrissy Field and the Golden Gate bridge to run up. That one looks harder and costs 7 times more then the DSE club run. Since they are 2 weeks apart, I might just do both-the first for distance (to prove I can) and the second for the hill running. Anyone want to sign up with me?
I found a training schedule that if I start middle of Jan. will have me ready for early April 10K.
http://running.about.com/od/racetraining/a/10Kadvbeginner.htm
Then, I just have to add in an extra mile to that distance to be able to finish the B2B. It sounds easy enough.
As a reminder, I did ask people to hit me over the head with a 2x4 if I ever signed up for a 10K or half marathon. I'm amending that statement to just include the half marathon. I think to get into shape to run that far, I would need to loose a bit more body mass.
Any pointers on nutrition, stretching, how not to die while running in the cold are greatly appreciated.
It's now 11:33. Still cold out, but I just remembered I own long underwear which I could wear under my running shorts. That is going to be a great fashion statement. Guess I'd better hit the road. It does eliminate my To Do list.
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Pictures!
Here are pictures of me finishing the race!
http://www2.brightroom.com/email/86594/1453/113931834
Love,
Kristina
http://www2.brightroom.com/email/86594/1453/113931834
Love,
Kristina
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