Saturday, February 28, 2009

The next big thing.

It has been officially 2 weeks since the Florida adventure and life has just FLOWN BY! It took almost a week to get back in the grove, two weeks to get my house in order and laundry caught up, now I found myself preparing for the next 'big run'. Officially I begin my 'new' training schedule on Monday for my May 9th Journey's Half Marathon in Eagle River.

It will involve some speed runs, tempo runs and just LONG runs.
Speed runs --Monday's-- are basically 1/4 mile sprints (aka 400's) with jogs between for recovery. Monday will be 4 x 400's. (so just over a mile of running) at a pace that is 75 seconds faster than my Half Marathon Pace. Basically 9 minute miles... yikes!
9:07 for 400's (1/4 mile sprint)
9:17 for 800's (1/2 mile sprint)
9:42 for 1600's (1 mile SPRINT)
Tempo runs-- Wednesday's--
are from two miles to eight miles--at faster than normal training pace, or 15 seconds faster than my targeted half-marathon pace.
My Targeted marathon pace is 10:22 (that equals a finish of 2hrs and 15 minutes). I finished in 15 minutes more than that last time.
Long Runs -- Saturday's -- The Runners World website said this "Without the strong, steady, endurance-boosting long run, speed workouts and tempo runs would gradually wear you down. Start at seven miles and work up to 12, long enough to give you that all-important "mileage confidence" for race day."
What I love is you need to run at 30 seconds SLOWER per mile than your marathon pace for the long runs. Which makes them more enjoyable.
Sample Long Run: 10 miles
Long Run Pace: HMPace + 30 seconds per mile

Now that is your education in Runners Talk for the day!

I have Reece and Brock in some classes at the Y. Reece has been in the Fit and Fun classes (basically gym class) for 8 wks now but will go for 6 more, and Brock is now in the Strength and Conditioning class so he will be able to use the Lifestyle center (aka...workout room) will the rest of us boys and girls. I could n't find much during that time for Zeb to go to otherwise I would have put him in a class. Zeb and I will read some Junie B. Jones, First Grader books while we wait during that time, so it is all good. He LOVES those books. For fun last night I took him to Barnes and Noble and he got to pick out 2 'Junie' books, since Brock and Reece were at Ski Club.

Brock is really excited because he is going to do the Fox Cities Half Marathon with me in September. I was going to have him join me in May, but I want to do more training outside with him.

Now my weeks will be...
Sunday
--Swim day... maybe... (I might do my swims on Mondays with the Master Swimmers in our Tri club.)
Monday
--Zumba, Speed Runs. Maybe Masters Swim...
Tuesday
-- Spin Class....
Wednesday
-- Tempo runs.....
Thursday
-- Spin Class....
Friday-- OFF...
Saturday
-- Long Runs.

But thats ok... I like to eat and I will be able to do that once again.


Sunday, February 15, 2009

Florida Day 3/ Race Day

This pic was our 'pre race' photo. We were leaving our hotel room at 5am (4 am CST) to head to the start line.
We got there in time to use the port-a-potty, and stretch. We met up with Dr Al and his beautiful wife Jaynie. They were taking it easy today and they still kicked our butts!!!
When we first took off it was DARK. Some people had head lamps on, the race crew did set up some portable lights to direct us through some residential neighborhoods. All around us people had watches, ipods and garmins beeping. (Telling them when to run and walk.)
I kept thinking my watch alarm was going off.
Shortly after we pass the 4 or 5 mile mark we met the FIRST PLACE HALF MARATHON FINISHER on his way back to the start.
Yes. Insane.
We hadn't even made it to the bridge yet!

I was surprsed by how many old people (including Dr Al~ just kidding!) were doing the race. We finally turned for the bridge. I was a little worried about that but the climb kind of felt good. It stretched my muscles out and the down was really nice for my speed. I kept close to Sara for the first half, but then on my last climb up the bridge she slowed to walk, but my hips were too sore. I needed to keep moving. Shortly after my 'power song' came on my ipod. (Girlfriend by Avril Lange) That song has a perfect pick up beat for me.

After the bridge I took the GU I had in my pocket slowed to swallow it down with some water. After that I only slowed to drink water. (I can't drink and run) I was suprised to be passing people. I was usually the one being passed.

One neighbor cut up a bunch of apples and strawberries for us runners!! How Sweet! There were loads of people cheering, it helped push through the screams from my left leg. My ankle was the first to let me know it was not happy, then my calf at mile 11 was asking me to stop. I was taking water everytime. I switched to Gatorade. My finish time was just over 2 hrs and 30 minutes, but I took my time in the begining and just tried to take it all in and.... Have fun! (Really!) We couldn't find Dr Al and Jaynie at the end of the Race because they were already getting a free Massage!! (Lucky!) Dr Al had a REALLY LONG ONE, he kept schmoozing the guy to get a longer one.

After the race we came back to our hotel and CRASHED. We both showered and slept. That felt great. We wobbled a bit and took something for the pain, then ate lunch at a place called Big Al's. It is a complete guys place, we learned. Duner would have LOVED IT. One wall alone had 5 TV's on it. All on Sports channels. I enjoys BBQ ribs and chicken. Yum!
Then we decided to drive to Siesta Key Beach and check that out. I was glad to see "low Hazard' conditions and not "marine life hazard".
I heard about how great this beach is and it truly is like walking on baby powder, VERY fine white sand. No shells. Nice. We may go there tomorrow before we leave again.

It was overcast today, so we will see about getting some rays.



As you can see it was a bit chilly. But still beautiful, actually busy too!

The sand was so fine it held the shoe imprint details.













And then we relaxed by the pool. It too was a bit chilly, but felt good on the muscles. it was heated at 87 degrees. Spent some time in the hot tub too.

Ahhhhh. It feels good to be done.

I can't believe I fly back tomorrow. We will see if my flights go better. I hope so. I have layovers of less than one hour each time, so that doesn't leave much time for error. Yikes!

Before we leave we are going to check out Body Worlds in Tampa.

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Florida Day 2

Today's post will be one of pictures... so if you can not see 'em, you may not be disappointed, but this will hamper your enjoyment.
You better check my blog directly... Ok, so why are my feet in the first picture? Because that is how they look BEFORE Myakka River State park... and....

This is them after... note the lovely open blister on the side of my right foot.
Yeah.
That felt great! Tryin' to beat up the feet PRIOR TO THE RACE.

These are black vultures. They are everywhere in this park. One park person said 4 years ago when the river flooded, there were about 3000 of them eating the dead fish that were lost on the shore.
Oh and those long black things are alligtors. Yep, Hanging out with the vultures. I think there was 5 of them. This park also has a problem with wild boars. Yep. Specifically 2000, roaming the park. They just had a trapper come in this year and he got out 1000 of them... They are trying to get down to 60. We didn't see any of them though.
This bridge is our halfway point for the run tomorrow. Yep, begining at mile 5 we will run up, down, up and down this sucker then go back 5 miles again. Delightful? No?
We took a tour through the State Park on an airboat, we saw this Mommy and Daddy (if you look close you can see a baby at the feet of Mommy on the right.) Thankfully the 14 ft Alligator that calls this area home was hiding on us. *Whew* (The tour guide said his name is Fred)

My sister on the canopy walkway that they built in 2000. You climb a staircase 35-40 feet in the air, then walk on this wood and wire walkway across to another tower that you can climb up to 70 feet. The second tower was more like the one at High Cliff State Park.
This was one of the first Alligators we saw going into the park. It was hanging out across the narrow river from a fisherman who described his fishing as 'slow' today. Hmmmm.
One of my favorite pics from yesterday. Ahhh. Just take me away.
No this is not a business.
No it is not a hospital or institution...
it is someone's SUMMER/ VACATION home! I know insane. It is rumored to be the founder of IAM's pet food. I think somebody is overpricing the product just a bit.
Well, that ends your tour of Florida for the day, Check back next time for our tales of terror from the track followed by beach time bliss... ahhhh.
Have a great night!

Friday, February 13, 2009

Florida Day 1

Today I woke up by 9:30. I couldn't sleep. Yep. 5 hours after going to sleep. I laid in bed for 15 minutes then I walked down to get some breakfast. Our hotel has breakfast included. I didn't want to wake up Sara so I tried to be quiet. I was amazed at how warm it was out side already. Shortly after I came back she woke up. We had plans for lunch so we had to leave by 11am or so.
We met Dr. Al, who showed us the sights of St. Armands Circle and notable places nearby. There is lots of history in this area. Mainly the Ringling Circus kind. We ate at a burger shack near a bridge that we are running over. We discussed the race plan, when to get there, when and what to eat, what to wear (of course!) and checked out some cool finishers medals from last year.
After we left Dr Al, my sister and I walked along Lido Key. The water was beautiful but cool. Our feet were pumiced by all the tons of bits of broken shells on the shore.
We headed back to the hotel and waited for the race packet pick up at 4pm. I had picked up a camera just before I left Appleton, but the memory card it came with only holds 10 pictures so after downloading them, we stopped by the convention center to shop and pick up our packets. Here is all the shwag I picked up:

We tried to stop by Bonefish Grill for Supper, but the parking lot was full, so we ended up at Captain Curts Crab Shack and Oyster Bar. I had WORLD CHAMPION clam chowder,grilled shrimp and roasted red potatoes. It was pretty good.
Now we are back in the hotel room watching O Brother, Where art thou on TV. We love that movie. Then we are calling it an early night. We are tired.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Waiting

Duner drove me out to the airport and dropped my off by 9:15am, since he was on nights last night I didn't expect him to sit and wait with me. My flight was supposed to leave at 10:40 but it ended up not leaving til almost 1pm. At least A-town has free internet. Yay! I was able to watch a movie on Netflix to kill time. No word on why they were delayed but when we got to Detroit it was very WINDY. I was wondering what kind of pilot we had til I saw a flag straight out on a pole.

I got some lunch from Quiznos here in the Detroit airport and played on the internet. I got on my 2nd of 3 flights with only a 40 minute delay we were off. I believe our plane was held up waiting for a passenger from a connecting flight. We made up some time in the air because we were only 10 minutes late when we got to Memphis.
I was supposed to have only an hour lay over in Memphis.

Oh, we got on the plane about the right time.
We got up in the air about the right time.
About 40 minutes into the 1 hour and 25 minute flight the pilot announces "Due to some pressure problems that we can't seem to fix, we can not clime more than 10000 feet, so have to turn back to Memphis and fix the problem."
You can imagine the delight in the passengers at that announcement. I was lucky enough to sit next to a man that enjoyed his alcohol, and knew everything.
I scrabbled to send a text message to my sister who was waiting for me in Tampa at the Airport, but I was not able to get a signal. By the time we got back to Memphis it was 9:30 CST. It was so hard to keep track of the time zones yesterday. I was in 4.
Wisconsin CST.
Michigan EST.
Tennesse CST.
Florida EST.
NWA gave us snacks and let us leave the plane, I had been traveling for 12 hours and was not going to sit around anymore. I began to walk laps. I learned a lot from the crew by over hearing things.
When we landed we got a new pilot and co-pilot. They were 'illeagal' and were not able to fly again that night. They also decided to send the flight crew home as well, It takes 2 hrs for the new crew to arrive. They said they called them when we were still in the air. At first my arrival time at Tampa was supposed to be 10:30pmEST, then moved to 12:12am EST (after we first landed back in Memphis) then it became 1:37am EST. I arrived in TAMPA at 2am EST. Only 3 1/2 hours after I was supposed to in a heavy fog. Thankfully they rewarded our time delay with a $100 credit voucher, I haven't read it too close but you can bet I will try to use it when I can!
I kept calling our hotel to let them know how late we were, we pulled in to the parking lot about 4 am EST, and by 4:20 we were in bed.

Holding Pattern

So, I am up at 5 am for no real reason. Just that I can not sleep.

In 5 hours I board a plane for Detroit, only to sit for about 5 hours there, then go on to Florida. (Thank God for Netflix! I will be able to watch movies instantly while I wait.) I keep going over in my head some last minute things I need to do. Like bring Reece's Cello to Grandma's and Zebs eye medicine (for some lovely impetigo) that he developed to Grandma's as well.

My sister arrived there and said that it was a humid 74 degrees in Tampa yesterday. Sure beats 30 degrees and cloudy up here.

I am all checked in. Just waiting to leave.
Oh yeah, the kids are getting up. Time to get them ready for School.