Added Bonus

I am delighted with the fitness combo I received yesterday although I haven't used it for running yet.

My enthusiasm grew even more this morning when I realized I forgot my belt and used the heart rate sensor as a substitute. It's sporty, but yet fashionable! Who knew??? :-)

It Must Be The Shoes

As I mentioned yesterday, I bought some new shoes over the weekend. They faired me quite well this morning as I ran my best 5-mile time to date.

Mile 1 - 9:03
Mile 2 - 9:05
Mile 3 - 9:03
Mile 4 - 9:06
Mile 5 - 9:00

ps - I was a lot closer to the 25 pound goal than what I thought. I am actually 25.4 down now. I guess the damage from that hamburger wasn't as bad as I thought. Thank god for (lots of) water!! ;-)

New Gadgets Are Always Fun

I just bought this Timex BodyLink gadget for my running enjoyment.

Now I never have to worry how far I have actually gone, or how fast I am running, or how fast I am going to finish a run, or how my heartrate is doing, or my vertical speed, or the altitude, or manually taking splits....oh and the time ;-)

In case you are wondering if I am *ever* going to get that iPod I have been shooting for....well, I have almost earned it (like 0.5 pounds to go, I think) but I am going to wait just a lil longer. As a matter of fact, the other items on my wish list are pretty much "blah" items now. I want them, but they don't excite me anymore. haha. Except for the iPod, of course. So, we'll have to see what I am into when those milestones occur. Until then, I guess I will just have to save my money...haha!

7-miler weekend

This weekend I had to conquer a 7-miler. Unfortunately, I had to do it by myself. But the good news is that I did complete it without stopping. I ran on the Huckleberry Trail for the first time in ages. I started out by the NRV mall and turned around just before the trail passes under Rte 460. So yeah, I ran from Christiansburg to Blacksburg.....haha. My actual distance was 7.25 and it took me 1 hour and 11 mins to run it. Not too bad I guess. Putting that time into 1/2 marathon perspective though (which I am constantly doing these days) that makes my estimated finish time to be around 2'11''. geesh!! I don't know whether to be upset about that, or to be happy about finishing the race. There is still about a month of training left so we'll see.

The good news about all this running is the amount of calories you burn. It's estimated that you burn 100 calories for every mile you run. So if I ran over 7 miles, then *hopefully* I burned 700 calories. Ok so now the bad news.....we went to Red Robin and I had just about the greasiest burger (Whiskey River BBQ) in the joint...YUM!! Highly recommend it!! I didn't eat the gi-normous bun and skipped on the mayo so maybe too much damage did not occur. haha.

New Running Kicks

I read this article in Runner's World magazine that made me think about my current running shoes and how they needed to be replaced. So I decided to go out and buy a new pair, one that they recommended, of course.

Check 'em out.

I really like the "Open nylon mesh upper" and the "adiPRENE® + in the forefoot provides a resilient toe-off". It gives the shoe a very light feel to it. Maybe it will shave some time of my running too! ;-)

speedwork week 3

conversation via email:

Jil:
March 22
1/2 mile warmup - 4:55 (148)
Sprint 1 - 1:55 (173)
Rest 1 - 2:48 (170)
Sprint 2 - 1:52 (179)
Rest 2 - 2:46 (175)
Sprint 3 - 1:52 (179)
Rest 3 - 2:48 (177)
Sprint 4 - 1:52 (183)
Rest 4 - 2:58 (177)
Sprint 5 - 1:54 (179)
Rest 5 - 3:03 (175)
Sprint 6 - 1:53 (181) (I think you were 1:50)
Rest 6 - 3:12 (172)
Cool down mile 9:59 (177)

I think we rocked :)


Velvet:
woa! we definitely rock! check out our rest laps. yay! i mean they
aren't the best, but some are getting a little faster. cool!!


Jil:
Really the rest laps aren't as bas as they look - it's that first 50 meters after the sprint - when we walk or go real slow there - it shows up in the time - but most of the lap we are still keeping the same pace.

Pain Is Temporary

You know the saying, "Pain is temporary, pride is forever." I am constantly wondering exactly how much pain must one endure to achieve this so called pride? I have experienced a few bumps and bruises during my training for my race. But how many more bumps and bruises will come about? Thankfully, there aren't any weddings any time soon so the need to wear strappy sandals is out. whew!

I have been training with Jil for this race and two weeks ago we started incorporating speedwork into our program. I think it actually might be helping us out. Of course, while running these blasted things I am thinking that there's no need for a 1/2 marathoner to "sprint". haha. But we did our second week of speedwork and added 2 more sprint laps, or an additional mile if you include the recovery laps. Overall I am very impressed with our ability to be consistent. btw....the intervals are 400 m.

Here's what we did:
1/2 mile warmup - 4:58
Sprint 1 - 1:53
Rest 1 - 2:40
Sprint 2 - 1:53
Rest 2 - 2:45
Sprint 3 - 1:54
Rest 3 - 3:00
Sprint 4 - 1:59
Rest 4 - 2:57
Sprint 5 - 1:52
Rest 5 - 3:01
Sprint 6 - 2:00
Rest 6 - 3:07
Cool down mile 9:57

This week was not as consistant as the previous week....but we were also under a wind advisory for this speedwork. I would easily assume that our times would closely reflect those of the first.

Anyhow, so I mentioned that this speedwork seems to be helping out, and this is why I think so. Today I had to 6 miles. (Jil is partying it up in Savannah for St. Patty's day...geesh!!) Since I ran it by myself, I chose to run at the gym on their track. The reason why I like to run there is because it is a very controlled environment. (don't have to worry about the weather, it's flat, and counting the laps is easy.) It takes 9 laps to make a mile and I try to run each lap between 1 min and 1:10. For some reason I felt good today. Normally, I dread running at first, I feel awkward, everything is bouncing out of control (haha)....but today was different. My goal for running the 6 miles was 60 mins. That should be easy enough, 10 min miles....no biggie. So here's what I did my 6 miles in:

mile 1 - 9:35
mile 2 - 9:22
mile 3 - 9:27
mile 4 - 9:20*
mile 5 - 9:20*
mile 6 - 9:25

*i can't remember these splits, but my total running time was only 56:48. I know these aren't my ideal mile splits, but this was the first time doing this many miles since high school so I am not gonna complain! I am actually quite excited about it! And I think it's because of the speedwork. Here's where my excitement grows even more.....mile splits of 9:22 will result in a 1/2 marathon time of 2:02:42. So, if I can shave off a few more seconds, like 9:02, then a sub-2hr race might occur. hmmmmm........

Flying Is So Much Fun!!

(fyi - this blog was started yesterday and i didn't feel like going back and changing the tenses....and forgive me for spelling errors if there are any...haha!)

Today Beth and I started the day with 5 mile runs. We actually ran separately, but at the same time. After running and showering, I headed on over to her house to pick her up for our big Vegas trip. We were scheduled to take off from Charlotte at 12:40pm on Northwest airlines. I was so excited about heading out west that the 2.5 hour drive to Charlotte was basically a breeze. Not to mention that I was going about 80mph and trying to text various friends along the way too. (Beth was too busy planning her wedding on the phone with her wedding planner…haha, jk!)

We get to Charlotte and I was in *love* with the weather. It was so nice to step outside of your car and not have to worry about being frozen to the bone with wind chill factors. We head to the check-in counter and are waiting in line when one of the service attends shouts, “If you are going to Detroit, and have a connecting flight, please do not use the self check-in kiosks.” I look at Beth and give her a look of despair. It turns out that our flight was delayed 1hour, which isn’t bad…..except….we will miss our connecting flight out of Detroit. CRAP! The attendant schedules us on a Continental flight with a connection in Cleveland, which would put us in Vegas only 1.5 hours after our scheduled arrival. Not bad! Thanks NWA!

We head to the security checks and we are notified that both Beth and I were “randomly selected” for special screening. So we had to put our stuff in “special” bins and were led off to the side to be frisked by a lady wearing rubber gloves! Yay us! I thought, man, our luck is just going great, I can’t wait to get to Vegas!

We hang out in CLT and have a great lunch at Chili’s and then start our journey to Cleveland. I had called Kevin to tell him about the change and he says, “Cleveland? Oh, I heard it’s great there this time of year.” Hahaha. So we start to land in Cleveland and I can see some dusting of snow on the ground. When we land, I immediately text Kev to tell him that we have landed….and jokingly I said that they will probably have to de-ice our next plane. WELL….as my luck would have it guess what??? Our flight was delayed because they had to de-ice the plane. CRAP!!!!

After hanging out for a while in the cold city of Cleveland we finally get to board the plane. Not before last minute runs to the bathroom because it’s a long flight. We get on the plane and the captain announces that once they go through their preliminary flight stuff that we will be de-iced (yet again) before take off. By this time the pavement is covered in snow. You can only imagine what it felt like taking off. I am surprised we didn’t end up in Lake Erie.

Once at cruising altitude, we were set. We actually got a sandwich and a little rabbit food so things were swell. All of a sudden a couple of flight attendants are rushing to get some medical supplies, which happened to be located right above Beth’s head in row 30 of 32. They play it off like nothing’s going on, until the main flight attendant says that we now have a medical emergency. This “minor” medical emergency requires the plane to make a detour to the Denver, CO airport. GREAT! I didn’t feel like going to Vegas today anyhow!! We were cruising at an altitude of 32,000 feet and we made it to the airport in record descent time. I have never felt so much g-force and shaking of an aircraft in all my life. It was actually kind of freaking. After about 30 mins on the ground we finally got going on the final leg of our trip and landed in Vegas about 10:30 (vegas time). That was 4.5 hours after our scheduled arrival. I have forgotten how much fun it is to fly!!

Beth and I walk around the first night and I grab a sandwich at a very quaint shop inside the Venetian. We finally call it a night at 1:15 vegas time….which made it 4:15am EST, only an hour longer and we both would have been up for 24 hours. Haha.