Running on a wing and a prayer - Week of May 3

[Veronica]

I jumped up to 5.4 miles this morning.

The first mile I felt a little tight, but then miles 2 - 5 felt really good. The last 4 tenths is uphill and since I'm almost done, I push harder. That doesn't feel good.

It doesn't seem to matter how far I go, my pace is always the same.

I was listening to Bowling for Soup on my Thumps. They reference the Bon Jovi song. It always makes me laugh.

I didn't see the duckies today.

V.

[maillotpois]

Good job!!!

It will be interesting to see how pushing the distance out affects the pace. I never really kept track of my pace when I was a runner. If I did, I don't remember any of it now. I remember being a roughly 2 and a quarter hour half marathoner and never beat 5 hours for the marathon. I think my last (which was run/walk, mostly walk) was something like 7 - 8 hours! Most of my centuries are faster than that!!! That (and constant ITB "issues" throughout my running career - I was always in PT ) are why I don't run anymore unless I am being chased.

[Veronica]

I do the flexibility segment of the Spinervals Yoga DVD on the days I run or the day after, sometimes both. It's essentially a half hour of stretching. It feels really good. I don't know how much it helps, but it feels good.

Now that I know I'm capable of a five mile run, I'm going to start doing some intervals on my 4 mile before work runs.

V.

[jesvetmed]

Way to go Veronica! You are cruising right along!

I was listening to Bowling for Soup on my Thumps. They reference the Bon Jovi song. It always makes me laugh.

OK.. a quick Google search tells me "Bowling for Soup" is a band. (I am SO out of touch). But what Bon Jovi song do they reference?

Do you love the thumps? Worth the $$$? I would love to go wireless. Does it work with the ipod nano?

So many questions!
Jes

[Veronica]

The Bon Jovi song is "Livin' on a Prayer"

Here are the Bowling for Soup lyrics from "Punk Rock 101."

Like Tommy and Gina they’re living on a prayer (singer 1)

Did you just say that? (singer 2)



So many of their songs sound like they are just having fun. They do swear a lot though.

I have the Thump Pros. The music player is in the sunglasses. I really like them. Having music can be very motivating and because the ear pieces don't fully block your ear, you can hear what's going on around you. I personally would never ride or run outside with regular earphones. I don't want to block out the world like that. On the bike at about 20 mph, there is too much wind noise to hear the music at my typical volume setting. If I'm descending, I don't care, but if I'm trying to go fast on the flat, I turn the music up a bit. And turn it back down when I slow down.

The controls are easy to use. Volume is on one side, on/off and forward/reverse are on the other. I didn't think I'd use the forward/reverse much. But the other day, a good song (Van Halen's "Right Now") came on as I started a descent and it was nice to go back to it for the climb.

I think mine hold between 3 and 4 hours of music. Paperwork says the battery will last 6 hours. I haven't been out that long yet - next weekend.

V.

[roadie gal]

8 miles outside yesterday. It took 79 minutes. I was going to do a loop that had a lot of hills and then weenied out and did a pendulum route that avoided the worst of the hills. This is my longest run since getting over the PF.

[runner2]

On every Sunday morning, I always tried to hit the trail before walkers and bikers show up.
When I do my long runs, I only care about how long I ran not how far.
Today, I ran about 82 mins. Felt good.

[yellow]

OK, so the weeks start on Saturdays now???

V, I found that when I went back to running after cycling I was stronger and faster than I had been when I took my running hiatus. You are such a strong cyclist that it makes sense that you will be a strong runner. Just be careful...in my experience, the overuse injuries tend to show up a little later in running than they do in other endeavors. Be kind to your connective tissue and resist the urge to bump up your mileage too much!

Well, I did something yesterday that I haven't done in about 10+ years...I ran a 5k race. I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would! It was definitely on a whim; a friend of mine is the administrator of a private school that was one of the cosponsors for the event, and when my first plan for the day fell through (I let myself be talked out of a long ride...let's not go there), she suggested that we come up and do the 5k. So another friend and I went up to Park City to do the race. What made it appealing is that it was a trail 5k...no pavement. It was a Cinco de Mayo gig so they gave all of the finishers sombreros and had a lot of fun music and stuff going on. I used a pseudonym because I really didn't feel like being me ...so I ran as Speedy Gonzales. There was a guy there that actually ran in one of those furry Speedy Gonzales costumes (hard core)! And there was a woman pushing a 3-baby stroller (hard core!) and several really little kids that ran the whole thing (hard core)! And the weather was perfect. I really had no idea of a finishing time and really didn't go in to it with any sort of expectation other than hoping to finish in less than 30 minutes (I had done a 10 mile trail run the day before and my legs were t-o-a-s-t). Well, even though I got stuck behind the throngs of kids and strollers and dogs and other happiness at the start, I still managed a pretty good time; I think the forced slow start kept me from going out too fast. So Speedy Gonzales wasn't the speediest of them all but she did alright... 24:31. The trail was gradual downhill on the way out and gradual uphill on the way back, but overall really pretty flat.

But, really, that is the last running I will probably do for a while, esp since DH should be able to start riding here in a couple if weeks (road only...no mountain for a while still).

Thanks for indulging me, ladies!

[Veronica]

OK, so the weeks start on Saturdays now???

Nope - it was a typo on my part. And of course I can't edit the heading.

V.

[yellow]

Nope - it was a typo on my part. And of course I can't edit the heading.

OK, I get it now!
But, you know, I like to keep Saturday and Sunday together. I've never liked having the week break in the middle of the weekend. So maybe it's not so bad starting on Saturday after all. Hell, we could always break out of the mold and start the week on Thursday. After all, someone just made up the days anyway; who's to say Saturday is really the last day of the week?

Ah, yes, and since cells are mostly empty space, most of what we see with our eyes as solid object is really just...empty space. OK. I'll stop with my standard musings now.

[Veronica]

I've always liked to break them apart. It's too tempting to put things off if they are part of the same week.

Must go run now.

V.

[OakLeaf]

IIRC when we turned over the New Year, we started a new thread with the weeks beginning on Tuesday, January 1 - and that was driving Yoda crazy

[Veronica]

4.1 mile run today.

I planned to try to pick up my pace a little bit. I've been averaging about 11:20 on every mile since I started. It didn't matter if I did 2 miles or 5 miles - my pace was 11:20.

Mile 1 - 10:29
Mile 2 - I threw in some sprints between light poles and up the two hills 10:23
Mile 3 - Recovery from mile 2 10:38
Mile 4 - Same sprints and a faster pace to the finish line 10:00.

Running isn't as much fun as riding, but it's not bad.

V.

[Kimmyt]

It was SO gorgeous outside today. Actually, verging on hot. THe loop I run during lunch at work is pretty much not shaded and can get pretty hot with heavy dust clouds kicked up by construction trucks and stuff (I know, sounds bad, but it's really a decent hill run) but it felt really good. And the sun felt great. I did have to stop halfway because silly me didn't hydrate too well this a.m... I succumbed to the urge for a medium coffee instead of the usual small. Despite that, I finished the run, stumbled my way up the gigantic Hill of Doom and am now sitting at my desk in a cold sweat. Ah the joys of hot day running. No matter how long I take to cool down I never can figure a way to prevent the hot sweat-cold sweat cycle that goes on for a few hours post-run once the temps get over 70.

This afternoon I'm going for a bike with a friend and then depending on how I feel I might tack on a short run to get in my first brick of the season.

I'm so glad I can run again!

K.

[alpinerabbit]

Meh. More cursing than praying today. 6K in what, 45 minutes?! I walked some because I had to - I had side stitches. I'm going nuts here.

The pressure of signing up for a relay with my tri club isn't helping either. I will be so daggone slow.


OTOH I should be counting my blessings - sooo beautiful out these last few days.