Virtual 12athon: Month 2

So begins month 2 of the 12athon! For this month I decided to tackle the:

Masquerade: Run in a costume based on a holiday in that month. Photo or video evidence mandatory! 8 POINTS. 4 more points if you run as Cupid on February 12! (I did not run as Cupid, because I didn’t want to deal with wings…but I did dress up!) and,

“That Guy”: Sign up for a 10K, cross the finish line, turn around and run the course in reverse (stopping at the 12th mile is optional). 8 POINTS (I didn’t stop at 12…ran 12.4!)

 

We headed down to Tidelands park for the race start at 8…after the bathroom line, I had about 2 minutes to make it to the start. This picture was taken before I dashed off and shouldered my way through the walkers. Note the candy colored outfit, and the Valentine’s Day socks I found at Walgreens at 10pm! My husband had planned to run with me, dressed in similar colors, but due to injury, he became my bike crew/film crew for the day.

The race started with a run under the Coronado Bridge, then we ran by the golf courses until we reached the Strand, before we turned around and came back the same route.

I tried to reign my speed in for the first 10K, and came in at a 1:03.14. I can’t wait until I can do another 10K and see how far I can actually get under an hour.

I got my timing chip cut off, so I didn’t confuse the poor computers (or race officials), picked up my medal (because they were awesome, and I didn’t want them to run out) and headed out on the course again! I got several yells of “wrong way!” as I ran off, but it was hilariously run to run against the stream of people. The course got pretty sparse, and race officials were actually breaking it down, but Coronado has huge, safe, quiet streets, so it was pretty easy to stay on the same course.

My second 10K wasn’t too far off the pace of the first, and aside from my break at the 10K and one stretch break, I didn’t walk at all. A first for me! You can also see in the video below that I managed to beat 2 people during my 20K journey…I wasn’t last.

It was one of the best run races that I’ve ever been a part of, and one of my best races…both ways. 12athon month two DONE!

 

Unbreakable: The Western States 100 @ the Santa Monica Public Library

Two of my favorite things: ultrarunning and libraries.

While in class one evening, I was surfing the web (yes, I multitask during class sometimes), and I found Anton Krupicka’s blog. I’d been hearing a lot about him, ever since Leo started his January experiment, since he’d done a lot of research into ultrarunning and ultrarunners. So I was curious to read back through some of his entries to learn about his training and mileage. I was scrolling through when I noticed that he’d written that he’d be in Southern California that weekend for a screening of Unbreakable: The Western States 100 in Santa Monica.

I’d heard about Western States through several running blogs, and I’d seen the trailer, but I hadn’t been paying attention to when the film was coming out. So I did a little internet digging and found a link to buy tickets to the screening, which just happened to be held at the Santa Monica Public Library.

As a library student, I’ve been hearing about SMPL since I started my grad program. It’s commonly looked upon as one of the best libraries in the area, and I was dying to take a look around. So I surreptitiously got my credit card and bought tickets (ok, that’s probably stretching the limits of multitasking during class).

It was a great event. We showed up early and wandered around the library for awhile. They have some cool shelves for their new book displays that really showcase the books, and are more inviting than regular shelving. I’d really like to see if they ever had older shelving, and compare the circulation numbers, because I’d bet money that the new shelving helps. The teen and children’s areas were also really well designed, with a top-notch collection and great technology integration.

The screening was held in an auditorium off the main library. We got started right on time, and the film was fabulous. Great soundtrack, great cinematography, and a good balance on the background of each runner and race footage. It was amazing to see people actually racing a 100-miler, as opposed to just surviving one.

The Q&A afterwards was also really interesting. The filmmaker answered some questions, and so did Anton and Scott Mills (Race Director of the San Diego 100 Mile Endurance Run, and ultrarunner in his own right). Unfortunately, there was no one to ask my questions to (seriously, what do other female ultrarunners do for underwear? sports bras? bathroom stops?) but I loved the general information nontheless.

I managed to space and forget that my iTouch is also a camera, so no pictures, but I definitely want to get a copy of the movie and watch it for inspirational purposes. Nothing like watching someone run 100 miles to make your 10K look like a piece of cake.

Workout Week Wrap-Up: Week 5 (January 29-February 4)

Sunday (1/29): 6.2 mile run (Beach Party 10K)

Monday (1/30): 1.5 mile run with fitness challenges

20 burpees

20 star jumps

20 pushups

40 mountain climbers

50 high knees

20 tuck jumps

20 squats

Tuesday (1/31): 6.0 mile run on the treadmill in 1:05.00, 4.1 miles run at home in 55:00

Wednesday (2/1): Day off

Thursday (2/2): 1.5 hour dance class

Friday (2/3): Day off

Saturday (2/4): Day off

Weekly Mileage: 17.8

Year Mileage to Date: 100

This week, my singleminded goal was to reach 100 miles in the month of January. I had known I was getting close for awhile, but towards the end of the month was the first time it actually became a tangible goal. Tuesday was packed, but I managed to bang out 6 miles on the treadmill at school before coming home to finish out the month. I was really excited to hit the 100 mile milestone (ouch) and I can’t wait to see what my total mileage for 2012 is going to be.

Of course, after that I took several days off, but I needed a break from the insanity of January. I’m going to try to keep my nutrition going well, even though I’m running less. so that I can get back into it easily.

Oh, and no real race recap for the Beach Party 10K. It was a pretty small race, and not my best pace wise, so I wasn’t feeling the write-up.

Workout Week Wrap-Up: Week 4 (January 22-28)

This week was dominated by rest days as I recovered from my King of the Hill induced cold. The run today was really painful, and I started it very apprehensive both about my ability to finish, and my ability to run a good 10K tomorrow. But by the end I was feeling like I’d found my groove again. We’ll see how my legs feel tomorrow.

Sunday (1/22): Sick Day

Monday (1/23): Sick Day

Tuesday (1/24): Sick Day

Wednesday (1/25): Sick Day

Thursday (1/26): Dance Class (1:30)

Friday (1/27): 5.6 miles in 1:20

Saturday (1/28): 6.7 miles in 1:20

 

Weekly Mileage: 12.3

Year Mileage to Date: 82.2

Bloggers and Criticism

I read a lot of healthy living blogs. Less than I used to, but they’re still a sizable category in my Google reader, and I have a few that I catch up on that aren’t even on my reader.

I enjoy them because I like reading about other people’s workouts, seeing their workout clothes (it’s like a fashion blog with running shoes), and getting motivated to enjoy my own workouts. Occasionally I pick up a new recipe from them, but often I get most of my food ideas from food bloggers (another Google reader category).

During the Marie Claire controversy I really started thinking about my motivations for reading healthy living bloggers. Despite having a history of disordered eating, I was never triggered by any of the food posts on these blogs, even when bloggers took pictures of breakfast, lunch and dinner. I kind of assumed that they were probably eating other things, and my “magazine filter” was always on, assuming that the pictures of their food were posed and lighted to make them look their best. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but I never expected that my eating habits, or even my food, would look anything like theirs. I also never thought that I should be working out exactly like the bloggers I read. Instead, I took their workouts as possible training plans, learned about new activities, and gained inspiration from their struggles.

I was reminded of that time this morning when I was checking up on Carrots ‘N’ Cake and saw some interesting comments on one of her recent posts. Apparently, she’s recently gotten into CrossFit (side note: yay!) and is enjoying her workouts, and enjoying sharing them with her blog readers, as well as sharing some of her eats during the day. I’ve been reading Carrots ‘N’ Cake off and on for years, and it was really cool to get caught up on her current life. But some of her readers were not so happy, with many choosing to comment that they were tired of “all the CrossFit posts” and that they didn’t think that her food posts were “demonstrating healthy eating.” A few readers even said that they wished she would go back to posting Body Pump workouts and running recaps like she used to.

What?

Bloggers aren’t our personal magazine columnists. They don’t always write about one exercise, one eating style, or one athletic event. I can see how someone might feel a little sad if they’d “bonded” with a blogger over their love of one sport, and then the blogger switched to something new, but these are people with their own lives. They’re allowed to do whatever they want, and if they choose to share, that’s great. But they’re not obligated to only do one type of exercise, wear one type of clothing, or eat a certain way. If they’re enjoying their lifestyle and their eating choices are working for them, then they are living their life the best way they can.

It seems so disingenuous to start complaining that a blogger isn’t doing what they used to. Of course they’re not. They’re people, who are trying to enjoy the lives they have, not follow some template that they’re locked into just because they wrote about it once. I’m thankful that so many people around the world want to allow me to learn something about a piece of their lives, no matter what pieces they choose to share.

 

Race Recap: King of the Hill 2012 – Mount Woodson

We started the morning at 6:20, since we were staying in Escondido and didn’t have to drive all the way down from LA. The morning was cold, I hadn’t slept well, and I did NOT want to get out of bed. Or get dressed. Or run a race.

We grabbed our go cups of coffee and headed out. Try as I might, I can’t remember what I ate for breakfast. We drove through the fog/drizzle to Lake Poway and checked in at the race site. We listened to the briefing for the Bad Ass racers (they carried 30-50 pound packs and all their own water) before they set out, and then we had a half hour to wait before we took off.

I was miserable. I was positive that I was going to get lost, die, be unable to finish, or be the last one across the line (strangely enough, all of these fears felt exactly as awful…yay type A!) I tried to talk Leo into changing our “racing alone” strategy to stick with me, but he gently refused and reminded me that I had signed up because I wanted a challenge.

Which is true. I’m trying to fail at more things, rather than not trying anything at all. But I didn’t expect a challenge to feel so scary. Lesson learned.

I ate a Larabar (chocolate chip cookie dough btw, the only flavor I really like), before pulling on my gloves and getting out of the car. It had started to rain, and I briefly thought about putting on my thicker shirt, or my fleece but decided not to. (I would think about this decision ruefully a little later).

We heard our briefing, then took off. I really focused on not killing myself too early on in the race. Basically, we raced up a mountain, then back down, with a few fitness challenge stops along the way. The worst one was definitely the station that started with 10 tuck jumps and 10 pushups, then 9 tuck jumps and 9 pushups, and so on down to 1.

We all slowed down a little when we got to steep switchbacks partway up the mountain. It was raining pretty steadily, and I was already soaked. But it was strangely fun to just keep trudging along up a mountain. I couldn’t see very far in front of me, or any distance off the mountain, since we were essentially inside a cloud. Gradually, I was all alone on the mountain.

I had been really worried that it would be too steep for me to handle (since I do not do well on actual “climbing”), but it was all do-able. At the top (where I later found out it was sleeting), we had to do 100 mountain climbers before heading down the mountain again. After my mountain climbers, I decided that my goal was to run the entire way down the mountain without stopping.

It was quite an adventure, as it was raining harder now, and I had to perfect a glasses wiping manuever that involved taking my glasses off with the least muddy portion of my gloves, wiping them on the back of my shirt (least muddy part), and then putting them back on. I did this probably every 8 minutes or so down the mountain. My arms were really numb at the top, and I started smacking them to get the blood flowing a little.

Despite all this, I was having a FANTASTIC time. I couldn’t keep the smile off my face, and I felt like such a badass covered in mud and sprinting down a mountain in the rain. That feeling only intensified when I was ordered to drop and perform 10 burpees in a mud puddle, before running up the hill to the finish.

I came down with a brutal cold later that day that I’m still recovering from, but it was totally worth it. Best run of the year so far.

Workout Week Wrap-Up: Week 3 (January 15-21)

I was so worried about King of the Hill that I wanted to go on a practice hike on Monday. It was so steep that it kind of freaked me out, but I was very happy when King of the Hill was less daunting.

Sunday (1/15): 4 miles walking in 50 minutes

Monday (1/16): 1640 vertical ft. of hiking in 3:30

Tuesday (1/17): Rest Day

Wednesday (1/18): 6.3 miles in 1:00.25

Thursday (1/19): Dance Class (1:30)

Friday (1/20): Rest Day

Saturday (1/21): 7 miles trail running (King of the Hill – Mt. Woodson)

50 Pushups

12 Lunges

100 Mountain Climbers

10 Burpees

50 Tuck Jumps

Weekly Mileage: 19.3 miles

Year Mileage to Date: 69.9 miles

Workout Week Wrap-Up: Week 2 (January 9-14)

I fit in a weights workout as early as I could this week to gear up for King of the Hill. It made me feel better mentally, but I don’t think it really helped at all during the race. A really good week.

Monday (1/9): Weights workout at UCLA

2 x 10 Back Lunges with 25 lb

2 x 10 Box Jumps

2 x :15 Single Leg Wall Squat

1 x :25 Wall Squat

2 x 10 Goblet Squat with 25 lb

2 x 10 Step-Ups with 17.5 lb

4 x 10 Pushups

2 x :30 Plank

Tuesday (1/10): 3.7 miles in 40 minutes

Wednesday (1/11): Rest Day

Thursday (1/12): 6 miles in 1:10, and 6 miles in 1:30

Friday (1/13): Rest Day

Saturday (1/14): 2.3 miles in 20 minutes

25 Pushups

 

Weekly Mileage: 18 miles

Year Mileage to Date: 50.6 miles

Virtual 12athon: Month 1

Because I am insane, love a challenge, and want to run way too much, I decided to join the virtual 12athon, conceived by the brilliant Stet That Run. In short, the goal is to run 12 miles on the 12th of each month (adding optional diabolical challenges to gain extra points.)

I began this morning with this:

And began my first 6 miles before sunrise in my local area, as determined by SunriseSunset.com, because there’s no way I know when the sun rises. Leo ran with me, despite only getting 1 hour of sleep, and we ran one of our usual 2.5 mile out-and-back routes, then tacked on a mile at the end for a total of 6.

After a breakfast of eggs and bacon, I grabbed my new coffee cup (yay!) and raced out the door to my internship, which was followed by a class on campus. After that, I headed out to run my second 6 miles, which turned into a loop and a half around the entire campus. (Note to other runners: don’t eat a kale salad before you go running. You’re welcome.)

I was really proud of myself for running most of my second 6 miles, because the route was really hilly, but really fun. My legs hurt less at the end than during my half marathon on the 7th, so yay for increased training.

I ended the run with this:

Sunrise and sunset in 1 day! Thus fulfilling the Sunrise/Sunset challenge. I also decided to document my footwear:

Thus fulfilling the Naturalist challenge. Also, rainbow socks, just because I’m cool.

The first 6 miles took about 1 hour 20 minutes, the second 6 miles took about 1 hour 30 minutes (I had to check 3 buildings for bathrooms…apparently they were all being renovated today.)

I’m so excited to keep completing challenges, and happy to have month 1 in the bag! 11 to go!

Workout Week Wrap-Up: Week 1 (January 1-8)

It’s really astonishing how much you end up working out when the other person who lives in your house is running every day. It’s almost impossible to not do something physical every day. I think this is my most active week in several months.

Sunday (1/1): 10 pushups, 1 mile of Tabata sprints

Monday (1/2): 10K run in 1:15

Tuesday (1/3): 2.1 miles of running in 22 minutes, plus 7 x 7 pushups (42 total)

Wednesday (1/4): 5K in 28:49

Thursday (1/5): Full body stretch (rest day) and 3 x 10 pushups

Friday (1/6): 4 mile run in 43:00

Saturday (1/7): 13.1 miles (Southern CA Half Marathon) in 2:27.03

Sunday (1/8): 5K in 40:00

Week Mileage: 32.6

Year Mileage to Date: 32.6

Seeing it written out makes me more tired than I already am! Ready for a new week