Posts Tagged ‘Training’
As I’d mentioned last week, we went to Colorado to spend Christmas with my family. We left Orlando Wednesday morning at 8:17am and arrived in Denver at 10:30am. It was snowing! But it wasn’t the kind of nice, light snow you see in commercials. It was windy and the sky, roads and everything were the same color — white. To top it off, our rental car was rear-wheel drive, so we learned quickly about turning into the skid…
The rental car company had a deal where they would pick the car we’d have — and it was guaranteed to be a medium size or better, depending on what was on the lot. They had plenty of cars; even ones smaller than a medium, but they still insisted on giving us a Dodge Charger. The Charger is a great car — don’t get me wrong — but it’s rear-wheel drive and not the best on slick, icy roads and turns. The rental company said they’d give us a smaller, front-wheel drive car instead, but we’d have to pay $15 a day extra for the smaller car. The rental agent even warned us about driving in snow with a rear-wheel drive car, but in the end he sided with profit and not the safety of his customer. He was also a turd attitude-wise.
You remember in rental car commercials how they show the stalls with the rental cars are covered and the rental agent runs out with an umbrella and assists you with getting your luggage in the car? Well, that’s sheer fantasy as far as this rental company goes at Denver International. The stalls were out in the open and all the cars were covered with at least half a foot of snow and the windows were iced. I went to the car and found a brush and a scraper inside and swept the snow off the hood and windows. I then scraped the ice off the windows, which froze my fingertips, even though I was wearing lined leather gloves — OUCH. I found the key and backed the car up to the SO [Significant Other] and our luggage. We loaded it up, fired up our GPS [which we call Chickie-chickie] and we were on our way; albeit in a relatively good mood, but things could have started out much better.
My folks weren’t expecting us until the next day; we had told them we were taking a much later flight on Wednesday and so we wouldn’t be able to get out to their house until Thursday morning. My sister Melanie was already there, as she had flown in from Seattle a little bit after we had landed. My folks picked her up — we hustled when we landed so we wouldn’t all run into each other at the airport — that would’ve kind of ruined the surprise! I wish I had taken a picture of my Mom’s face when she opened the door and saw us standing there; it was priceless. First confusion, then surprise, then fake anger! The first thing she yelled out was, “you little liars!” 
It was great to have the whole family together. As mentioned earlier, I hadn’t seen my sister Mel [she's one year younger than me] in over 12 years. My youngest sister, Leigha [she's 8 years younger than me], came over a little later in the day after she got off work. The SO took a great family photo of us:
[caption id="attachment_223" align="alignnone" width="392" caption="Leigha, Dad, Mel, Mom and Me"]
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You can tell I live in Florida — I’m the one with the tan.
Silly sister pic:
Gratuitous snowy scene [the sun FINALLY came out the next day]:
And my sister Melanie and I had a great reunion after not seeing each other for over 12 years. Sisters, just like best friends, just pick up where they left off:
With regard to training… I ended up just running on a treadmill and using a stationary bike in the hotel workout room. It was just too cold for my lungs and I didn’t have the correct cold weather gear to even attempt a run outside. Not to mention that the initial snow had packed down and new snow had fallen over it, freezing the old snow. I didn’t feel like breaking a leg out there. Even inside on the treadmill, the altitude and the lack of oxygen in the air [lack of oxygen being relative...] made it difficult to breathe. Just walking up stairs would make you temporarily winded and exhausted.
We had a great time, but it was wonderful to get home. We stepped off the plane, breathed in the warmer, humid Orlando air and knew it was good to be home. A cold front had come through just before we landed, but compared to Firestone, Colorado, it was a heat wave.
In just a little over a week, the Disney Half Marathon will be here! I just hope this vacation didn’t add any pounds and that I didn’t lose any fitness due to my limited training while gone.
How was your Christmas holiday?
Well, I ended up taking an unexpected week off from running — just 3 weeks before the half marathon! Gah. My general feeling of fatigue was still getting to me and finally I came down with a full-blown fever, chills and achy muscles. Flu. It lasted a few days, but wasn’t nearly as bad as previous times I’d had the flu when I was younger. Thank goodness for the flu shot, or it could have been much worse.
This coming Wednesday, we’re flying out to Colorado to spend the holidays with my family. My two sisters will be there, as well as my grandmother. It’ll be great to see everyone again, as I can’t remember the last time we were all together — I’m sure it was at least 15 years ago. We’re in Florida, one of my sisters lives in Washington state and the rest of the family is in Colorado. The logistics of getting us all together at one time is daunting. But, we finally did it this year!
Our good friend and neighbor — who happens to be an Orlando Police officer — will be coming by each day while we’re gone and taking care of Duncan, our cat. We normally clean out his litter box twice a day, as he’s very finicky about having a clean litter box. He’ll pee on a wall near the litter box if he deems the box too dirty to his liking. So, since our friend will be coming over at different times each day — and we didn’t want to come home to a stinky house and a pissed-off kitty — I went to Lowe’s and bought a big cement mixing tub/pan for $5 and filled it with 3 20lb. boxes of litter. It’s HUGE. If he gets one area “dirty”, he’ll have plenty of real estate left on which to void. At the very least, it’s a conversation piece…
We found out that our hotel in Colorado has a workout room and an indoor heated swimming pool! There’s a recumbent bicycle, a stair-stepper and a treadmill. So even if it’s too cold, icy and snowy outside for me to run, I can still run inside and get some training done while on holiday. The weather outlook has it snowing up to 3 inches the night before we arrive and then snowing all day the day we fly in. Temps should be in the low 30s [F] to low 20s [F] for highs and as low as 9F for nighttime lows. Yikes. My lungs are not equipped to handle that kind of cold — not to mention the altitude — so I doubt I’ll get in any outdoor running while I’m there.
Not sure if I mentioned it before… but I got a pair of arm warmers and some running gloves for the day of the half marathon. It’s January 9th and it starts at 5:50am. I don’t know what time the sun rises at that time, but I do know that it doesn’t come up until close to 7:00am right now. Lows have been in the 40s lately, so if that continues to hold on through January, I know it’ll be damn cold the morning of the half marathon. I chose arm warmers so that if it does warm up, I can remove them and tuck them in my waist belt. I’m still not sure about my legs — they usually don’t feel/get cold like my upper body does. Plus I really don’t know what to wear; tights, capris, what? Like most women, I’m self-conscious about how I’d look running around in tights… the thought of my butt bouncing all hither and yon doesn’t exactly make me want to run right out and get a pair.
What do you wear for cold weather runs?
The weather here in Orlando has been so weird lately. It’s either cold, rainy and dreary or it’s hot humid and summer-like. Friday, I ran 3 miles in a cold drizzle. It was 67 degrees F and I wore a long sleeved shirt under my running shirt. I also wore some running gloves to keep my fingers warm. It was miserable. Fast forward to yesterday and it’s bright, sunny, humid and 84 degrees F.
Of course, I decided to run 5 miles. To say that I perspired is an understatement.
It was pretty easy at first, but then after 3 miles the heat kicked in. Plus, I run in the late afternoon/early evening so I’ve already had a full day of work and stress before I get out there AND I don’t usually sleep through the entire night [again... thank YOU perimenopause]. I get feeling tired and run down by mile 3 almost every.single.time I run. Caitlin had mentioned the success she had trying out the Galloway Method of run/walk to help keep your reserves and energy levels up, and it sounded like something worth trying. Especially since I’ve been having issues with energy levels and feeling poopy lately.
So at mile 3, I slowed down to a walk and drank my electrolyte drink as I did. I walked about .05 of a mile and then began running again. At mile 4, I did the same thing. I found that it didn’t really slow me down too much; if I run [what I consider to be] “all-out” for a 5K, my pace is right around 10:20. Using the run/walk method, I finished 5 miles in 56:37. That averaged out to an 11:18 per mile pace. My Garmin is set to only pause if I completely stop, so my walking is still calculated into the total time and distance. It’s not going to win me any medals, but truthfully, I don’t run to win; I run to finish — and have fun. When I finished, I felt pretty good and there were times while running where I actually wasn’t thinking about my posture, my gait, or how my feet were hitting the ground. I was just running, had a good rhythm and it almost felt like a hot knife slicing through butter.
Oh — on another note [totally unrelated to anything], the papaya tree I grew from seed [planted in my side yard] finally had one of its massive fruits turn a bit of yellow! I plucked it off the tree, lugged it into the house and put it inside one of our kitchen cabinets for a few days. When I took it back out this past Sunday, it was completely yellow and perfectly ripe! It took me a half hour to peel and cut up into cubes and now we’re enjoying papaya cubes with lime juice with our lunches AND I’m going to make a yummy papaya salsa. It’s funny — I do not like honey dew or cantaloupe melons at all, but I really like papaya, which is similar in consistency and taste to cantaloupe [although I think papaya is much more subtle].
Anyone have any good recipes for papaya?
Yesterday morning, I ate my usual breakfast of Kashi cereal, strawberries, a banana and Stonyfield Yo-Baby yogurt. For lunch, I had homemade sqaush soup and collard greens. Right after lunch, I went low. By that, I mean I had hypoglycemia, or low blood sugar. My hands were shaking, everything looked very bright and sharp and I felt weird. I crammed some sweet potato chips into my face, ate a Kashi soft-baked cereal bar and then sucked on a blow-pop lollipop [I don't usually eat candy]. It took a long time, but I started feeling a bit better. I never quite got up to where I felt good, though.
Once home, I sucked down a fuel gel, drank some water and changed for my run. I had decided to do at least a 3 mile trail run and wanted to get out there before the expected bad weather decided to show up. It was rough; I was struggling the whole time with feeling tired and weak. I was sweating like a pig in a sauna, so I stopped at around 2 miles to drink my electrolyte drink [I like the Clif cran-razz]. I drank about 4 ounces and then continued on. I’ve set my forerunner [205] to pause if I stop completely, so the drinking break didn’t count against my time too much, although it does take a little bit for the 205 to realize I’m not moving. At about 2.75 miles, I bonked. I had to stop. My legs were jello, I was completely soaked and exhausted. The 205 paused while I sorted things out, calmed myself down and got my crap together.
I was able to continue on to finish 3 miles. I think it was around 32:10 total for time. But, I did it. I’m not sure why I went low in the first place, but it really messes with my entire day after an episode like that. I’ll have to keep a better eye on my carb intake to prevent it from happening again.
Before I left for my trail run, I had decided to change out the lenses in my adidas a129 sunglasses to clear lenses since it was so overcast and almost dark. After removing the first lens, I went to take the second one out and the damn nose bridge of the sunglasses snapped at the weakest point. So much for the Quick Change Lens System… I called the place where I got them this morning and since it’s been over 30 days since I received them, they apparently have to go through the manufacturer. Supposedly, I’ll hear back from someone today. We’ll see; at the rate things have gone, I’m not going to hold my breath.
So now I’m without running glasses of any sort. I had to run with my regular glasses on, which have light weight plastic lenses, but still the frames are metal and a bit heavier than my a129 frame is. The 1/2 marathon is in 5 weeks and I’m fighting with myself over whether or not I should just cave in and buy a new pair so I’ll have them in time. GAH!
UPDATE: I called them again, and the good folks at BestBuyEyeGlasses.com had me send the sunglasses back to them. They in turn sent me a brand, new pair! No hassles. I’m very happy.
Since Wednesday was a training day for me, I once again ran the new course I’d come up with from Monday. I did better this time, in spite of the weather being cold, wet and foggy; which was weird, considering it was 4:30PM. You can see my results here. I really felt good and am looking forward to running the same course today — although it will be a lot colder and clearer.
Yesterday for Thanksgiving, we went to a couple friends’ house and had a feast. I thought I did well; I only took one small spoonful of the different side dishes [squash casserole, sweet potatoes, stuffing, and green beans] and only had white turkey meat [I did have a bit of gravy]. They had a Honey Baked Ham there, so I took one piece of that as well. I ended up not eating any dessert; which really surprised me, as there was homemade pumpkin cheesecake. My innards still felt all swollen and bloated afterward, and I had a hard time singing karaoke without burping in between verses [not into the mike, obviously].
Another good friend texted us last night as we were finishing up cooking our meal. She was supposed to have been with us for dinner but ended up having to spend Thanksgiving at her in-laws. Her text made it pretty clear she was consuming copious amounts of wine due to the antics of the monster-in-law. She said when she returns, she’ll teach us all the songs she learns at Betty Ford.
Singing just wasn’t doing it for me last night. Usually, I really enjoy it. I think it wasn’t so great because I had so much bloat building up in my abdomen and it was really uncomfortable. I still felt it at 2:30AM this morning, when one of our hard-wired smoke alarms realized that its backup battery was dying. It begin beeping quite loudly every 60 seconds. I tried to ignore it the first 3 or 4 times it BEEPED, but it wouldn’t shut up. So I got up, grabbed a bar stool, climbed up and changed out the battery. It was finally happy and I couldn’t get back to sleep, of course. I began to drift off just before the alarm went off at 5:00AM. Blech. Am I the only one working today?
Hope your Thanksgiving was an abundance of great food, loving family, good friends and blessings!
