Meandering Starre

On 7/29 I ran the new 3.8 mile route backwards in a running skirt. I’ve run in the skirt a few times before, but didn’t really like it. The bike-short-like-things under it roll up and the skirt itself rides up in the back. It may ride up because of my water bottle belt. I’ve not tried it without. The running skirt does, however, look good (I totally don’t care about looking good when I run. I try to mostly match, which is about it. But hey, if I do look good without effort…) . It is very flattering and I look sharp, speedy, and hot in it. Apparently others thought so. I had several people drive by slowly and pause. It was weird. Of course, my skirt could have been hiked up in the back, but I don’t think it was each time this happened. It was a bit freaky. I must remember not to wear the skirt during later evening runs. Or maybe it was just a bunch of coincidences.

I may try a different skirt to see if I like it better. I like the idea of running skirts. Trying another before giving up would probably be smart.

Running my new 3.8 mile route backwards was interesting because I didn’t realize how many downhills I had running it forward. There were tons, which all became hills running it backwards. So, I now have discovered a simple technique to figure out the downhills on the run—try it backwards (skirt is optional).

Workout: Short run
Time: 42:00
Distance: 3.8
Total training distance to date: 23.4
Body condition: Humidity was bad, minor leg/over pronation issues
Weather: 77 degrees, ~86% humidity
Nutrition: water during, Gatorade after

I am still trying to get caught up with this. I really should write it up after each workout.

On 7/27 I did my weekly long run. This was 8.2 miles and I was dumb enough to start at 10:45 when it was already in the mid 80’s with 4000% humidity. The run was hot, sweaty, and not much fun. I didn’t have much in the way of pain or other issues, just heat and humidity problems. I took the run slow, as one should for the long runs, just looking to finish. I ended up walking more than normal, especially the hills on the last two miles. By that time it was after noon and I was getting dizzy and the world was turning just a bit darker. So I figured walking was smarter than fainting. By about 3 miles in my sunscreen was coming off in white rivers of sweat. Luckily I did not burn. I was happy to finish and drank a lot of water for the rest of the day.

Workout: Long run
Time: 1:33
Distance: 8.2
Total training distance to date: 19.4
Body condition: Humidity was bad, had some issues and walked
Weather: ~83-86 (?) w/ high humidity
Nutrition: 2 Gu packs, Endurox R ^4 after, water during

Keeping up with my training here is apparently harder than doing the raining. I’m a bit behind. On 7/23 I did a 3.8 mile run on a new route. It was very humid and I sweat a lot. I took it slow. Further details have escaped me, besides the normal. I did like the new route. It combined pieces of a few other routes. I listened to Escape Pod 138, since EP leads to slower running then music.

Workout: Short & slow run
Time: ~42 minutes
Distance: 3.8
Total training distance to date: 15
Body condition: Humidity was bad
Weather: 69 degrees, 95% humidity
Time of day: Morning

Instead of doing my weekly long run on the weekend, I did it on Monday, moslty due to air quality issues (both days were red days). Monday was only an orange day. This is my first long run of training, and since I did the Peachtree 10k without issues, I decided to start with 7 miles. The days was very humid and warm: 74 degrees when I started and 78% humidity. By the end it was 79 with about 70% humidity.

One nice thing about the heat and humidity is I warm up faster. One problem is I was sweating within a few minutes of starting. I had no real issues on the run, besides the heat and humidity. I started getting chills in the last mile, so I walked a bit until I felt better. for me chills are often the sign of get heat exhaustion. I ended the run very very sweaty.

Workout: Long run
Distance: 7 miles
Total training distance to date: 11.2 miles
Body condition: Heat exhaustion issues
Weather: 74 degrees, 79% humidity -> 79 with about 70% humidity, sunny
Time of day: Morning

As of today I’ve started my next round of training. This time for a marathon in October and a sprint triathlon is last August. Training for both at the same item should be interesting. I’m most concerned with trying to fit all my needed workouts into a week, and still work and have something of a life. Ideally I would

• Swim 3x a week: This is my weak area so I need at least 3 workouts a week.
• Bike 3x a week: One long outdoor ride and probably one shorter indoor ride and a spinning class for the rest.
• Run 3x a week: One long run increasing by 1-2 miles each week, one shorter run with speed work of some type, and an easy middle distance run.
• Yoga 1x a week: I’d like more, but…
• Core workout 1x a week: Again, more would be good, but yoga and the next item cover some of this.
• Strength & toning class 1x a week: To even things out and because Bill takes this class and likes it when I go with him.
• Rest & recovery day: One day without any workouts to rest, recover, and recuperate. This is highly recommended by lots of trainers and experts.

In case you did not do the math, that is 12 workout a week and one day off. This means 2 workouts a day. Plus, as it gets closer to the tri, I need to do some brick workouts (bike to run transition workouts). I’m thinking this is all somewhat impossible. I’m not quite sure what I am going to do about it. I guess I shall see.

But, I did start today with a very humid 4.2 miles run. Other then the oppressive sweat bath level humidity, the run was fairly bland. I did have more trouble with my breathing, which has been an issue of late. Either my asthma has gotten worse or my allergies and sinus problems have made it temporarily worse. If I don’t notice improvement by next week I think I’ll see a doctor. I also was almost attacked by a small yippy dog. It left it’s property across the road and came running right at me. I swerved and then it nipped at my heels for a bit. Very annoying.

So here also begins my Tri/Marathon training log.

Workout: Run (moderate distance and pace)
Distance: 4.2 miles
Total training distance to date: 4.2 miles
Body condition: Asthma/breathing issues
Weather: 78 degrees, 74% humidity, sunny
Time of day: Early/mid morning

Last Sunday I completed my first duathlon. I decided to try a duathlon on Bill’s suggestion. Duathlon are run-bike-run events, instead of the swim-bike-run of a triathlon. Since the swim is the hard part for me in the triathlon, the duathlon sounded like a good option.

I found one in Callaway Gardens that looked good—a 5k run-30k bike-5k run. I trained for this events since the half marathon (which I have yet to blog about and probably will not really blog) I ran in late March and a bit before too. This was one of my most important races of the year (which given the number I have or plan to run this year is actually saying a lot). In addition, I had never been to Callaway Gardens and it looked like a very nice place to visit.

On to the race: We got really bad storms from about 3:15 am - 6:30 am and they delayed the 8 am start an hour. The roads were really wet–puddles, mud in places, and very slick. The bike course had some really sharp downhill turns, which under those conditions were pretty deadly. I had gotten little sleep the night before, and also missed lunch, had managed to get myself rather dehydrated, and sun burnt in places (chest and feet) the day before, so I was not really in any condition to do the race. I was quite nauseous, shaking, dizzy, and the whole bit. But I did it anyway. It was probably the second worse race I have ever done–with that disastrous water problem in my first triathlon the worse. I felt sick the whole time, came close to puking several times, and almost fell off my bike (on straight stretches) because I was dizzy. But I did it, and even finished under my “slowest” time goal. I had three goals: 2 hours (my fast goal), under 2:30 (my slow goal—actually my “just finish” easy time goal—I knew I could do that no problem), and that I didn’t finish last in my age group. Sadly I both did and didn’t make that last goal. I was third in my age group, and also last. Under better conditions, I could have easily been second, and possibly first, which make me pretty sad.

Bill, who was doing an Olympic distance triathlon the next week, did the duathlon as his long workout for this week and took it light and slow as part of his pre-race taper. So he stayed with me, which was really wonderful. We actually expected that we’d run the 1st 5 k together and then I’d kick his ass on the bike portion (since I would be going all out and he would be taking it easy) and then he might catch up with me on the run. We were quite curious to see if he would catch me or not. But I was in such bad condition for the bike that I took it much slower then even I have during previous rides on the Silver Comet–not a “race pace”. The conditions did not help, but mostly it was just my psychical condition. Bill and I stayed pretty even, with me beating him on the flat stretches and him beating me on the hills (both up and down, since I was being wimpy).

Oddly, although I felt awful and walked more than normal, the last 5k may have been my fastest 5 k since high school. I ran it in just under 29 minutes. I wouldn’t believe it if my watch didn’t tell me. So I am rather proud of that and of the fact I did finish and didn’t do so very badly.

One really nice part of the race was that some friends came down and cheered. Due to the way the course was designed they found a location where they go to see us several times. Only a few times before have I had fans besides Bill and never so frequently did I see the fans during the race. It really kept me going at times when I was my worse. I wasn’t a very good racer to be a fan of though—I nodded and grimaced and waved the few times I could—but mostly was trying not to throw up on them or near them (not good fan treatment at all).

The nausea and dizziness stayed with me throughout the day and the nausea until Tuesday. I also was shaking quite a bit for the few hours after the race. When we visited the butterfly gardens I had to sit down most of the time as I couldn’t really stand for more than a few minutes at a time. I also had to rush my luggage down to the car because I thought I was going to throw up. Due to the race delay we were leaving our room after checkout and I decided it would be best to throw up in their lobby bathroom and not our bathroom post check out time. Luckily a few minutes sitting in the lobby helped quite a bit, and I was up shortly to check out.

I did learn some good things about doing duathlon:

• Obviously don’t be dumb the day before.
• Before taper get in a long run exceeding the time I expect the duathlon to last, so I have recently exercised for longer and my body is better prepared for the time.
• Work on my hills—both up and down—on biking.
• Work on sharp turns biking, especially downhill ones.
• Try biking without my gloves. I did try to put them on and in my awful state it was hard to do that and bike at the same time. I ended up with two fingers in one finger hole and the was no way I could fix it.
• Work more on drinking and doing other such stuff on the bike. My state made this harder, but I should be generally more comfortable like this. I should also be able to take Gu on my bike and I couldn’t.

As a runner, I am very careful about what I put on my feet when running. I am also a bit of a shoe horse and love funky shoes of the heeled sort. However, I do not combine the heels with the running. That would be insane, right?

Well, regardless there is a stiletto heel race for women in Amsterdam. It is not too long, 380-yards, but the stilettos must be at least 3.5 inches! Sounds like torture to me! In fact, I think my facial expression would be the same as the woman in second place.

The prize is $15,000 and the winner, when asked how she would spend the prize, smartly said she would spend it on “anything but high heels.”

Image from CNews.