Category Archives: running

take it and run thursday – strength and flexibility (and winners)

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This week’s Take It and Run Thursday: strength and flexibility. Yuck, is all I have to say. Well, and what follows in the next two paragraphs.

First, strength training is one of my least favorite activities on the face of the planet (just before stretching, incidentally). I will share my little anecdote from years past though…which may inspire me to mend my ways. When I was a sophomore in college, I began running consistently for the first time. My only goal was to lose weight (and of course I wanted to run faster because I am competitive with myself). Strength training became a part of the routine when two things happened; first, I hit a plateau and was advised by multiple people that strength training would help, and second, Gold’s Gym (where I belonged) began offering strength training classes. No brain work, no counting reps, no keeping track of anything. My kind of strength training. I started to lose weight again…and my running sped up. Now, I occasionally make it to the strength classes at 24 (my new gym), but I really rely on my favorite video, Turbo Jam – Turbo Sculpt. I love it…I just need to do it more often. So, my goal for this week: do strength workouts three times before next Thursday.

On to flexibility: I’m sure it’s important to stave off injury. I am not flexible. I was actually discussing flexibility with my brother and sister-in-law this weekend. I had just returned from my fabulous run with Christy and was attempting to stretch. Well, I suppose I was stretching. It’s just no one watching me would have thought I was. We are about the most inflexible (mainly physically, but you could probably apply that to other areas) family on the face of the planet. When I cheered in high school, I had to do the splits everyday (seven days a week) in order to not lose the ability to do them. As I am not in the practice of kicking my legs in the air these days, my flexibility is basically non-existent. So, goal number two for this week: do my yoga video one time. Yes, just once. I am all about realistic goals.

Thank you, Runners’ Lounge, for inspiring me to do better. If you want some actual advice or information about benefits, I’m sure you can go there and read other people’s much more informative posts.

And now, for our winners from last week’s contest:

  1. For the person who guessed my number 2 song first: Janssen.
  2. As for the random winner from the comments made (chosen by one of my student employees): Beth.

Mixes will be in the mail on Monday!

running with friends

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So, I have lots to post about from this weekend, but since I would also like the pictures to go along with the post (actually, the pictures will probably be the post), it will have to wait. What I do want to write about was my running this weekend. First of all, I now officially hate snow in the winter. California was an ideal place to grow up. It cooled off in the winter, but to get to snow, we had to drive a few hours. Perfect.

When I knew I would be headed to Vegas this weekend, I got in touch with Cropstar. She is one of the three women with whom I will be running the Canyonlands Half Marathon in less than three weeks (in case you are wondering, I will probably die running this half marathon). She graciously drove to meet me up in my brother’s neck of the woods (or desert, as it were) and off we went. Can I just say how fabulous it was to be running outside at 7:30 am in a tank top? It was fabulous! A little chilly to start, but I warmed right up.

Sadly, I think my nano battery is dying, so I had no music and no Nike+. Happily, I had Cropstar to keep my company and her Nike+ to tell us how slow fast we were running. She was a champ and let me run as slow as needed. We ran a total of 6.28 miles. The farthest run I’ve done all winter. While it was not my fastest 6 miles ever, it did make me feel a little better about running 13.1 in three weeks (a little).

On Monday, I decided to try running without music. I just wanted to see what it would be like to run without any idea of how long (distance or time) I had been going. I was inspired by my friends over at Runners’ Lounge.

Inspiration aside, it was awful. It was 30 minutes (which I knew when I got back to J’s) of me listening to myself breathe, thinking about how miserable I was. I can now say that I’ve tried it and so I feel completely justified in never doing it again. Sure, if there’s someone there to talk to, I’ll leave one headphone out…and I even enjoyed my run with Cropstar without music. But no music and no company = no running for me.

take it and run thursday – love the music (with a giveaway)

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This week’s Take It and Run Thursday is all about podcasts and music. I have never done the podcast thing, so music it is. I love music and rarely manage a run without it (just not that in love with running, I guess). I have learned to run without my Nike + iPod when I’m attempting to just run without any thought for goals, but the music is still there.

In honor of the music, below are some of my favorites from the marathon training days. Enjoy! I chose to only list songs that I could offer for downloading (not protected songs), but I would feel awful if I failed to mention my all time, number one (at least for the St. George Marathon of 2007) training song, Sexy Back by JT. I love that song!

My number two is listed below. Be the first one to guess it in the comments (you only get one guess) and I will send you my latest running mix! And, because I love giveaways, leave a comment between now and next Thursday, and you will be entered in a drawing to win a running mix, as well. Winners will be announced in next weeks installment of Take It and Run Thursday. (Even if you’re not a one for running, you might still enjoy listening to the mix blasting in your car.)

And here is a a little paragraph from an old post on how I incorporated music into my marathon training.

The next thing; I incorporated walk breaks. When doing long runs, especially for the novice runner like myself, there are several different schools of thought, but one tip that seems to be pretty common is to take walk breaks every so many minutes. Well, I didn’t want to look at my iPod (my only source of time) at all for all of the previously mentioned reasons, so I decided, rather than timing my breaks, I would just walk every fifth song (four minutes walking for every 16 running).

The “walk break to music” plan worked brilliantly. I will never do it any other way. As I continued to do it, I figured out what worked for me. I love running because it is really about what works for each one of us.

P.S. For those of you worried about me after my day yesterday, let me just say that I am doing much better today. Amazing what a few hours and a great conversation will do to ease the stresses of life!

take it and run thursday – 13.1

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The Half Marathon is this weeks topic over on the Runners’ Lounge blog.

I’ve been thinking about this all week. I am currently training for one, and I have to say it’s been a bit of a struggle. This will only be my second one and my first was right in the middle of my marathon training schedule. It couldn’t have been easier. I had already run farther than 13.1 miles, so I knew I could do it. It was summer time, so while the temperatures were hot, early morning runs were easy. Now, even midday, the ice and snow keep me in doors most of the time, and training in the treadmill is not the same. As I am sitting here typing this, with my race a month from tomorrow, I must admit I’m freaking out!

So, rather than focus on my neuroses (I have many), I am going to talk about why I love the half marathon distance and why I think anyone can run (or walk) one.

First, I’m going to refer to Amy’s post about the distance. To quote her: “It’s the perfect distance for most runners and especially us slower runners. It’s not too long that we need to plan for the entire day away and its not so short that it is obvious how slow we are running.” I am a slow runner. I do alright in the 5k, because that distance is short enough that many walkers also participate, but when it comes to running a 10k vs. a half marathon, I would choose a half any day of the week.

Second, with it being the perfect distance, it requires a lot less time to train for a half marathon, as compared with a marathon. And, once you start training for the half, you might just realize that the full is not so far out of reach. But if you decide not to do that, a half marathon is still a huge accomplishment (and enough to impress any non-runner).

And finally, if you are training for a marathon, it is something you are going to do anyway, so you might as well do it with other people, get a cool t-shirt and add one more race to your belt (or bulletin board in my case…I have every bib from every race I’ve ever run).

And now for my list of dos and don’ts:

  • It’s really easy to get a little lazy in training (especially if you’ve run one before and know how forgiving it can be). Don’t do it.

  • As with any race, most of us will run a bit faster (race pace). If all you’ve ever done are the shorter distances, you may not realize how damaging starting to fast can be. Know yourself and your limits. I have finally learned that I have to start at a pretty slow pace for the first two miles, let the crowd run ahead, and then I can hit my groove. This makes for a much better run.

  • Train the way you are going to run. Look at the course and what time of day you’ll be running. Try to match this as closely as possible. My first experience was so nice because I had trained on terrain very similar to the race terrain and my training runs started at about 6 am on Saturdays. This meant, mentally, I was confident.

  • Enjoy it!!! That’s my favorite part about the half marathon distance. You can enjoy it (at least when you are well trained…talk to me in a month and I may be singing a different tune)

And here are some of my favorite posts from my favorite runners about their half marathon experiences (the first three are all running the Canyonlands Half Marathon with me and I’m so excited!).

  • Anne’s first half and one of her favorite items.

  • Jen’s post with musings about past and future runs.

  • Cropstar’s post about some of the joys of running.

  • Beth had this to say about her first half:
    First, and at this point in my life, MOST IMPORTANTLY I ran a half marathon yesterday. I know many of you are runners, but I AM NOT and have never wanted to be. However, I have four children, which means I have been prego for 3 years of my life. I love being pregnant (up until 8 mo.) but it is HARD on your body to stretch to abnormal sizes and then go back and pretend it never happened. SO. . . . . I started running. I just gave a lot of background info that was not needed! Anyway, I did it with my good friend, Tia, and her sister-in-law, Mindee. All I have to say is, we pretty much just ROCKED!!! It was SOOO much easier than I thought, and gets me excited for more in the future. (I didn’t have my camera, so once I get a picture I will post our victory shot.)

take it and run thursday – motivation

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Motivation is this weeks topic over on the Runners’ Lounge blog. So, what motivates me to run?

Of course there are the things that I think motivate most people, the desire to be in shape, the need to exercise, the camaraderie of running. But for me it is really all about the show. What do I mean by “the show”? I mean that I like being able to tell people that I have run a marathon. I like that, at one point in time, I ran five miles a day. I like that my calves get uber toned and look great in skirts. My motivation for doing many things is the desire to be a person who would do those things. I don’t know that I am especially adventurous by nature, but I want to be an adventurous person, so I do things that make me that way. I’m definitely not a natural runner, but I want to be a runner, so I run. Now, when I say this, it’s not that I go around talking about running all the time. I don’t. I just like knowing that I could talk about it, should the opportunity present itself.

That is the Big Motivation. And now the daily motivations:

  1. Running off whatever treat I couldn’t seem to resist.
  2. The amazing sense of accomplishment that comes at the end of a good run.
  3. It’s my outlet. In fact, my favorite runs (besides my 10 mile+ runs) are angry runs. I love running off my emotions. Best fuel ever! Unfortunately, I’m not really an angry person, so these don’t happen often.
  4. Getting to see the little improvements that seem to manifest themselves daily. A faster mile split, lower heart rate, longer endurance, etc.
  5. The muscle definition in my quads. This one is just for me since I’m not in the habit of wearing clothing that shows off my quads, but I love it!
  6. My running music. I know this might sound weird, but for some reason there are certain songs that I can only listen to while running. Maybe I feel too old to listen to them otherwise. I don’t really know.
  7. Watching the miles on my sidebar add up.
  8. The prospect of my next race…which is why I always have one scheduled.
  9. Other runners.
  10. Running blogs – I love reading about others’ running experiences.

What kills my motivation?

  1. Anything that sounds more enjoyable than running, which most days could be watching the wind blow, but is more often sleeping (the big run killer) or other time commitments. But, to get through that, I just plan. Like tonight, my day won’t end until 10:30 pm, but I’ll be heading to the gym to get a good run in since I won’t be running at all this weekend.

Wow, I sure am inspirational. You all know my secret, now. I don’t actually like running. But I like knowing that I run, so even though every mile (with the rare exception) is a bit painful, there are moments when I do enjoy it because I think, “I am a runner.”

So, for those of you who think you could never be a runner because you hate running, think again. You can totally do it. I think a few of my running friends would agree with me. (See, that was motivational, right?)

ETA: I forgot one of my biggest motivators. Setting an example for my darling nieces and nephews. I want to be the cool aunt who runs marathons (since the “rich aunt” position has already been filled). And on that note, here’s the newest member of my family: Hope Elizabeth.

You can read the details here.
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