Seis de Mayo Run in Detroit

Yes, it was the Cinco de Mayo run, but the parade is always on a Sunday and the run is always right before the parade.  The run went very well.  There weren't a huge number of participants, but, as far as I know, I didn't come in last.  Actually, I have no idea where I finished in the line-up because the results don't seem to be available anywhere.  They probably are... I just can't find them.

I ran a little better than my 5K three weeks ago for Feet and Friends Fighting Colon Cancer.  Just a few seconds, but I'm pleased with any improvement.  I was especially happy with the improvement since the race started at 11:30 and it was fairly warm out.  Most of the run was in the direct sunlight (you can see that in this picture of me at the start of the race) and since it was along the parade route there were a lot of people lining the street.  The runners were accompanied by police cars and motorcycles, so that was different, too.  All things that I'm not really accustomed to, and that doesn't even take into consideration the fact that I was out late last night seeing "Weird" Al Yankovic at the Fox Theater in Detroit!

It was a fun run and I'd love to do it again next year.  Apparently, last year was more rainy at this time, because the people running the race were talking about how the ground was too soggy in the park where the run started and finished.  Actually, the weather was perfect, if a little too warm for me - I'd always prefer that it be a little chilly as opposed to any too warm!

Later this afternoon I also went for a 10 mile bike ride at the Metropark, which was great.  Add a little swimming in there and I would have done a mini-tri!  This week I'll be running Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday.  Saturday I also have a bike ride that we are doing in Detroit, before going to a family function.  Since next Sunday is also Mother's Day, it's going to be a busy weekend. I'm already looking forward to it!  My next 5K is in three weeks (May 26) and is also in Detroit.  Lots of training between now and then, so I am looking forward to greater improvement with that race.

Friday morning swim... er... I mean, RUN!

Well, it could have been swimming, with the amount of moisture in the air this morning.  The air was so heavy that it was hard to breathe and sometimes looked, and felt, like I was running through clouds.  It was so humid that these lovely tropical birds weren't even moving and one even had a dew drop hanging off from his chin.

Despite that, the run was pretty good.  Less distance than yesterday (again, per Coach Luke) but the pace was a bit faster.  Speaking of Coach Luke, I was watching my favorite inspirational running movie yesterday, The Spirit of the Marathon, and I saw Luke in the movie!  I've seen that movie a dozen times, but I just signed on with Luke and wouldn't have noticed before.  When they show the start of the 2005 Chicago Marathon, there he is, in his Hanson's running shirt!  Out of more than 33000 people, he finished 18th, overall!  Super impressive!  And he's MY coach!  If you haven't seen the movie, I highly suggest that you do.  It follows half a dozen runners through their training for the marathon - two are elite runners and the rest are regular folks who, for varying reasons, have signed up for the Chicago Marathon.  In addition, they talk to Jenny Hadfield, John Bingham and other running greats about the history and the heroes of marathoning.

So today's run felt good, even though it was sort of  like running through the shallow end of the pool.  I'm looking forward to the Cinco de Mayo run the day after tomorrow in Mexican Town and will check in on Sunday afternoon.  Tomorrow I may go for a bike ride before hanging out with some friends at a brewery in Plymouth and then heading to Detroit for my concert.  Enjoy your Friday and Saturday and I'll be back toward the end of my busy weekend!

Early run in my neighborhood

What a gorgeous morning!  For a run, or anything else, it was a beautiful morning to spend a little time outside before getting on with the rest of my day.  It was 63 degrees with an ever-so-slight breeze.  It was humid, (90%) but was cool enough that it wasn't bad - and the sun wasn't quite up yet, or it might have been a lot less comfortable.

I haven't run outside for nearly a week and was amazed at how much lighter it was out there at 6:00 am than it was just a week ago.  The sun rising on the horizon made the sky a beautiful color.  I saw a few people on their way to work, but not many.  One man was walking his fluffy little white dog, who either wanted to kill me, or was telling me how excited she was to see me. She was a fast talker so it was hard to understand her.

I felt good while running and increased my distance by 50% (per Coach Luke's instructions).  I did realize my error in eating too much wasabi on my California rolls last night, though.  Remember my comparison of running to wasabi?  Well, the two  may be similar in my desire for them, but it turns out that, together, they just give you a really bad stomach ache!  Not a mistake I will make again!

Last night I was at a steering committee meeting for DetermiNation, and those are always fun.  I got my official DetermiNation tech shirt, which is so cool. I may wear it this weekend when I run in Detroit.

Tomorrow I'll be out again, rest on Saturday (like I haven't done a lot of that lately) then on Sunday I have my Cinco de Mayo Run in Mexican Town, Detroit.  The race starts at 11:30, which is later than they normally start, but I think the run goes just ahead of the Cinco de Mayo parade.  I'm grateful for the late start though, because Saturday night I may be out a little later seeing Weird Al Yankovic (also in Detroit - maybe I should just stay overnight in the city).  We've seen Al before and he puts on a great performance - funny... iSmoothRun tells me my fastest song during each run, and today it was Weird Al's Alternative Polka!

Choices, priorities, realizations

I have to say, right off the bat, that I haven't run in a couple of days.  That's a bad thing!  Gwen, the girl on my runner girl necklace is feeling a bit neglected - and I don't blame her.  I'm feeling a bit neglected, myself and the person doing the neglecting is me!  Since I ran late on Saturday I decided to put off my next run until Monday morning... but it was storming out, so I put it off some more.  Decided that I was going to run this morning, and the alarm went off at 5:20.  I turned it off to get up, and don't know what happened.  I awoke again an hour later.  And I felt like a total loser!  I did some hard thinking this morning - when I got done bitching myself out - and feel a bit better, and somewhat enlightened.

First of all, this is something I'm choosing to do.  No one is making me run.  My job doesn't depend on it and neither does my life.  But I AM choosing to do it.  I want to be a runner!  So why the sporadic difficulty?  I clearly haven't developed the running habit, yet.  But that's a pretty lame reason!  The truth is that I haven't set any priorities.  I haven't made running a priority, and I haven't really made myself a priority.  I've certainly had days when I've felt totally committed, and there has been no doubt in my mind that this lifestyle is achievable, but then, some days, morning arrives so early and hits me over the head and tells me to go back to sleep, or it's too rainy, or I have a long day ahead of me, or a host of other reasons why I don't need to run right then.  Obviously family and work are also priorities, and work does take up a lot of my time - over 10 hours each day, 5 days a week, but I don't have children, so my family "duties" aren't inflexible.  I easily have an hour, or so, each day that I can put myself first and get my butt out there and run.  I just need to make it clear to myself, above all, that THAT has to come first.  My running coach gives me a schedule to run by, and goals - but I have to make myself a priority and he can't help me with that!

Also, I realized that I need to do more than just run.  I'm not talking about other exercise, or even eating right (which I already do) but every single night I set myself up to fail the next day.  I said that I eat right - and I do!  I have time set aside every night to make my breakfast and lunch for the next day, and enter it in my food journal, so I know that I will have a successful day, food-wise.  And I do get my running clothes out and ready to go the next morning, but then I don't go to bed.  Why would I feel committed to my goals and choices at 5:30 in the morning, when I've only had 5 hours sleep - on a good night?  Duh!  I need to get more sleep!  So I'm going to make some changes.  Because I CHOOSE to be a runner, I will make myself a PRIORITY and, now that I have come to the REALIZATION that not getting enough sleep is really detrimental to my choices, I will get ready for bed and be tucked in by 10:00.  I know this is long for a day that I didn't even run.  Thanks for reading and I'll be back tomorrow!

Indoor running... I don't think I love it, yet.

So we recently joined Planet Fitness and tonight was the first time that we used the gym.  We had been members of a much larger gym with more amenities that we simply didn't use and decided that a gym with fewer extras (and a lower monthly fee) would be a better choice for us.  The equipment was very nice!  I warmed up on the ArcTrainer and it didn't make any grinding, or thumping, noises at all.  I, then, moved on to the treadmill for my run.

I'm not used to running on a treadmill and it was a little more difficult that I anticipated. First of all, I'm used to having a bit of a breeze when I run, and there was definitely none of that inside the gym.  The treadmill stays at a much more consistent speed than I run on the road, which is a good thing, but felt a little harder for me while I was running, because it was - I couldn't slow my pace without actually changing the speed on the treadmill.  Not what I'm used to.  The run felt good, if a bit slower than I had hoped.  After my run I put 5 miles on a stationary bike, so I did get a little more variety into the workout, as a whole.

The most disappointing thing for me was the fact that the program that I use on my iPhone to record my runs didn't work on the treadmill.  I suspected that would be the case, but was still disappointed when it turn out to be so.  My runs are recorded on iSmoothRun and then I send them to Training Peaks, and I was able to enter my run manually into Training Peaks so it's all there, but I love all the details that I get from iSmoothRun.  I can't turn the little bit of information that I know about my runs into the nifty graphs that I normally get to see on my iPhone.  All in all I'd say that running on the treadmill is fine in a pinch - maybe better for consistency - but my preference is definitely to run outside when I can!

Of course, since we were already out and about, my gym workout was followed by a visit to a local pub where I had a beer, along with a chicken breast and broccoli.  The number of places to get a meal at midnight is somewhat limited, so the pub worked out well (with the kitchen open until 2 am) and the beers were on special, so I HAD to get one, right?

Tomorrow I have a longer run scheduled.  I'm not sure if I will do it on the road or at the gym.  Either way I will be increasing my distance by 50% and am looking forward to seeing how it goes.  Just 4 more training runs before the Cinco de Mayo run in Detroit, so I am excited to keep moving on, and after that I don't have another 5K for about a month.  I'm hoping that I'll be in the company of a few of my DetermiNation friends, but am not sure that any of them are doing this race.  Regardless, the run is followed by a parade and there are tons of activities to celebrate the holiday so I think it will be a fun day!

Am I really a morning girl?

I definitely run better in the morning than I do in the evening - and even better when it's a little later than 6:00 am.  I guess that's a good thing, since most races seem to start between 7 and noon.  Although noon is late (and technically not morning), I say noon because my next 5K starts at 11:30 am.  I'll be doing the Cinco de Mayo run a week from this coming Sunday (on Seis de Mayo, if you read my post last weekend) and I'm still taking a few walk breaks while I run, so my goal is to actually run the entire 3.125 miles.  Today I did well, but took 3 short walk breaks and wasn't quite as fast as I was at my race last weekend.  I felt great though.

I went out just after 6:00 and was amazed at how light it was.  It's becoming quite noticeable, now, how much earlier the sun comes up.  Not many people were up and about, but Thursday is is trash day in my neighborhood and it's always funny to see something  at the curb the first time I go by, then see that it's gone on my next go-round - and I'm out before trash pick-up.  I got barked at a few times, and tried to avoid the many worms that emerged  with the overnight rain.  Lots of birds were out getting breakfast and the doves were mournfully accompanying my running tunes.  It was quite peaceful!

I am learning the importance of garments that wick moisture away from my body.  It was humid this morning, although not all that warm - only 52 degrees.  I found myself really wishing for more of a breeze.  Funny, the other night it was too breezy and today I wanted more.  It's like wasabi!  First I'm thinking "oh my god, my scalp is peeling off, my ears are melting and my eye balls are going to fall out"  but as soon as the pain goes away I want another bite.  But I digress...  Wicking apparel is essential and I think I'll invest in a few more items before the weather actually warms up.  I really love my running socks and wish all of my other socks were as comfortable, so I think I'll get a couple more pair of those, as well, so I don't have to wash them quite so often.  I don't wear them for every-day because they are too pricey for that.

Well, Luke has me running on Saturday and Sunday this week, so I'll cruise on back here in a couple of days to tell you about my Saturday run.

First Goal Accomplished!

I ran this morning at the Feet and Friends Fighting Colon Cancer 5K (they also had an 8K but I stuck with the shorter distance).  It was great!  The starting horn sounded at 8:45 on the dot.  It was 37 degrees and the 11 mph wind resulted in a wind-chill temp of just 30!  Brrrrrr!  My fingers were frozen and I was seriously wishing I had thought to bring my running gloves.

I had a little bit to eat this morning, hoping that it would help my stamina a bit.  Seemed to work!  I had my best pace so far!  My average pace today was .17 mph faster than my previous PR, so I was thrilled with that.  My goal was to not come in last in my age division, but when I saw how much my time had improved I didn't really care where I finished in relation to anyone else.  I did NOT come in last, though.  I was 18th out of 38 women in the 40-48 age division.  Yay!  AND, overall, I came in 114th, out of 281 people!  They had music at the finish line, and just after I got done they played Joan Jett.  It couldn't get any better than that.

Teammate extraordinaire, Corey, accepting his award for
finishing 2nd in his age division!

Actually, it did get better, when my DetermiNation teammate, Corey, came in 2nd in his age division.  Go Corey!  He finished 14th overall (5K in less than 24 minutes) - and I was thrilled to be only 100 behind him!  While they were announcing the winners and handing out awards, the sun came out to warm us all up a bit, and many of the runners seemed to stick around to see the awards presentation.

It was a great time and I had a chance to get to know some of my teammates a little better.  I can't think of a better way to have spent my chilly Saturday morning. After the run we hit up the local coffee shop for some caffeine and sandwiches and hung out for a while.

I'm excited to continue on from here!  My next race is 2 weeks from tomorrow and is the Cinco de Mayo run in Detroit.  It's actually on Seis de Mayo, but that's close enough.  Definitely looking forward to that run through Mexican Town. I imagine I'll be running again on Monday - I'll know when Luke updates my training program based on today's run.  Till then...