Monday, January 29, 2007

not too shabby

An excellent weekend to recap...

For the first Saturday in a long time, i got to sleep in. And yes, 8:30a.m. is considered sleeping in for me. With my recent hamstring problems, and a 10K on sunday, I skipped out on the morning run and decided to test out the hamstring that afternoon. I was a bit apprehensive, since i hadn't ran since Tuesday and BRRRRRR...it was freezing and super windy outside. But my leg felt good, so i ended up going 5 miles to reassure myself i'd be fine for the 6 on sunday.

Saturday night couldn't have been more fun. Brita, my Team in Training honored patient for the San Diego marathon, and her husband Paul, invited me and several other teammates over to their house for sushi, karaoke, and some Playstation Guitar Hero.

With all of our karaoke, dancing and video game guitar skills, i think we could start our own band. A cover band of course, since none of us are songwriters, but i'm not gonna lie....we'd be a hot commodity for junior high dances and retirement community entertainment.

I love my teammates, and it's awesome that our passion for running and our desire to help others is what brought us all together in the first place. But from there, we've became great friends, and they're such a strong support system, almost like a second family.

I had to ditch out on the party a bit early, since i was set to run the Groundhog 10K the next morning. I picked Josh up around 8:15 and we headed to the caves. I had no idea what to expect, except that it's all underground in the storage tunnels and warmer than outside.

It's hard to describe to someone who's never been there, but it was a very interesting place to run in. I liked that it was warm, flat, and asphalt. I did not like that the air was musty, the scenery is limited to giant concrete pillars and flourescent lights, and it feels like you're running in circles. Basically, it looked like this for 6.2 miles:


I went into the race with a goal of 52:00, and walked away from my first 10K in 50:32. Not too shabby. AND...i placed 8th overall in my age division, which really makes me feel good about myself. Here I am with Josh and fellow TNT alum Randy, looking very similar to a stoplight:

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

i pulled my hammy

i thought really hard about when the last time i pulled a muscle was....and i couldn't remember. i think it's been that long. like maybe back in high school. and it's not like i ever stretch before i run. i just walk out my front door, or show up at the park, and go. and i seldom stretch after i run.

i've always secretly thought stretching was overrated, and since i never pulled anything, i never made it a point to stretch.

but i pulled my hamstring this morning.
and it hurt.

was i running? nope.
playing softball? nope.
doing some strenuous biking? nope.

i was at the gym.
doing bicep curls.
and i pulled my hamstring.

somehow that seems to go against the laws of physics.

you may be thinking: how does one pull a muscle in the leg, when they're only moving their arms?

it's simple, really. a caveman could do it. i was standing up and using the dumbbell bar, doing my 3rd set of bicep curls. like i'd done the past two times, i dropped forward to put the bar on the floor.

should've bent my legs. even just a bit.
instead....RRRRrrrrriiiiiiipp. (you know the feeling.)
apparently i like to think i'm more flexible than i really am.

thankfully, i ran monday and tuesday nights so i was planning on taking tonight off. i think this is a sign that i need to start doing pilates again.

Thursday, January 18, 2007

donde es el bano?

so i ended up taking like a week off from running. Whoopsie. it was kinda by accident, kinda by result of the weather and icy-ness. but i like to think that the miles of walking around Seattle count towards my mileage. in like a weird small percentage way compared to running.


my flight was cancelled on sunday, which was cool with me since i got an extra day to spend in Seattle. and i spent the next day flying, along with 4 hours at the Cincinatti airport, thanks to another delayed flight. needless to say, it was not the smoothest trip of traveling i've ever had. but i grew up around airplanes and everything aviation, so inconveniences like those don't bother me. in fact, i love being in airports and i think soon, i could write a book of reviews on U.S. airports. hmmm...perhaps there's a future career there for me.....


back to kansas. grrr. brrrr. more ice. lots of ice.


but i actually got up this morning and ran before work. amidst the snow. and lots of ice. but it was fine. i did not fall. and fortunately, i did not get hit by a car while i was running on Mission Road forced off the sidewalks due to gobs of ice chunks and ice rink-like surfaces. seriously, cities of Prairie Village and Leawood...can you please do something to clear those at least partially off?? unfortunately, i got stomach cramps (ie: really needed a bathroom) around mile 3 so i hurried home and called it quits at 3.5 miles.

Friday, January 12, 2007

treacherous traveling

i ran 6 miles on Tuesday evening, and i felt great. I was 'that girl'. Running in the 20 degree weather, in shorts. I set out only planning to run 4, but the weather made for great running so i kept on going. i was trying to get a feel for my 10K pace, and then out of the blue, my Garmin battery died somewhere around mile 3. bummer. i think i probably finished about 50:00.

now, off to my trip to Seattle.....this is a long story, but then again, so was my day.

i got up at 5:15am wednesday morning to go to the gym since i knew i wouldn't have time after work, since my flight to Seattle left at 8pm. if i would've known what lay ahead of me, i probably would've slept longer.

i'd been watching the Weather Channel during the flight and they kept mentioning the snow and ice in the Pacific Northwest, so i knew the conditions were not ideal. but we landed safely in Seattle, where i got a voicemail from Todd saying that he drove two blocks from his apt and couldn't make it any further up the hill. great. he'd called rental car companies, nobody had any 4 wheel drive cars available, he called limos, shuttles and nobody had availability to pick me up. it was almost midnight, i was exhausted, dehydrated and my cell phone battery was dead. i just stood in the airport and cried.

luckily, my luggage finally got there and i was able to charge my phone and call him back. i really didn't want to have to stay in a hotel, so my last option was to see if any taxis would drive me out to his apartment in Sammamish, which is normally a 30-45 minute drive. i went to the taxi pick-up area and got in line behind about 70 other people, where i waited for about 45 minutes. i talked to a couple who were headed to Issaquah, a town near Sammamish, so we planned to get a cab together.

all the police officers there told us to just get a hotel, the roads off of the interstates were horrible and we'd probably end up getting stranded since our destinations were in very hilly/mountainous areas. i just wanted to go to sleep and the other couple was determined to get home. a taxi pulled up and out stepped a driver whom i could barely even understand and who didn't even know where Issaquah and Sammamish were. luckily, the other couple said they'd direct him.

We left the airport around 1 am (think 3am kansas time). there were hundreds of cars deserted along the roads, people just couldn't go any further and left them there. thank God this taxi had good tires, luggage weighing down the back, and a taxi driver determined to get us home. we got to Issaquah, and i was left to direct the cabbie the last 5 miles. we kept going and every hill we made it up, i just thought 'thats one less hill i'll have to walk my luggage up when this car stops'. fortunately, we finally arrived where Todd was waiting for me. i've never been happier to see him. so $80 and a nearly 2 hour cab ride, i was safe. poor cabbie though, he had no clue where he was so we gave him the best directions possible and wished him luck.

i got to bed around 3:00, so basically i had been up for 24 hours. it was definitely one of the scariest travel epsiodes i've ever had, but i made it here. and other than the ice and inability to drive anywhere, it's really pretty. with the help of two good samaritans, we finally got Todd's car back home. but we're riding the bus everywhere now.

Monday, January 08, 2007

my first 2007 post

And I'm back!! (for the two or so people who were concerned about my whereabouts)

I took an unplanned, yet very much needed blogging sabbatical while I ran through the holidays, attempted to organize my life, and ponder what lies ahead in the wonderful year of 2007. While 2006 was one of my best years (i might even go out on a limb and say it was THE best year), i'm hopeful that this coming year will be just as great, if not better.

And to kick off the running year, my company is a sponsor of the Groundhog Run on the 28th, so that means i have a free ticket to run. I was debating over whether to play it safe with the 5K, or run my first ever 10K in the above avg. temperature, claustrophobia, and noise of a completely underground run.

And I, being so easily persuaded by fellow runners, let Josh convince me that the 5K was (not his exact words) wimpy. So, a 10K it is. And the underground-ness of it all makes me both excited and apprehensive. Six miles is no problem at all, but i don't have any prior 10K finish times to go off of, so during my 8 miler on Saturday, i focused on figuring out my 10K pace. I think I'll shoot for 53:00.

I don't really have any new year's resolutions, just some new plans for the new year. Perhaps i'll blog those later, but for now i need to finish doing my laundry so i can pack and fly myself away to Seattle on Wednesday. Yipeeeee!