Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy turkey day everyone! I hope your day is filled with gravy, pie, whipped cream, and lots of love. :)

Spur of the moment racing

I did two new things on Sat:

1) Decide to run a race the morning of

2) show up to/run/finish the race all by myself

I decided running a race would be a much more fun way of getting a run in. I wanted James to run it with me too, but the waves were too good, apparently, so he went surfing instead. Since when are waves>running, anyways? ;)

The race was the UCSB Turkey Trot "10K". I honestly didn't even notice the fact that I was there all alone until after I registered, and had a bunch of time to kill by myself. In college or high school, I would have felt totally awkward and insecure showing up to something all by myself like that, but on Sat, I felt completely at ease just hanging out with me, myself, and I.

My, my. My little Julia's all grown up. Tear.

I ran 1.5 miles to warm up, and just kind of hung out near the starting area stretching and such. Right before the race, there was a group warm up exercise led by a local personal trainer. Unlike in Maui, this warm up was very well organized and executed. The instructor had us "jacking" and squatting and push-upping. "If you're tired already, you're in trouble!" she yelled at one point, and I had to gulp... but apparently others felt the squats too, as one girl yelled back "Oh no! I'm in trouble!" I love small races. Everyone feels more comfortable and just wants to have fun.

The course was actually very poorly thought out, in my opinion. First of all, the first 2 miles is very hilly. (Pansies like me don't like hills!) Second, they had us running on this trail which is hardly wide enough for one person. What made it worse is that they had us running back along the trail, which meant that the faster people had to cross the slower people on a trail that's not wide enough for even one person. Even worse was that some people were running with their dogs. Without leashes. Ugh. (BTW, it's cool that races allow people to run with dogs/strollers/etc. But leashes should be mandatory!) This made it difficult to pass anyone, or run fast. Good thing I wasn't racing, as this would surely have pissed me off.

The other bad thing about the race was that they didn't have an aid station until mile 5. The weather was in the upper 70's without the cloud in the sky. I was DYING of thirst by that point. Seriously DYING. Who puts the one and only aid station at mile 5?

The "10K" ended up being 6.75 miles. Again, good thing I wasn't going for time! In the last quarter mile or so, I made a new friend. I discovered he is also running the Santa Barbara marathon; he's running it as a relay, and he is running the last leg. In my opinion, the last leg is the best, because you're the one who gets to cross the finish line!) We ended up crossing the finish line together. Race friends make me happy :)

I left right after I finished to pick up James by the beach, so I have no idea what my time was. I don't even care. I had fun. I ran. That's all that matters :)

Here is the Race Shirt and freebies I scored: Jelly Bean Sport Beans. I'm excited to try them. I actually love the race shirt. I love the brown trim!

After the race, I absolutely refused to stay indoors. I mean, it was 70+ degrees out, without a cloud in the sky! The best thing to do? Go for a shoreline walk!

It doesn't look it, but this sammie was gigantor.

And then we met the most acrobatic puppy ever:

Incredible.

We ended up walking 4.5 miles, which brought my total mileage to close to 13 miles. Oops. So much for tapering! But it's ok, cause I am not gonna even have time to work out this week.

Bring on the turkey and gravy, baby :)

OK Now I've Seen it All

Seriously. The gym never ceases to entertain me. I mean... I thought people watching in Tokyo was fun, but lately the gym has had an endless supply of interesting views.

(Of course, Tokyo will always rank #1 in my mind. Where else can you walk in to a 7-11 and see two girls dressed in full body hamster costumes on a regular Thursday, see this, see boys shopping for beauty products, and ladies in kimonos all in the same glance?)

Anyhoo.
You already know about the guy doing hundreds of sit ups in denim jeans and a leather belt.
Since then, I have seen:

1. a guy running on the treadmill (not just jogging, but RUNNING) in full length jeans and a belt and non-running shoes (why, why, why..... or more importantly, how, how how???)
2. An older woman walking on the treadmill in daisy duke denim shorts and platform sneakers....(WTF)
3. A middle aged man in the tightest, tightest tights shorts doing hip thrusts endlessly.
   And I should also mention that his hip thrusts are done in fast-forward speed. Awkward.
   I should also mention that his tights are usually gray, and it is so tight that it perfectly outlines every contour of his..... um.... package. And his t-shirt is too short. Um.... did I mention Awkward? Oh, and trust me, I've heard other girls complaining about him too.
   
4. Way too many visible panty lines.
   

hmmm. Maybe this means I should stop spending so much time at the gym!

In other gym news, spin class last night was bomb! I was finally able to give it my all on the bike, since I didn't have to "save" my muscles for a run. The instructor played two Gaga songs, so I was a happy camper.

In other TMI news, tonight I have to finally deep clean my entire bathroom. This weekend, my bathroom decided to explode on me. Literally shit was coming out of my shower drain and my toilet, flooding my entire bathroom. Deliciousness. I've been avoiding my shower and staying with James and showering at the gym instead. Time to bust out that Chlorine! If you have any great cleaning product recommendations, please do share! I have never had to clean up such a mess before.

All right. Peace.

This tapering business...

I don't feel like I'm tapering at all... probably because for the last two weeks, I didn't do a mid-week run either. I've been super low mileage for the last three weeks, so I don't even know if what I'm doing now counts as tapering.

After the 22 miler, I went for a stroll on Sunday, did elliptical and weights on Monday, did an hour of yoga on Tuesday, and am going for a spin class tonight. Is this tapering, or am I doing too much? I don't feel like I'm tired or anything... it's the work-out volume that I am used to, but I don't know if it counts as tapering. I still have 18 more days till M-day, so I feel like I can truly REST when I get closer to the date. And with Thanksgiving coming up, you bet your little tush I am going to pig out and spend a couple of days recovering from a food coma. haha. Well.... hopefully not :)

I've also been thinking about what I want to do Post-Marathon. I will be traveling over the December holidays where I will not be able to run (for numerous reasons). I thought I wanted to get into the whole p90x thing, and really work on strengthening my muscles (and lose some lbs. I have put on WEIGHT with this whole marathon training thing. How is it possible that after hundreds of miles I still put on weight? blah) However, there are a couple of spring marathons I have my eye on, so taking 90 days off from running is no bueno. eh, I don't have to decide right now. I will have a better idea AFTER I see how the marathon goes in 18 days. eeeeeeeeek!

I can't believe it's sooooo close!!!! Almost time to start freaking out :)

Boo-f**king-yah!

Wahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

I RAN 22 MILES.

22 effing miles!

Every last step of it!

And it hardly hurt!

yesssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss :)

22.15 miles in 3hrs and 41 min. 20 days till M-Day. Time to taper.

Bring it on, marathon. I'm ready for you!


____________________________________________________

I am so relieved/excited/in disbelief/amazed/who knows what else that James and I were able to run 22 miles. I was friggin Scared about how my knee was going to handle it. I took precautionary measures to make sure my knees had adequate rest before the run, and spent the 4 days prior to the run foam rolling the sh!t out of my ITB and thighs. Thank goodness I bought that foam roller. Oh and I switched from plain old ibuprofen to Aleve.

And guess what?

It worked!

I had pretty minimal knee pain for the entire 22 miles. Obviously, there was some pain (I mean, it is 22 effing miles), but none of that sharp, debilitating, insane pain that I had last week. Success!

Instead of doing a play by play, I think I will sum up this run in "successes" and "fails".

Successes:

• Taking the two days before the run to rest and foam roll/stretch like my life depended on it.
  
• Foam roll
• Switching from Ibuprofen to Aleve
  
• Taking said Aleve night before, and morning of run
• Not drinking too much liquid on the run and feeling like a bloated whale
• Eating/drinking enough calories for breakfast. Here's what I ate:
• 1.5 Clif Z-bars
• 1 banana
• 2 slices toast with jelly and honey
• 1 waffle topped with 1 carton pumpkin yogurt and honey
• some scrambled eggs
• a handful of gummy bears
• coconut water
• a couple of bites of Power Bar
• a couple of Clif Shot Blocks
  and yup, I ate all this BEFORE the run, and still managed to get hungry during the run

• Careful application of Body Glide ;)
• remembering to put sun block on my face
• Running early enough in the morning
• Choosing a very flat route: I recorded the fasted 16 mile split yet!
  
• Carrying enough shot blocks to share with James who was close to bonking again
• Post-run pizza with all the fixins!
  

Fails:

• Some a$$hole stole our "Runner's Goodie Bag" we stashed at mile 18.5 with waters/gummies/sandwiches. This ROYALLY sucked as we were both very low on water by this point and extremely hungry. I ran sooooo fast the last half mile till the "runner's bag," looking forward to the sammie. When I realized it had been stolen..... tears. 'Twas a very sad day. But it did give me an adrenaline rush being angry.... I kept chanting "ba$tards, ba$tards" (excuse the language, but it's hard to be nice at mile 18.5 when thirsty and hungry) which kept me going for at least a mile.
  
• Not drinking enough water at the previous resting spot (I was NOT expecting to have our stuff stolen!)
• Not carrying a credit card to make quick stop at gas station to buy more water/fuel. Reminder to self: Always run with spare cash/credit card on the long runs!
• My running singlet. For some reason, it kept bothering me.
• Not wearing sunblock around my ankles. There's a two inch segment of flesh that neither my running tights nor my socks cover. Now I have a Really Awkward tan line right there. Oops.

But all in all, the run was as good as a first 22 miler can get. I felt SO incredibly relieved/happy that I was able to run it. I honestly thought my knee would give out by mile 16 again. I fully expected NOT to be able to finish the run.

But I ran every last step godamit! haha! :) Can you tell I'm super stoked?
Like I told James, had this run NOT gone well, I would have been SUPER DUPER depressed/anxious/cranky/nervous/scared the entire three weeks till the marathon. I seriously would have been the biggest Betty Downer the world has ever seen, for the entire tapering period. So it's good for both my sanity, and James', that I was able to run this successfuly.

And now all I have to do is sit back and enjoy tapering weeks. I'll probably run a Turkey Trot, but mostly will stick to yoga and foam rolling for now. Gotta get that knee all fixed up!

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Marathon time is here!!!!!!

Finally! A shoe review!

But before I begin.....

It's Friday the 13th!!!
And to me, this meant that I needed to go to the bakery for an apple fritter for breakfast.
Hey. Life is uncertain. Eat Dessert First.
Oh, and interestingly enough, "Dessert s" is "Stressed" spelled backwards. Ahhh, nifty, huh? :)

I think I'll spare you the "OMG, woe is me", "my knee hurts and my life sucks", and "wtf does my knee have to hurt now?" stories. (you probably get the gist). And did I mention that I have a 22 miler tomorrow? This should get really interesting, to say the least. At least I finally bought myself a foam roller yesterday, so that should help with some of the pain (keeping my fingers crossed).

So. Here's is my super delayed review of the Nike Air Pegasus+ 26.

Bottom line; I really like this shoe. I like how it looks, and I like how it feels. It's light for a big-looking shoe. It's put me through the 4 longest runs of my life so far without any trouble, and it worked great right out of the box. (The white+turquoise color would have been my second choice color)

To be honest, at first I didn't believe that Nike made legit running shoes. I was looking at Mizunos, Sauconys and Asics. But more than a couple of people and a couple of sources recommended the Pegasus, so when I found a pair I tried them on on a whim.

Wow. They fit perfect.

I actually had to go to three different stores to find my size. Who knew 9.5 was such a popular size?

Anyway, here is the review.




I'm hoping to sharpen my video skills to make these videos more fun. I think I'll start with better lighting and not looking at 14 thousand different directions. haha. I like doing these videos, so you'll probably see some more on here soon!

In other news, I am working to add some more interesting things to my blog, such as an "About Me" page. It'll take me a while to navigate the blog thing, but it's in the works!

Also, I moved locations within my office. I used to sit in a back corner where I could blog and comment on everyone's blogs whenever I wanted, but now I sit right smack in the middle of traffic, and blogging/commenting has gotten 100 times more difficult. So I just wanted to say I'm still reading! (but I still can't find a good way to comment inconspicuously). I hope you continue to read mine too! :)

Muchos gracias, and have a safe Friday the thirteenth!

oh man, was that a black cat I just saw....???? :)