Category Archives: take it and run thursday

the end

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If you are visiting from Runners’ Lounge, just check out the training segment (video number three). This is a quick (and funny) what not to do when training for your distance races. If you are preparing for your first long race and want a little knowledge about what it’s like (if you are slow and under trained), you can check out my other videos on this post and this post.

For the rest of you, just a warning before watching. All of these are kind of offensive. I sing in two of them (and it’s awful, out of breath, out of tune singing) and swear in one, and there’s a crazy old guy dancing in another. If you don’t want to watch them, that’s okay. They give even me nightmares. Although, the “training” video is pretty funny.

My personal favorite…the training segment. (Not for young ears…don’t tell my dad). My other favorite thing is the lame-o behind us at the end, hoping for 10 seconds of fame. Where? I don’t know. It’s not like my blog is going to make her famous. I have never understood people like that.

This is just some nut dancing at the end of the race. It’s kind of long and, at first, you can’t see him. But I still wanted to share.

Here we all are, the morning after; exhausted from both the race and our crazy hike after it (yes…we thought hiking to Delicate Arch would be a good idea).

Anne’s parents are my favorite. Seriously. They were fabulous for the marathon (the full in St. George) and it was so fun to drive up to Anne’s house and see this sign in the window! Thank you! Thank you!

And with that, I end my half-marathon posts (I still have some Moab stuff). I hope you have enjoyed the video journey of an under trained runner. If this has not convinced you to train before attempting distance races, I’m not sure what would. Although, hopefully, you can tell that I was enjoying myself.

take it and run thursday – gear, gadgets, and equipment

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I have done a lot of writing about running. It is what consumed the better part of my summer and fall last year. So, with a post about gear, gadgets, and equipment, I decided to search my archives, and what did I find? This post, which is surprisingly appropriate, given the fact that it’s about running 13.1 miles, which is what I’ll be doing Saturday morning in Moab, UT, with three of my favorite runners; Anne, Christy, and Jen (who I’ll meet IRL tomorrow when I pick her up at the airport…I’m so excited!!!).

There’s also this post which has a picture of some of my favorite items, and yours truly after a nine mile run in June (oh how I miss the summer).

And just because I think music is necessary “equipment”, here’s a post with lots of downloadable goodness.

For more exciting info on other runners’ favorite gear, gadgets, and equipment, visit Take It and Run Thursday over at the Runners’ Lounge blog. Great stuff!

take it and run thursday – what i know now

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Story #1:

Once upon a time, there was a girl who was training for her first half marathon. The race was in March, so all of her training happened in the winter. One Saturday morning, bright and early, she went for a run. It was a cold, sunny day causing her to think two things. First, she wouldn’t need to take water with her, even though she was scheduled to run 10 miles. Second, the sun lulled her to a false sense of security and made her forget that she was still running in the ice and snow of a Utah winter. Being that she is an extremely independent and stubborn girl, it didn’t occur to her to carry her phone with her.

She headed to the Provo River trail and off on her run. Things seemed to be going well. She ran along just fine for about 10 miles. And then she fell. She wasn’t wearing gloves, so she cut her hands. She had no water or fuel with her, so when her adrenaline started pumping from the fall there were serious consequences. She was so shaky it took her about 30 minutes to walk the last mile to her car.

Story #2:

Another “upon a time”, a girl was training for her first marathon. She had flown from Utah to Arizona in June to help her sister with a new baby. As she had just started her training, she did not want to lose momentum, so she planned to run in the scorching heat of the Arizona summer.

Saturday morning she needed to run seven miles. She left the house bright and early at 6:30 am. Unfortunately, in Arizona, at this time of day it was already about 90F outside. Being that it was hot outside, she was smart enough to bring water with her, 20 whole oz. About three miles into said run, she was out of water and ready to die. Once again, she had not brought her phone with her (some lessons take a while) so she couldn’t call her sister to come rescue her. She had not thought to bring money with her to buy more water. So there she was, on the corner of Queen Creek and Power, standing in front of a gas station.

She had been heading over to her friend’s house (she used to live in Arizona) and there was no way she was going to make it, so she finally went into the gas station and asked if she could use the phone. It’s not that she didn’t want to ask to use the phone, but she was afraid they’d say “no” as there was a pay phone outside. They didn’t and thankfully, Vicky’s phone number was one of the few that she actually knew by heart. Vicky answered and came to pick her up.

Lessons learned:

  • Running in 30F is very different than 90F, which is different than 70F.
  • Carry your cell phone when running alone.
  • Have enough water (or access to it) for your run.
  • Running in Arizona in June is just stupid.
  • Know your limits.

Really, the thing I know now that I wish I’d known then is that knowledge is power, even in running. Learning from others is the best way to avoid making the same mistakes. Ask questions. Talk to people. Read books. Runners are some of the friendliest people I know. What works for one may not work for you, but it’s sure nice to know the options and possibilities.

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!

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!