A Few Neat Items

You know I'm excited if I'm adding two new blog posts in less than an hour of each other!  Sorry, I just can't help myself!  I'm that excited!

Over the last few weeks, I've gotten some neat things that I definitely plan to wear or use during the relay.  Here's a quick synopsis.

This Nike Pro half-zip jacket was on sale at Sports Authority.  It is bright yellow as in beyond-neon-yellow bright!  (This picture doesn't do it justice.)  In fact, my neighbor actually commented on it tonight and said something like "no one's going to hit you wearing that!"

If the temperature doesn't go below 60, though, I probably won't need to wear it while running.  It's super cute, though, so I could definitely wear it another time during the weekend.  (Do you remember when I ran in the rain & my neighbors came to the conclusion that I'm nuts?  Yeah, I was wearing this top that day, so it's not like they couldn't see me.)

Next up are my Girls Run Fast temporary tattoos courtesy of, you guessed it, GirlsRunFast.com!  These were sent to me because I'm awesome on Twitter!  How cute are these?!

Last, and certainly not least is my Road ID shoe ID.  I don't plan on needing this, but who ever thinks something's going to happen?  It's just a good idea to have.  (This isn't my shoe or my shoe ID, but you get the idea.)

I've got cold weather gear, the cute factor, and safety covered!  So far, so good!

This Time Next Friday...

...my Ragnar adventure will already be underway, and I'll have my first run done!  It's so odd to think that something I've been looking forward to since August is just around the corner.  There's still so much to do between now & then!

 
Don't worry!  Grandma's already got her wine.  (Thanks, Dad, for picking that up & delivering it.)  If I won't be drinking that day, she sure as heck should be!  :-)

I want to start packing, but I've got to (1) run three more times before race day gets here, and (2) watch the weather to figure out what to pack!  Speaking of that, I realized not too long ago that I probably would not last long on Survivor.

Are you wondering why?  Have you watched the show?  No matter the location, the contestants usually end up hungry, tired, wet, and cold.  Do you want to know how many of those things I enjoy?  In the words of Dave's grandpa, "Zilch!"  This slightly worries me; races, especially long distance relay races, go on pretty much regardless of the weather*.  (* Of course there are exceptions, but not many!)  The good news is, though, the weather looks like it may be pretty good!  This is what Weather Channel is showing for Marathon next Friday & Saturday.

The wind could be less, but I'll take 70 degree temperatures all day long & twice on Sunday!

I've Been Doing Some Math

A friend & fellow runner, Melanie, wanted to know when the team would be making its way into Marathon.  She was wondering if it would be coinciding with when she'd be there on Saturday.  Well, as luck would have it, and I know you'll probably call BS on this one, it actually looks like my second leg out of three total runs will have me running into Marathon and handing off the baton (slap bracelet) to the next runner!

I started doing some math.  It's hard to calculate time when you're factoring in the paces and varying distances of 11 other runners.  I figured I'd do two sets of calculations: one for an average pace of 8 minutes per mile and one for a more generous pace of 9 minutes per mile.

The 8 minute pace, if my calculations are correct, would have me starting my run (which is about 8 miles north of Marathon) at about 12:30am.  Yes, you read that right: 30 minutes after midnight.  The 9 minute pace, (again) if my calculations are correct, would have me starting my run at about 2:30am.  Yes, you read that right; your eyes aren't failing you.  :-)

Needless to say, it looks like one of my runs will be done in the dark.  I've read that Ragnar relays are very cool in that you're never really "alone," even on the middle-of-the-night runs because so many other teams are out there too.  I'll try to take some pictures of all of the blinkies (runner's equipment with flashing lights to point out "hey, I'm here!").  In case you're wondering, I've got two of my own blinkies that I'll be bringing, and Sweet Mary they are bright, bright, bright!

While I'd love to have you all anxiously awaiting my blog post after that second run, I'm pretty sure you'll all be tucked into bed and looking at the back of your eyelids.  No worries, thought; I get it.  You do remember my saying, right?  Fire, flood, or blood!  If it's not one of those three things, it's not worth being woken up!

Oh, and back to Melanie!  It looks like our paths won't be crossing in Marathon.  But we sure might meet up in Key West at a much more reasonable hour!  Which begs the question: What is a reasonable hour in Key West?

My Neighbors Must Think I'm Crazy

As you probably know, I'm not a fan of mornings!  Maybe if this was waiting for me, I'd like mornings more.

I should say that the toast would have to be whole wheat to really be a "Kimmie approved" breakfast, and I hope that syrup is a "light" version.  Ok, I'm getting off track here!  Back to my neighbors & why they surely think I'm crazy.

 I did not run this morning, but I should have.  Here's the problem, though.  We'll have to work backward to see the issue.  I had a meeting in Broward County at 9:30am; that means I need to leave here by 8am.  Today's run was 8 miles.  At a generous 8 minute per mile pace (which I planned to not do because today was an ass-kickin' tempo run which means to push it, and an 8 minute pace for only 8 miles is not pushing it in my book), that's 64 minutes in just run time.  Factor in stretching afterward and a shower (which my colleagues would probably insist upon given that today's meeting was not virtual), I'm now needing to set aside more than an hour and half.  For those of you keeping track of time, we're now at 6:30am.  But wait, there's more!  (Did you read that in your best, most cheesy, infomercial pitchman voice?  If not, you should have!)  A girl's got to eat before a run, and my tummy likes a full hour to digest.  I could squeak by with maybe 45 minutes of digestion time, but that brings the day's start time to an ungodly 5:45am.  Uhhhhhh, no!  In my house, the saying is "fire, flood, or blood."  If the situation does not involved one or more of those items, do not wake me up!

So, needless to say, I did not run this morning...but I should have!  According to the hourly forecast on my Weather Channel app, the rain chances this afternoon were approximately 30%, and as the day wore on, those percentages would increase up to about 70% around 5 and 6pm.  I could either run during my afternoon break (1:30-3pm) or after I was done at 5pm.  Hmmmmmm...what do you think I chose to do?

Yes, like most semi statistically-inclined people, I chose this afternoon!  Hey, I'm no dummy!

It rained on the way home from my meeting, but when I saw the Local on the 8s, it looked like the rain had pushed away and there was just enough of a clear window to squeeze in my run.  If I couldn't get all 8 miles in before the rain started again, I could likely get most of that done.

Do you know what a 30% chance of rain means?  In my world, apparently, it means I will get rained on with 100% certainty!

Of course, the rain didn't start immediately.  It waited until I was 2 miles into the run, and it wasn't terrible.  So what's a runner girl to do?  Duh - keep going!  Every now & then, the rain would pick up, and the wind seemed to blow in that just perfect way to blow the rain right into my face, but I'm only about 3 and a half miles in; I can't stop this early!  What did I do?  Keep going!  Then I get to 4 miles, and it's still raining.  Well, I'm halfway done.  Why stop now?  Keep going!  Yes, this kept up, and I kept seeing various neighbors driving by.  I'd give them my usual friendly, bubbly, naturally-caffeinated wave, but I know they were thinking, "She's crazy!"  When the rain got stronger around mile 6, what did I do?  Kept going!  When the rain really picked up at about 7.25 miles, what did I do?  Kept going!  I must've seen more neighbors than usual on this run (probably because I stayed in the 'hood and didn't venture outside the pearly green gates), and I'm sure all of them are convinced that I've lost my mind.

I got all of my miles in today, my pace was pretty good, I came back soaked, confused the hell out of my neighbors who may or may not be currently planning an intervention of sorts, and have a fabulous husband who knew to not come looking for me, but to instead leave a beach towel by the front door so I could dry off when I finally did return.  Dave's a keeper for sure!

"Whatever You're Doing is Working."

Remember the chiropractor who told me to do nothing (as in literally nothing) for 12 weeks?  Did I follow that advice?  Not really...but you already knew that!  Well, I saw him yesterday for the first time in a long time.  Actually, it's been so long since I've seen him that he didn't know I was back to running (let alone kicking some ass in local races).

With the relay getting closer, I really wanted to see him to get "fixed up" since it had been a while since I had my legs worked on.  (Quick Grandma story: I told her about my appointment and said it was so I could get "fixed up."  She's so cute!  Her response was, "You don't need to be fixed up. You're perfect the way you are!"  Is that not an awesome Grandma?!)

As Dr. John is working on my legs, we're chatting about my running, what I'm doing, how often I'm running, paces, races, and more.  He commented on my muscle definition and said, "Whatever you're doing is working."  Oh yeah!  Talk about a pat on the back!

Oh, and an extra cool pat on the back came today via Team Captain Andy's email to everyone!  He mentioned my Keys100 blog post about things to remember!  Love it and can't wait for this new adventure to get started!

Bridges...You May Feel Like You're Going to Pass Out

Have you ever done something the first time & thought, "This is miserable," only to do that same thing later on and realized,"Wow!  It's not as bad as I remembered."?  Well, that was me yesterday during the Run for the Coach 5k in Fort Pierce.

I once heard someone describe 5k races as "torture."  It took a while to realize that she was right.  Because of the short distance, you've really just got to go all out, or, as I so eloquently like to say, you've got to go balls to the wall.  I'm a wordsmith; I know.  Don't be jealous!  :-)

So yesterday was a 5k (torture), and it involved the "south beach" bridge in Fort Pierce (more torture).  Did I mention that the course involved going up, over, and down the bridge twice?!  Double torture!

This picture does not give a true feeling for what this bridge is like as a runner.  Even if you've driven over that bridge in your car, you still lose some of those torturous elements.  (Interesting side note: it was so hard to find a semi-decent photo of this bridge via Google and Bing!  Who would've known?!)

The Run for the Coach 5k race followed the same path as the Bridge Buster 5k three weeks ago.  I blogged after that event about how I might not suck for the Ragnar relay based on how I did there.  The good news was that I knew exactly where I'd be running, but the bad news was that I knew what awaited me twice: the bridge!  I won't lie: I was a bit nervous because I know bridges are the bane of my existence.  You really feel like you are going to pass out, and passing out on a bridge would not end well.

Before you get too worked up, know that I didn't pass out.  Yes, I felt like it, but I'm a headcase and am typically my own worst enemy.  The good news is that I didn't feel like I was going to pass out on the first climb!  Seriously!  It was definitely more effort than a flat surface, but it sure as hell wasn't as terrible as it was earlier in the month during Bridge Buster.  (In the interest of total disclosure, I do have to admit that the winds were much different yesterday; they were nowhere near as strong as they were for the first race.  That, obviously, makes a difference.)

With the bridge feeling easier for the first climb and slightly not-as-bad on the second climb, my mile 2 split, while not great, was much better than my mile 2 split from January 4th.  (7:41 pace compared to 7:51 pace)

01/25/14

01/04/14

According to the official race results, yesterday's time for me was 6 seconds faster than the January 4th race.  The bigger victory, for me, was having the bridge not suck as much.

Hooray for small victories!

Mark Your Calendars for February 7th at 8:30am!

Yes, you read that right!  Go time on February 7th is 8:30am for the Bonk Republic team.

So what does that mean for yours truly?  Good question!  I'm in the second van, so I won't be starting for a while, but that's ok.  Maybe we'll get to cheer on the first set of six runners.  The first set will cover 22.8 miles.  Being a bit generous (maybe), if each mile was at a 9 minute pace, that's going work out to be 205 minutes.  In case you don't want to break it down, that's about 3.5 hours.  In my van, runners 7 and 8 will go before me, so that'll mean another 12.1 miles.  Estimating, again, at a 9 minute pace, that's about 108 minutes or an hour and 50 minutes.  Let's round up to 2 hours.  So somewhere about 5.5 hours after 8:30am, I should be hitting the road!  Woo hoo!

I like that!  Why?  Refer back to my blog post about being a "princess" and not enjoying cold weather running!   Even if it's chilly (or downright cold that day), it should hopefully be warmer by 2pm!

This Weather...

Listen, I get it; it's winter, and that means it's not generally going to be "warm."  You don't need to remind me that I grew up in NJ and spent many winters there freezing my behind off.  There's a reason I moved to Florida almost 14 years ago.  (Yes, that reason had to do with Dave and not the weather, but just go with me on this.)  As I said to my mom in an email yesterday, this cold weather is for the birds...and even they don't want it!

So as the relay gets closer, I'm getting slightly worried about this weather.  As of now, I can be a little "princess-y" with my running.  If it's too cold in the morning, I can (and do) wait until later in the day when it's warmer.  It's a whopping 43 degrees outside now.  I'm supposed to be running (as per my training schedule).  I'll give you one guess where I am not!  That's right - I'm not outside!  I'm taking a cue from my cat, stalking the sunshine coming in the front door, and letting that drape over me as I type.  It's (in the words of my mother-in-law) decadent!

But that's a luxury I won't have come relay time!  What's a girl to do?!  It's hard (but not impossible) to look cute & run in the cold.  Not to fear, I picked up a pair of these at Target last week.

 They're light enough to be comfortable and they still allow for use of a touchscreen phone while you wear 'em!  Oh, and they were $3!  That's a steal!

But back to the topic at hand: the relay.  You can imagine how well it would go over if I said, "It's too cold to run; I'd rather wait a few hours for it to warm up."  I'll be keeping a close eye on the weather and (trying) to pack accordingly.  I promise full outfit reports and maybe a picture or two.  But, if you've got any good weather ju-ju you'd like to send my way, I'd really appreciate it!  Don't let my tough-girl exterior fool you; I'm a big wimp when it comes to being cold!!!

3 Weeks From Tomorrow...

3 weeks from tomorrow, the Ragnar Relay Florida Keys adventure officially begins!  Are you as excited as I am?!

There's still a lot to be done between now & then.  First and foremost, though, I've got to get a bottle of wine ordered for Grandma so she can get through the event with me.  (She'll be "with me" from her house in NJ.  Don't worry, folks, I'm not actually dragging Grandma around for 24+ hours in a van!)

Here are my top 5 things to do!

1. Get Grandma her bottle of Dr. L!  Wine.com, you better have that back in stock!
2. Keep running so I don't suck!  Refer to that link to see a previous blog entry about not sucking if you're confused.
3. Continue icing the crotch & soaking the feet.  Again, if you're confused, you must not have read that entry.  It's a good one; check it out!
4. Start to think about making a list of what to bring!  I probably need to refer back to my Things to Remember blog entry from the Keys100 relay.
5. Stop procrastinating, make a decision, and buy a pair of compression tights!  Sweet Mary!  What am I waiting for?!

Icing My Crotch & Soaking My Feet

If I can't be silly, inappropriate, and serious with you, my friends and Internet strangers, with whom can I be those things?!  (Did you notice that?  I didn't end the sentence with a preposition!  My mother would be so proud!  Heck, I'm even proud of myself for that!)  

It's been over a week since my last blog post.  Monday, the 6th, was my birthday.  (The big 3-6, if you must know.  I've designated this Year of Kim, Part 2.)  Wednesday, I had a great, and I mean frickin' fantastic 6 mile run!  To put that in perspective, it was (according to RunKeeper), 14 seconds per mile faster than my 10k race that I won in March!  You don't believe me, do you?  Proof, you want proof?  Ok, take a look-see at what's below.

Frickin' fast, right?!  Had I known that I was just 3 seconds per mile slower than a personal record, I would've worked just a bit harder at the end.  (I'm "mathy;" I can't help it!  Numbers are my thing!)

So in between kicking ass with my runs and starting to know that I won't suck for Ragnar, I've been doing exactly what the title says: icing my crotch and soaking my feet.  Did you think I was using that title just to get your attention?!  Well, maybe just a little, but it really does describe what I do on an almost-daily basis.  Here's why!  During my physical therapy, right when I thought I was getting toward the end of it and inching back up toward my full body weight on the AlterG, I had a day where I woke up and something didn't feel right.  I'll admit, I went into panic mode and was worried that my stress fracture wasn't healing or that I had aggravated it again.  After a quick trip to Wellington to see Dr. Norris, he assured me that my bones do want to heal and that whatever pain or discomfort I was feeling might just be a "training effect."  (Interestingly enough, this article gives some insight to that.)  His advice was to take 2 Aleve, morning & night, and to (wait for it...wait for it...) ice my crotch.  Now, of course, being a doctor, he didn't quite use those words.  Dr. Norris was a bit less, shall we say, blunt, but you know that's what he meant.  Believe it or not, that has helped.  Maybe it's mental; maybe it's physical; maybe it's a combination of both.  Either way, I've been doing that as soon as I get back from all of my runs since about the end of November.  (As much as I love including images in my blog, you can bet your bottom dollar that I will not be doing a Google search for "icing my crotch.")

While I'm not icing, and actually, sometimes when I am icing, I've been soaking my feet in warm water & Epsom salt.  Why?  Well, Epsom salt is actually magnesium sulfate.  Magnesium, as I've learned thanks to my stress fracture, is helpful in promoting calcium absorption.  I've been taking a magnesium supplement for a while, but Colleen (an acupuncturist from Broward County) said that this is also a great way to get magnesium into your body.  My wonderful, thoughtful, health-conscious friend, Judy, got me a bag of Epsom salt for my birthday.  (She also got me a bottle of wine!  I told you she was good friend!)  So starting on the 6th, I've been soaking my feet.  It has felt great, and I've had some pretty excellent runs (including last Wednesday's run) the day after I soak my feet at night.  Coincidence?  Maybe.  Maybe not.  Either way, I'm not willing to take chances.


Tomorrow's a run day: 7 miles.  I'll give you one guess as to what I'm doing right now...

You just figured it out, didn't you?!  :-)

I Might Not Suck Afterall!

Does this blog post's title make you laugh?  It should, but it's also serious.  It was an honor to be asked to participate in Ragnar on Bonk Republic.  (Did I tell you that's the team name?  Sorry if I left that out.  It's cute, right?!)  Anyway, being asked to be part of a team where I'm the only non-member of the Coast Guard represents an important challenge: to not suck!  I was asked (or at least I think I was asked) because I'm a halfway decent runner who could help the team do well.  Maybe I was asked because I'm fun to be around, or maybe it was because of my bubbly personality.  Who knows!  Haha!  Well, this whole stress fracture situation really had me wondering if I'd be back in shape and able to perform at a level that didn't bite.  I've been tracking my runs, as you should know from a previous blog post, and yesterday I got some validation at the Bridge Buster 5k.

If you're not a runner, you might not get that bridges are a pain; they're a challenge, and they will likely make you think that you will die before you finish running up, over, and down it.  Oh, did I mention that yesterday's 5k had runners doing this twice?!  Yup, you read that right!

I haven't run bridges in a while.  Probably since May or June.  Bridges just wipe you out and get your lungs burning.  Knowing that I'd have to do the "up & over" routine twice, I told myself that if my overall race pace was under 8 minutes per mile, I'd be happy.  That wouldn't be a great pace (for me), but I'd deal with it knowing that the "up" portion of the bridge would slow me down and kick my butt.

Are you dieing to know what happened?!  Ok, here's the skinny of it: my first mile was really, really good.  7:14 min per mile according to RunKeeper.  That was really faster than I had planned to start, but it felt good.  Of course, that was prior to any part of the bridge.  My second mile was sort of a disaster, and you know why: the damn bridge!  7:51 min per mile was the pace.  Blows!  Literally - the wind was blowing right into me as I tackled the first "up & over" part of the bridge (heading east).  It was strong, and gave you that feeling of going nowhere fast.  The good news is that upon reaching the turn-around point after getting to the east side of the bridge's base, the third mile turned out better: 7:38 min per mile pace.

End result: 7:31 min per mile (according to RunKeeper)!  I didn't suck!!!  Hooray!

The Adventure Begins 5 Weeks from Tomorrow

Can you believe that 5 weeks from tomorrow will be the start of my Ragnar adventure?  Oh my!

I've been making pretty good progress in my running.  It's actually been neat to track everything on the calendar pages that my physical therapist, Bryan Graham, used as my training guide.  (Note to self: scan those puppies!)  On my 6 mile tempo run yesterday, I did a pace that was slightly better than my 10k pace from last March.  (As an interesting side note, my RunKeeper had a meltdown part way through the run; I didn't know it had stopped tracking and had, somehow, been paused.  Since I don't know the exact time or distance between when it paused & when I restarted it, I do know that my run was actually longer than the 6.01 miles that it logged.)

So what, you might ask, am I most excited about?  How much space do I have here?  Just kidding.  Well, not really, but I won't turn this into a novel.  (I can hear you thanking me now!)

I'm definitely looking forward to the running!  (Duh, right?!)  But it's not just that; it's about running and being able to be a part of something bigger than just "my run."  It's fun to be able to do this with others who enjoy running and to be a part of a team.  I'm looking forward to seeing some old friends from my Keys100 relay and to meeting new, soon-to-be friends.  I like that I'm a part of something crazy!  Seriously, how many people do you know who can say, "Yeah, I was a part of a 200 mile relay from Miami to Key West, and it went through the night!"?  How many people do you know who would want to say that?!  I'm looking forward to blogging about the experience & doing so during the experience thanks to my Toshiba netbook.  Plus, it would be damn cool to be able to say that, as a team, we rocked it and placed near the top!

In the words of Andy Cohen from Bravo, you're just going to have to "watch what happens."