Running Chick

Another week of summer gone by, another week closer to winter. Ha, just kidding. Not really.

I had another good running week, ending up with just over 19 miles total. Aside from a nasty between-the-toes blister caused by the 4” heels I wore to work one day, all is good. Josh has been doing great with the C25k program. His long run on Saturday was 20 minutes which he passed with flying colors. He’s blogging about his progress over at runningchunk.com, head over & check it out.

Remember when I got my Garmin Footpod?  I’ve been using it for right around a month, and I’d say that it’s just okay. I’m still seeing major dips in the data, which I thought was due to dying batteries, but I replaced them and it’s still happening. I’m not sure what could be causing the issue. I haven’t calibrated it, so perhaps that should be my next step.

This is what my eyes have looked like for the last week or so - red, weepy, itchy, puffy, burny (burney?). Damn ragweed pollen. I’ve been putting off going to the eye doctor’s but today a co-worked commented that my eyes looked painful (read: gross) so I suppose I should go.

Pictures of the week!

The Nara Trail has one section with plants to tall that they make a tunnel. I feel like I’m in the movie “Antz” every time I run through.

I’ve run past the St. Ignatius Loyola parish school many times, but never really bothered to stop and look around. It was opened in 1887 and closed in 1970. I didn’t venture inside, but it looks to be in pretty good shape, still.

Sunny day rainstorms always perplex me. Weather is so confusing.

Pilgrim River early on Saturday morning.

My and my exploding braid.

We bought some saffron that was so expensive that now I’m afraid to use it.

The Koop!

A portion of the Ham crew. There were 12 of us in total.

Net control station.

Transition area. The carpeted mats were used on the swim exit and they’re laying out in the sun to dry. Athlete wetsuits are hanging on the bike racks, which are empty because all the competitors were on the bike course. Did you spot the Great Dane? He was really friendly. And big.

The new dock at the Lac La Belle marina.

Finisher’s medals. 66 people started (which includes team members), 64 finished. I think there were a few DNFs because they missed the cut-offs, but they were allowed to finish anyway. The fastest person finished the 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike and 13.1 mile run in 4:27:59.1. Sometimes after a good run, I think that I’m allowed to group myself in the same category as these folks, but after watching these awesome athletes compete, I’m reminded that I’m not even in the same stratosphere.

Sea planes from Duluth, MN manned by twin brothers.  They flew up here just to compete and shortly after they finished, off they went.

Finished.

I talked to my PT the other week and she gave me the go-ahead to move all my runs outdoors. Yay! Just one week earlier, I renewed my gym membership for three months. Doh! Oh well, it'll be nice to fall back on the treadmill if the weather gets out of hand.

I’m also supposed to start slowly weaning myself off of the mp3 tickety-ticks to see if I can hold my cadence at 174.  I pondered how I could do that without my mp3, then decided to see if Garmin made a footpod to track cadence. Turns out they do! Say hello to the Garmin Footpod.

My first impression was that it was bigger than I thought it was going to be. According to the manual, it’s 42 mm x 10 mm (1.6 inches x .4 inches), so I guess that’s not all that big. It’s smaller than the face on the Garmin 305, for what it’s worth.

There’s a clip on the back that gets woven through the laces. The clip seemed fairly tight & secure, so I didn’t have any fears about it falling off once it got fastened on.

Here’s a side view. It does look rather large, doesn’t it?

Setup was easy - added it to my Forerunner 305, give it a minute to pair, then walk start walking around. Presto, cadence!

I took it for a spin last night, all anxious to see how accurate it was and I used my mp3 to I could make sure I was staying on pace. I’m supposed to keep my strides no lower than 87 (it measures strides on one foot, so half of 174), which is what the footpod recorded for the majority of my run. Sometimes, however, it seems like it’d lose it’s connection and the cadence would be reading in the low 50s (note the dips) even though I had not changed my stride. I’m not sure what that was all about. It also stayed in place and I didn’t even notice it on my shoe.

I’ll have to take it on a few more runs to see if I want to toss the mp3 in favor of the footpod so the jury’s still out.

In other news, HOLY COW IT’S HOT OUTSIDE. High 80s, 90s, 100s.  Did I move to Arizona and nobody told me? Sheesh.  This damn heat even forced me to get out of bed before work and go running. Can you imagine! Josh is working his way through the Couch to 5k running program, and he decided that there was no way in hell he was running in 90 degree weather after work, so we were on the Nara Trail at 06:00 on Tuesday morning working our way through his session (Wk 2, workout 1).  I believe it was 70 and muggy as heck outside. I’m glad we were only out for 30 minutes. After work, I had to get in my regular session, so we headed out to McLain Park in the hopes it would be cooler. It wasn’t. I ran through the park (holy quagmire of trailers and tents) and then jumped in the lake.

It was cold.

I could only go forward an inch or two at a time before I was finally deep enough for it to not matter any more.

It felt good though, I can’t remember the last time I was swimming in Lake Superior.

Another week in the bag. This is what, week 6? I can’t remember and I’m too lazy to check the calendar.

My Saturday morning long run of eight miles was much better that last week’s seven. I didn’t get run over, I felt decent and thanks to Lady Gaga, Radiohead, Black Eyed Peas, Beyonce, Justin Timberlake, Katy Perry and Mumford and Sons my head stayed in the game. I don’t typically run with music because I like to hear what’s going on around me, but after my mental breakdown last week, I thought it might help. And it did, too. Around the five mile mark when the first negative thoughts popped into my head, I cranked up the volume on my Shuffle and let Lady Gaga tell me all about how she wanted to go ride around on somebody’s disco stick and was able to keep the negativity away.  Such a poet she is, that Gaga.

My runs were a little bit slower this week than last:  4 miles @ 10:18 (hill training), 3 miles @ 10:15 (shin meltdown) and 8.15 miles @ 10:40 (long) for a total of 15.15 miles @ 10:29.

I tried a new product on Saturday, Nuun active hydration tablets.  I typically fill my flasks with a Gatorade (orange)/water mix, but when I was rummaging around in my running box on Friday night to find a gel, I came across a Nuun single-tablet packet that I bought last summer but never used. I wasn’t planning on taking anything but water in my flasks because I forgot to pick up Gatorade, so I was happy to find that little tablet.  On Saturday morning, I filled up a measuring cup with 16 oz. of water and dropped the tablet in and it fizzed it’s way to life, just like Alka Seltzer.  I drank one flask on my run (maybe a little bit from the second flask), and I thought it tasted pretty yummy, way better than my watered down Gatorade and definitely less sweet. It was slightly fizzy, which was a little bizarre & off-putting at first, but after my second water break I didn’t really notice it. The best thing is I didn’t suffer from any post-run stomach issues with the Nuun, like I do when I use Gatorade. I’m certain it’s because Nuun is sugar free. I think I’ve found my new hydration product.

And, finally, the shin report. I had more discomfort that I’m comfortable with during my eight mile run on Saturday and I’ve decided that in order to not let them get any more out of hand, I’m going to take next week off. My schedule called for two four mile and one nine mile run and I don’t think there was any way between today and my next run that they were going to settle down enough, so it’s going to be a week of trainer rides for me.  I don’t really mind riding my trainer, but it does get a bit boring after 30 minutes (my longest ride has been an hour).  I’m going to try and do 90 minutes on Saturday to make up for my long run and I’m already worried that I’m going to be bored to tears. I know people who ride their trainer for four or five hours! How they do that without going bonkers is beyond me.

I also ordered The Injured Runner dvd which I should get on Tuesday. It looked like it had some pretty useful exercises for the typical injuries it seems like I’m always getting and thanks to a discount coupon, I was able to get it for around $15 with free 2-day shipping from runningwarehouse.com. I’m hoping it helps.