Running Stuff

When I first started running, I did it with only the shirt on my back. Now I have all kinds of things that I have tried, some that worked for me, and some that didn't. Here are a few of my favorites.

1. Fuel: 

I tried all the fuel: Gu, gu chomps, clif shots. I didn't really like them. I thought that most of them tasted like jelly. Nasty, cough syrupy sweet jelly. Thanks to Jill, who recommended the Honey Stinger Chews, I finally found one I liked (after much trial and MUCH error!) I have since also found out that the Gu Chocolate flavored Energy gel and the Clif Shot Blocks Black Cherry are not super horrible either.

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2. Belts: 

After debating for a long time, because I wanted to buy a belt, but couldn't find very many in brick and mortar stores, but did not want to order online without trying them, I finally bought an Amphipod at REI (with a giftcard! Yay!) I love it. It does not slip at all, unless you have all the waters next to each other. But if you put them equidistant apart, it doesn't bounce at all. It has 4 - 8 oz bottles which can be taken off and one pocket for my iPod. The bottles snap in, which I like, since a friend told me that her Nathan belt started to lose the bottles out of the holsters.

The only complaint I have is that the pocket has a Velcro closure and has opened up once or twice mid run (when it is filled too full) and let my goods fall out on the road. If you carry less junk, you may not have that problem. It's also one size fits all with a Velcro closure, which I thought I would not like, but it has worked out just fine.

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I also got to try the iFitness belt, which doesn't have water bottles. However, it does have a waterproof case for your iPod or phone, which has a zipper and works great. Not only that, but it has a pocket inside to fit your credit card or ID. It has a clasp with one size fits all adjustment and is comfortable and doesn't ride up. It also has a bib holder, which is great! Now I can take off my sweatshirt and not worry about where my bib is attached! I usually only use it for shorter runs though, since it doesn't have water bottles.

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3. Headgear: 

I admit, I was skeptical. I have never worn headbands. I did buy some goody ones at Target once, but they were so tight they made my head hurt a couple minutes into the run. The Chica Bands, however, are great. I am still growing out my hair, so they are good for keeping those flyaway hairs out of my face. I am still not completely used to it and it has been pretty cold, so I have not had many chances to use them, but my initial review is that they are so far, so good. They don't seem to slip and only hurt my head when I put them too far forward (by accident!)

4. Footgear:

My first running shoes were Nike. They were too tight. I tried Brooks and they are too flat. So I tried Asics and have been using them ever since! I am currently using the Gel Fluent 4, but I pretty much buy whichever one is on sale when it's time for a new pair. As long as they are Asics, I don't discriminate!

These shoes now have 621 miles on them!

5. Garmin

Because of the price, I held off on getting a Garmin for a long time. I remember having to wait until the next mile when they would call out my time, to know what my pace was. I was an expert of multiplying 9 or 10 minute miles to figure out where I was. But when the Garmin 305 went on sale, I knew I had to get it. I actually requested it as a Christmas gift. I know, it's huge, and at first I wasn't sure I WANTED to know how fast (or slow!) I was going. But it has turned out to be a very great tool for me over the last year. I don't even use or KNOW how to use all of the functions, but just knowing my pace and being able to do intervals and tracking my progress has been great. Besides, its FUN to see how high that mountain I just climbed really was! I even measured my parent's driveway (.2 miles - 245 ft ascent).

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Tomorrow I will be running the Bay Breeze Half, which will be my second half marathon for the 12 in 2012 Running Challenge! I will be back next week with a race recap! Don't forget to go over to Fitness Friday at Jill's each week to see some other great fitness related posts!

Disclosure: I was given the iFitness belt and the Chica bands for free for participating in the 12 in 2012 Running Challenge. However, all opinions stated on this blog are mine alone. 

What gear is a must have in your book? Do you use a Garmin or do you just wing it?

Winter Games

Do you remember your favorite childhood memories from each season? As you may already know, my friend Lisa had an idea to blog about your favorite things from childhood and I loved it. You can find my Summer post HERE and my Autumn post HERE.

Here are some of my favorite things about Winter from When I Was a Child.

You may find this one kind of obvious, but number one is Snow. When I was younger, we used to get dumped on in the winter time. We would get days off of school and we would build snowmen and go sledding and have snowball fights. Then we would go inside and drink hot cocoa and dry out. It was great. Imagine that if it snowed today you could have the day off and you didn’t have to drive anywhere, do anything, or shovel. Wouldn’t it be a lot more fun!? It seems like through the years, it has been snowing in our area less and less. We still get a few good dustings, but not like we used to. 

Another one which is pretty much a given is Christmas. I already wrote an entire post about what Christmas is to me, but as a child, I remember cookie baking, decorating, staying up late waiting for Santa, reading the Night Before Christmas, cookie eating, advent calendar decorating and more! It was an entire month of great stuff. 

Skiing:  Since I was young, we always went skiing every year. I vaguely remember learning to ski and hating it for a little while since I couldn’t get it. Then I stopped whining and got the hang of it and after that I was unstoppable. We used to ski at a tiny resort near home that only had a Poma lift, which most people probably haven’t even heard of. It’s a long pole suspended from a cable and you stick the pole between your legs and it pulls you up the hill (if you look very closely, you can see it in the background in the below photo). Sadly that resort has been closed for years, due to the lack of enough snow and the competition from bigger resorts nearby (who make their own snow). 

Ski Team: This goes hand in hand with the last one, but deserves its own recognition. I started ski team when I was young; we had a Buddy Warner version. Then when I was older, I got on the High School ski team, which was a blast. We used to have meets every Monday, so we would get out of school each week and ride a rickety old bus up to the resort, laughing and singing the entire way. Okay, maybe I just made that part up, but the bus rides were fun! Then we had to do races in the morning, but the rest of the day was free skiing. We also had practice once a week. Twice a week skiing! Little did I know how lucky I was those days. Now I am lucky to go once a year. 

Hot Cocoa: I mentioned hot cocoa in regards to the snow already, but this was a serious drink for us when I was younger. First, you make the hot cocoa. Then you cover it with whipped cream. Then you eat the whipped cream. Then you cover it again with whipped cream. Then you eat the whipped cream again. You may do this up to 6 times. Once that process is complete, you make buttered toast, which you then dip into the hot cocoa until its gone. Then you drink the remains, if there are any.

Sledding: We had the wooden sled with runners, the plastic one with the handles on each side so you could steer and brake and the round plastic one.  We would take turns using them. The choice of sled depended on which kind of snow you had that day. 

Card Games: Oh the long, dark winter days. What better time for a card game? We used to sit and play cards for hours. We even made up our own rules, so the games would last longer. We made up a version of Rummy where the points are all higher but you have to play to 5000. If we had enough people, we would play Spades or Hearts.

Baking: Winter and Christmas are always about making cookies! Our favorite kind to make were chocolate chip, as evidenced by the batter splatters in the Joy of Cooking. The other thing we always made was Banana Nut and Cranberry Nut Bread.

Christmas Treeing: This may actually be done in fall, technically, but it reminds me of winter, so. There is something great about going up into the mountains and chopping down your own tree.  I apologize to the tree huggers now, but it’s fun. It’s cold, and sometimes your car gets stuck in the snow and your socks get wet, but you end up with your own little tree, the fruit of your labors, in the end. 

There are of course, many other memories and good times to be had by all, but they are for another day!

What is your favorite childhood memory from the wintertime? Did you have snow where you grew up? Do you like playing card games?

Le Plus Grande Pilgrimage

In France, there is a song about the pilgrimage of the Basques.

J’irai de Pampelune jusqu'a Bayonne (I’ll go from Pampalona to Bayonne)

J’irai de Dax jusqua Mont de Marssan (I’ll go from Dax to Mont de Marssan)

Je ferai le plus grande pelerinage, (I’ll go on the biggest pilgrimage)

Le plus grande que tout le temp! (The biggest pilgrimage of all time)**

**pardon me if I spelled any French words wrong or translated incorrectly. It's been a while since I learned that song OR spoke French!

I learned this song when I was living in Bordeaux. We went to Dax during the running of the Bulls and celebrated with hundreds of Basques, dressed all in white with a red kerchief around their necks.

My friend Raquelita, and her friend M, went to Spain and did a hiking pilgrimage on the same route as the Basques, many miles over several days. They hiked a little bit each day in order to eventually conquer a great distance. They are both in academia, and when M suggested using this same principal to get some of their writing done, I jumped on board. Her challenge to herself and to others, was to write 400 words a day, at least, and to reward herself with a new pair of boots after she got to 10,000 words (I especially like that part!)

I don’t have any academic papers to write; I don’t have any homework. However, I do have a couple things that I am using M’s pilgrimage for.

Journaling: When I travel, I usually keep a journal, or try to. I really enjoy this for several reasons. Looking back over them is fun, as is remembering what you did and all the little things that you quickly forget about. Also, it’s a great way to keep your facts straight. I write down where we stayed and how much it was so if anyone needs a recommendation for a good hostel, I have it. I keep track of how much I spend, so later I can remember that, yes, Egypt WAS cheap. BUT, I often fall short on my journaling. I tend to start off strong and end up…well…nowhere. So, my goal #1 is to catch up on my journaling, not only for traveling/fun days, but for regular days. Luckily I have photos to help me remember each day! 

How’s it going so far? I started on the 8th, a week ago, and so far, I have written over 400 words each day. I plan to keep on with this for at least the month of February, and hopefully longer.  My end (optimistic) goal is to get done with my entire travel journal and start making my life journal an everyday thing (right now I maybe get it done once a week, usually when I have problems I need to hash out in my mind).

Goals: Sometimes I let my goals scare me. If they are big, they seem too big, too far away, unattainable even. I need to break them down into bite sized pieces instead of letting them get the best of me. My friend Karen uses the 52 weeks of the year to attain her goals. She makes 52 goals and tries to accomplish one each week.

Sometimes my biggest problem is the making of the goals themselves, not necessarily the accomplishing of the goals. Once I buckle down and decide what to do, I can get things done. But I don’t want to make a goal and then fail it, so my fear of failing the goal makes me not make goals, which is in itself failing anyway. So hopefully this challenge will help me to MAKE goals and to realize that if I work on them a little bit each day/week/month, I can get them done eventually!   

How's it going so far? Last week, I sat down and made three big goals. Now I need to break them into manageable bites and then get chomping!

Running: Some days I don’t feel like running. I have to talk myself into going out and just running a few miles, since that means I will still be able to run less miles per day to achieve my weekly goal. I would rather run 4 x 4 mile days than 1 x 16 mile day! I am usually pretty good at doing this, but I just want to keep it in the back of my mind for those days that I am feeling less motivated. 

Hows it going so far? This week I ran 5 times, rather than 4. It was great to have one day where I could do a shorter, "easy" run, instead of cramming all the miles into less runs! 

Do you have a pilgrimage of your own to conquer? What things do you try to do every day so that they don’t get out of hand in the long run?

Running Related Tidbits

I finally made a tentative training schedule for the 12 in 2012 races. I wasn’t really sure how to do it, since I will be racing every 2 – 8 weeks. Basically, I am going to stick to the same running schedule I used for the marathon, which is two easier days of 5-7 miles, and two longer days, one of them being mid-week and roughly 6-10 miles, and one being on the weekend, which will be 10-15 miles. I figure I may as well keep my mileage up as well as I can for now. However, I don’t really feel the need to run more than 4 days a week. I don’t want to get burned out or bored with it. It’s supposed to be fun!

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In other running related news, I have been logging my miles into Dailymile by hand, since I haven’t always had the internet to upload my Garmin. Then I had the internet the other day, so I plugged my Garmin in and uploaded all 60 runs that I was missing. So now I have double miles on Dailymile. Does anyone know if there is a way to do a batch edit, instead of having to delete each run, one by one?

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This weekend I ran for Sherry, who is a runner from Montana who went missing last month. You may have heard about it on the news. Her body was never found. They declared her dead just the other day. Her cousin hosted the run on her blog, and I was excited to take part.  As a runner, it makes you think twice about where and when you are running, even though you don’t really want to think about that kind of stuff. I usually tell someone where I am going and when I think I will be back and I wear a Road ID in case I get hit by a car, but unfortunately, you really can’t prevent everything.

I ran11 miles out and back on a nice clear, cold day in the mountains. This one's for you, Sherry. I hope that by having so many supporters running this run for her, her family and friends will feel the massive support of the running community. I know a lot of other people did this for her and I love being a part of such a caring group.

Did you run for Sherry?  Do you have any suggestions as far as my training schedule? Do you know if Dailymile has a group edit?

Half Time Recap

Another week, another photo here and there, and February is almost over. Woo Hoo.

That means the #febphotoaday is well underway.  And it's time for another recap post.

Day 4: Stranger

Have you ever seen anything stranger than this? Mouser and Hillary. 

He looks pissed off. 

Maybe it's because he is a Republican.

Day 5: 10 am

We took a drive last Sunday to do a little four wheelin', hiking and photo taking. 

Day 6: Dinner

Have you ever seen a bag of carrots this big?

Day 7: Buttons

I got lazy this day.

Day 8: Sun

Ironically enough, this day WAS sunny so we sat out on the front porch, soaking it in! 

Day 9: Front Door

Mine has a window and the light was shining in, so I covered it with a shopping bag and a couple of magazine pages. Classy, I know.

Day 10: Self Portrait

Going running. It was raining, so I added the rain effect. 

That's not all I did this week! 

I also...

Made banana nut bread. 

Ate a piece before taking this photo. 

Took photos of mountains and bridges and rivers, oh my. 

Went running.  

Lost my emergency $5.

And then found it again three days later.

Went bowling. 

Bowled FOUR strikes in a row. 

And then bowled REALLY crappy the rest of the time, which is par for the course. 

I usually barely break 100.

The idea for this weekly photo post came from Kim. I am not trying to steal it.

What did you do this week? Are you a good bowler? What would you do if you had a huge bag of carrots?

The Very Hard Leg

I mentioned a while back that not only was I planning on doing the 12 in 2012 Running Challenge this year, but I also have another couple of races on the horizon. One of them, I am very excited to say, is The Relay, which is a two day, 199 mile relay run from Calistoga, California to Santa Cruz, California. The very coolest part is that the race is run over the Golden Gate Bridge at midnight on Saturday. 

Here’s some info from the website: CALIFORNIA'S LONGEST PARTY - YOU'RE INVITED! Gather your friends (12-member teams). Decorate your vans. Dress your best (costumes optional). Run (or walk). "It's the most fun 24 feet can have in the best place on earth." From Napa Valley to the Pacific Ocean, 12-member teams run 36 legs (3 legs per runner, 3-8 miles each) through 36 cities and across the Golden Gate Bridge at midnight in support of Organs 'R' Us ("ORU") and 100,000 Americans waiting for organ donors. Contact info.

This run has a special meaning for us, since our team, Jonnycat’s Dirty Dozen, is running for our close friend Jon, who is currently on the donor list for both a kidney and a pancreas. There are twelve runners, who each run three legs each, each ranging from 3 – 8.1 miles and ranging in total from 12.9 to 18.5 miles. You can see on the chart below what I am talking about. As you can see, they rate the legs (on the right column labeled “difficulty”) by harder (#1) to easier (#12). You can also see that the “more data” section below states that legs 34 and 35 are the hardest. 

Now, I am going to give you three guesses as to which runner I am. Nope, it’s not number 1, the easiest runner. Nope, it’s not number 6, the cool runner that gets to run across the Golden Gate Bridge. Did you say that I should probably try one of the harder runners? That’s what I thought you said. Well, I guess you are right. Why don’t I pick number…11?

Actually, I “picked” number 4. I know. What a copout right? Right smack dab in the middle of the difficulty scale. But, I will tell you why I picked that one. I picked it because it was the second highest amount of miles. And I can run a lot of miles. But my friend who is organizing this emailed me a week after I sent her the email saying which leg I wanted and begged me, pleaded with me, told me I was very strong and brave and good looking asked me to switch to number 11. I said yes right away. Then I looked at what I had gotten myself into. This is what it looks like.

It “looks like” a 500 foot elevation gain over 6.2 miles! So it’s a difficult 10k race, which I will run after running two other “races” that day (6.9 miles and 3.7 miles) and probably getting little sleep.  Phew! I am going to be a mess! I guess I should be glad I am not number 10!

I’m actually very excited about this race, even though I am joking around about it right now.  I am, as always, nervous, even more nervous than normal, because I wouldn’t only be letting myself down if I do badly; I will be letting my team down! I am looking forward to a few things. One, Dean Karnazes has won the Ultra portion of this race (yes you can run it by yourself. Maybe next year) several times and will be hosting the Friday night pre-race dinner in Napa County. Two, it’s on my home turf. I have relatives north of the city who will be able to watch as I run leg 11. I have friends south of the city who can watch 23 or 35! The weather is going to be great; the scenery is going to be awesome; I will meet 11 new people! Plus, I get to sleep in a van with five (smelly) other people (down by the river).  How can you beat that?

Have you ever run a relay race? Have you ever been to Napa County? Have you ever walked across the Golden Gate Bridge?