luluorange’s Training Blog

I signed up after last week’s 10k run, figured that I need a group to help motivating and training for my next race. Running a 10k is one thing, running a 1/2 marathon in the hope of eventually building up to a full marathon is quite another. They are training for the Pasadena Marathon in November and since I am doing the half, this will be a good ride. Over the past two years, I’ve been going just solo, but I realized I don’t push myself hard enough to get pass benchmarks and to improve. This is where joining a running club come in to play.

The group meet at 7 am by Santa Monica Pier, I was introduced to my pace group leader by one of the Board member on site. I decided to run with the 9.5 pace group, since I have been consistently running high 9s and my 10 k resulted at pace of 9.04. 9.5 seemed to be a reasonable number to start and work my way up (or down?). Our group leader just got back from Italy, he ran the Rome marathon, wow, imagine that!!! This is a very friendly group, everyone is so nice, I was introduced as the “newbie” and everyone welcomed me. Today’s attendance was low because a lot of people are running the San Diego Rock N Roll Marathon this Sunday, they are all down there at the expo today. Normally this is a pace group that consist of 85 runner, there were only about 30 today. We ended up combining our group with the 9 minute pace group.

As we ran, the 9 minute group really push forward fast, our group leader and three other girls ran with me pretty much the whole time. The goal is 6 miles today, we were a little short, overall, it was a great run, we ended up doing 9.27, a little better than 9.5. Yeah! I felt like I pushed myself to keep up with the pace which is exactly what I need. I am really happy I decided to join the group.

Workout:

• Type: Run
• Date: 05/31/2008
• Time: 07:36:00
• Total Time: 00:55:05.00
• Distance: 5.82 miles
• Average Pace: 9:27.82/mile

I don’t really know why the soreness was so bad, after all, it’s only 6.2 miles, nothing I am not used to running. I debated whether to run today or not, I decided to take it easy and do a treadmill run, just get some blood flowing in my muscle. After all, I already took Monday off; I have to get serious for the 1/2 marathon training.

Someone at the race told me about LA Leggers that are training for the Pasadena 1/2 which I have also signed up for. They meet every Saturday, I will check it out this Saturday.

Workout:

• Type: Run
• Date: 05/27/2008
• Time: 12:46:13
• Total Time: 00:40:00.00
• Distance: 4.14 miles
• Average Pace: 9:40.65/mile

This is my first race, I was getting excited last night, didn’t sleep very well, I woke up every hour on the hour since 3 in the morning. Finally by 6 am, I decided to just forget about sleeping. I am also hosting a Memorial Day Bar-B-Q at my house after the race. So I ended up marinating beef ribs and chickens, prepping for my party after I woke up. The 10k doesn’t start till 8:45 am but my friends and I went a bit early to ease the nerve.

There were about 1200 runners, some were running 5k; the location is the beautiful Brentwood on Coral tree-lined San Vicente Boulevard. I chatted with a few other runners, everyone asked me about my Garmin Forerunner 405, they all loved their 305s. Talking with people calms me down a little.

The first mile was hard for me, I was a bit worried that my sluggish week of running was going to carry over to the race. My legs feel heavy, I was thirsty, and I didn’t drink anything after 7 am because I didn’t know what the bathroom setup was going to be like at the race. By the time mile one hits, my throat was burning from thirst. The aid station at mile 2 was great help; I downed a cup of water and felt much better.

I started to pickup pace after mile 3, feeling good, the crowd cheering around the neighborhood was exciting. I continue to grab Gatorade every chance I get. My best training time for 10k was 57:55 minutes, I was secretly hoping that I could at least match my personal best if not beat it. The second half of the race, it started to get hot, but my momentum was good and beating my personal best was becoming likely. My husband and my daughter were in the crowd cheering for me. I finished in 56:14 minutes and felt really good! I am so happy that I finished strong and I can’t wait to do it again!

Workout:

• Type: Run
• Date: 05/25/2008
• Time: 08:45:00
• Total Time: 00:56:14.00
• Distance: 6.2 miles
• Average Pace: 9:03.81/mile

Not intentionally, just feeling tired, had a couple of bad run day. Just like life, I guess…hopefully, things will turn around soon.

I redeemed some of my credit card points for a cute red ipod shuffle, I have been running with a big-o 80 GB video ipod, I sure don’t mind. I have taken the big ipod through many, many miles and I keep it in my car, my office, I listen to music all day long. But I think I should have something a bit compact for a race so I don’t look like a dork holding a big-o ipod in my hand.

Workout:

• Type: Run
• Date: 05/23/2008
• Time: 06:00:00
• Total Time: 00:46:00.00
• Distance: 4.65 miles
• Average Pace: 9:53.08/mile

I didn’t give it much thought until this morning, I realized that I have been running on the same pair of shoes for close to 400 miles so far. I usually change shoes at about 300 miles. Duhh…
I usually have a new pair of shoes waiting in the pipe line (when they go on sale, I stock-up). I’ve been sticking with the same shoes for 8 pairs in the role, I’ve learn not to change what works. Sure enough, the run this morning feels really good with the new shoes. No knee pain. Yeah!!! I’ll break these in for a couple of days before the Sunday race.

Workout:

• Type: Run
• Date: 05/20/2008
• Time: 14:04:25
• Total Time: 00:49:55.00
• Distance: 5.06 miles
• Average Pace: 9:52.11/mile

The temperature is estimated to be over 100, as I am heading out at 6:15 am, it is already 10 degree hotter than usual. The sun is very bright. I know I have to make good time today to get the most out of my run. I won’t have anytime to workout the rest of the weekend with this out of town wedding I have to go to. I made pretty good time for 10k, I hope I can do as well next Sunday for my 10k race. I just hope it doesn’t get too hot, the race doesn’t start till 8:45 am, I am usually done with my run by that time. I am not sure if I should take it easy for next week and not keep my regular running schedule (sort of save myself for the race on Sunday), I don’t think there’s any tapering needed for a 10k run. Anybody has any ideas?

Workout:

• Type: Run
• Date: 05/17/2008
• Time: 06:30:00
• Total Time: 00:57:33.00
• Distance: 6.21 miles
• Average Pace: 9:16.41/mile

We followed the Nike run 5 mile route, one of the girls had never done a 5 mile walk, she has been walking the 3 mile route and she was a little apprehensive at first. We chatted along, laughed, and gossiped; I know, it’s bad but it’s sooo good.

Workout:

• Type: Walk
• Date: 05/16/2008
• Time: 17:00:00
• Total Time: 1:31:00.00
• Distance: 5 miles
• Average Pace: 18:10.91/mile

As summer approaches, weekends are filled with weddings, parties, and different activities, mostly work related social commitment that between me and my husband, we just couldn’t get out of. Work certainly didn’t let up either, I am feeling the pinch of the time pressure. I really don’t like to fill my weekend jam-packed with todos and I like it even less when I can not do anything about lightening up my schedules. urrrr!!!

Three days in a row I am waking up early than I need to be, must be something bothering me…
I decided to make the best of it by going for a run and get to work early.

I had a good run in the gym this morning.

Workout:

• Type: Run
• Date: 05/16/2008
• Time: 05:05:00
• Total Time: 00:56:57.00
• Distance: 5.84 miles
• Average Pace: 9:44.42/mile

I am not completely focused on training for this event since I have been running consistently for a while.
In my mind, 10k is about a normal training run that I do a couple of times a week. I’ll just go out there and run and see what happens. The only goal I have in mind is to run under an hour. I asked a few girls in the office who are walkers to walk the 10k and afterwards we’ll all go out to eat. Should be fun.

Workout:

• Type: Run
• Date: 05/13/2008
• Time: 14:36:27
• Total Time: 00:49:43.00
• Distance: 5.17 miles
• Average Pace: 9:36.92/mile

Hence blew my chance of getting to the beach for a run. 20 minutes in the morning makes a big difference as far as getting to work on time. oh well… So I decided to go to the gym for a quickie on the treadmill. Lucky me, my favorite treadmill was open, the one with captions on the TV screen so I can still listen to music on my ipod while watching CNN. That never happens, usually by the time I get to the gym, someone is already on it.

What a Monday morning, full of bad news, from earthquake in China to tornado hitting the heartland, postage stamp increase again, airline imposing surcharges in the amount that could double the ticket price, so on and so forth… Reminding me to keep things in prospective and appreciate everything I have, my health, my family, a good job that provides financial stability and love in my heart.

Workout:

• Type: Run
• Date: 05/12/2008
• Time: 13:53:10
• Total Time: 00:39:04.00
• Distance: 4.16 miles
• Average Pace: 9:24.26/mile