Running in Beauty

Must Pass...Class

The Workout
Mileage: 3 miles
Type: Easy (but kinda intervalish with tiny hills)

This week is jammed back with non-stop studying. I might as well call this the Carmen's Running and Studying Ball and Chain blog because it's all I ever write about! However, this week is so very crucial. It's literally life or death for my degree because if I don't pass, I can't take it again because I've already taken it so many times already.

I have a good grasp on the material this go round as I've been going to class every single day and spending some of my weekends in a study group at the library. One of my study partners is prepping to take the MCAT and aims to get into med school and I'm hanging around him so much I feel like I'm doing the same thing too! haha This class really is that intense.

I have my second exam tomorrow, a quiz on Thursday, and the final exam on Friday. It's so convenient that my rest week coincides with this week. I have easy runs all week with some crosstraining. I feel like it's helping to stabilize my anxiety and to offset the calorie-dense foods I tend to eat more often when I'm stressed.

I definitely need to schedule an outdoor run this week though. I'm starting to get attached to the treadmill. :( Not a good thing!

I was surprised when I came back from the gym this evening Hubster usually kisses me and gives me a hug when he gets back from work but this time I was so self conscious with my after-workout BO that I told him not to. I STINK!! I exclaimed.

So he says Maybe you should stand in the closet. There's something in there that might make you smell better.

I said, I hope it's cake!

He just gave me eyes that expressed, Open the door already you nerd!

So I open the closet door and sitting on the shelf was an orange fireball of a bouquet of flowers! I was so dumbfounded I didn't know what to do. I just grinned and grinned and gushed. hehe It has all my favorites in there: tigerlilies, daisies, orange-pinkish roses, and eucalyptus leaves.

The little card in the bouquet says:
My dearest Carmen,
I am so proud of you. You have achieved so much and only have more to accomplish. I LOVE YOU! --b

Sometimes I don't realize how lucky I am. :)
Thank you Hubster and you are my heart!

etched in stone by carmen @ 7:48 PM 7 comments

intermission: band-aid, please!

Mileage: 7.1 miles
Type: Base
Pace Average: 9:55 min/mile

I just had to get in this long run, folks. I just had to!
And to think that I did it all on the treadmill again! If this keeps on, I'm going to be the "treadmill queen". :P I really didn't have any option but to use the complex's fitness room again.

This time there were no annoying kids that were burning holes in me with their annoying stares. Just me, the treadmill, and King of the Hill on the boob tube. I had my jams pumping in my ear but it just helped to have something to focus on.

I've abstained from a real long run for so long that I completely forgot about foot chafing! I had planned to take a break once I ran 45 minutes straight so I could down a GU gel. Around 40 mintues I began to feel the familiar burn of my left inner arch rubbing against my shoe. I thought I could hack out the rest of the 2.7 miles I had left to run without having to abandon ship for a good 10-15 minutes to run back home to grab a band-aid.

Folks, I couldn't.
The burn became too intense so I made a quick dash for home and luckily I still had some giant bandaids left from the time I wrecked on my bike three weeks ago. While I was applying the bandaids to the chafing area, I successfully recruited Hubster to run with me. :)

Band-aids...they are definitely an essential...and a lifesaver. I heart Johnson and Johnson! lol

I finished the remaining miles I had left.
So altogether I ran 7.1 miles. The back of my legs were definitely burning and on the verge of cramping when I was done. I briefly stretched.

Then we went home. I had some yogurt and that was that!!

This upcoming week is an easy week. After three weeks of hard training...it's time to take a step back to rest up a bit. Happy running all!

etched in stone by carmen @ 10:44 PM 5 comments

joy?

The Workout
Mileage: 6.o miles
Type: Endurance

I suck. Today was only the second time this week that I ran. :( I deserve a hard pinch to my arm or something.

I woke up this morning with the feeling that I absolutely, positively had to put in a couple miles before riding to class. So I fueled up with a 'nana, threw on some workout clothes, and hit the complex's fitness room. I ran just under 2 miles at a 9:50 pace.

Then I showered. Booked it to class on my bike.
Endured the 2.5 hours and had info overload. These last two days have been major info overloads. They leave me feeling frustrated and cranky moreso because I'm so confused and the only antidote is to read, read, read which eats up a lot of my time. We're covering transcription and translation. Blah. I've always hated this stuff.

Then I went to work and learned how to work the software that analyzes the carotenoid junk in the bird plasma I've been working with. Sigh. It took a while for me to get it and I wasted three hours doing that. Next week....JOY...no, really, that was sarcasm. Next week I have to do part two of my extraction process and use the software to analyze it. UGH.
Lab rat, I am not. I'd rather be outside catching the birds.

Then I huffed it back home on the bike and got the mail. I am anticipating my employment forms. I recieved the official letter of the job offer yesterday. I'm going to keep it and frame it. Ahhh...I don't care how inadequate the pay is--it's my first real job after college but it's a stepping stone to becoming a wildlife biologist! :) Gotta pay my dues.

No forms so I went back to the complex fitness room and ran a little over 4 miles. I ran the first 2 pretty fast, the 3rd moderate, and I was gasping for air on the 4th. I felt my heart flippity flop and I got scared so I slowed down. It was uncomfortably humid in there so maybe I was overstressing my body.

Oh yeah, I became annoyed when some lady came in the room with her 5-6 year old kid. The kid instantly got on the elliptical and started playing around with it. Periodically she was stare and stare at me, then go back to messing with the machine. I sound like a witch but one of my pet peeves is kids who STARE at me. I feel like their breaking my DNA strands apart with each stare!! Dont' parents teach their kids not to stare at people these days???

So yeah...I'm rambling.

Tonight Hubster and I are headed to the movie theatre to watch "My Super Ex-Girlfriend". Then tomorrow is an all day love-romp with my beloved Genetics material. Joy.

etched in stone by carmen @ 8:39 PM 7 comments

Feel Me Flow, Yo

I did it.

The Workout
Mileage: 6.3
Type: Base, no hills

Though monotonous and therefore, challenging, I did my 6 miles on the treadmill today. Including a warmup, it came out to about 6.3 miles. Before heading to my complex's fitness room I tried to download some new tunes for my mp3 player. I tried to go old school. I'm only 24 so "old school" generally means the late nineties and the fiesty part of my college years. Fiesty meaning crazy. hehe

Feel Me Flow - Naughty by Nature
808 -Blaque
Heartbreaker - Mariah Carey
Hot Sexy Punkie - Sean Paul
Changes - Tupac
Gettin' Jiggy Wit It - Will Smith
Too Close - Next
This is How We Do It - Montell Jordan
Silver and Cold - AFI

I grew up during the rise of bubblegum pop and astonishingly enough, I forgot to add some Britney and Backstreet Boys to the mix. haha

Anyhow, I've been feeling extremely sluggish lately. It makes it hard to get into the groove of things when I set out to run. I partially took care of this problem by finally swinging around Scottsdale Running Co. to buy some new packets of GU. I'm such a vanilla type of person--literally. It's the only flavor I can stand in GU gels.

So I downed one before my run and another run around 4 miles. I've been so busy with school and studying that I keep forgetting to buy some new groceries. Not having a running car for a couple of days last week didn't help matters either. I noticed a dip in my energy because I usually fuel on bananas or yogurt every 2-3 hours and since I didn't do the shopping, I had to resort to buying pretzals or lattes during my class breaks. Not having the right mix of groceries also forced me to eat out on campus more times than I was comfortable with.

So be sure to eat right...it helps alot!

I finally did some shopping an hour ago so I should be good. But I'm back on track again folks...I'm a woman on a mission.

etched in stone by carmen @ 11:05 PM 9 comments

playing catch up

First of all, hats off to Phil for setting a new 5k PR this weekend when all most of us Arizonans could do was scoff at the temperatures let alone run in it. ;)

I am struggling to keep up with my training schedule. I had an important exam that threw me off schedule since Wednesday and I've been scattering about trying to get back into gear. So for a short synopsis:

Wed. July 19 & Thurs. July 20 = did not run

Fri. the 21st
I had planned for a 30 min easy run with Trish at a park but the weather decided to turn on us and eventually, it was the lightening that scared me away. Luckily, she had some guest passes to a local gym so I did a brief 15 min run and some weight training before closing time.

Sat. the 22nd
Trish and I planned the night before to do an early morning hike at one of the "mountains" in Phoenix. If I had hurried with getting ready, we might have had time to drive all the way to Piestewa Peak but the sun was ascending fast so we decided on hiking South Mountain.

It was really fun! I don't know how many rabbits we saw as well as lizards. I was also fascinated by the ants there as well. (For those of you who don't know, I once worked in a research lab on campus that used ants as research organisms.) Before this weekend, I had never met T in person and we had such a wonderful time that I had no regrets in meeting at all. In fact, we had so many commonalities intact. I was telling her that it's a shame now that I've finally met someone to do outdoorsy things with, I'm leaving for the rez in 3 weeks. Boo-hoo. :( I suppose we'll resume our activities when I return.

We spent at least an hour and a half out hiking around.

That evening I tried to run outdoors on my usual route but it was stinkin' HOT! It was 9:30 pm when I took off and I couldn't manage to do more than 2 continuous miles. Hubster reminded me of the story in the current RW issue about the young kid who had overheated and died from an intense training run in the heat so I relented to walking the last mile. By the last half mile, I was slowly trudging along and was definitely feeling overheated. My arms were so slick with sweat and moisture that I knew I wasn't cooling properly.

Miraculously, I made it home.

Sun. the 23rd
I was tired the whole day. I accompanied Hubster to his posh office building so he could catch up on some work while I studied for my class. Studying always makes me tired. :(

That evening, I was still sluggish but headed to the gym for 6 miles on the treaddie. That wasn't to be realized because my stomach was still full from dinner and I felt like I was going to give birth to alien babies at any second so I only ran a little over 2 miles and ended with 25 minutes on the upright and recumbent bikes.

Hopefully today, I can get in that long run.
Better late than never.

BTW, I decided no more outdoor runs for me unless the temps are in the mid 90's. :(

etched in stone by carmen @ 1:03 PM 6 comments

slug

In one word--

drained.

It's not even capitalized because it would take too much energy to even hit the Shift key to capitalize the 'd'. heh

I studied well into the night and the early morn. My prof did not disappoint. The exam about skinned me ALIVE! I'm scared to know how I did but from chatting outside of class, not everyone had a good feeling about their grades.

I didn't even run last night even though an easy 45 min run was schedule. I thought that failing the exam was way worse than missing just one night of running. I have intervals scheduled tonight but I'm too tired to think about it right now.

After the exam, I had a quick lunch with a classmate and fellow blogger then headed to the lab to extract some carotenoids. Blah. Let's just say that I'm glad I'm not making a career in clinical laboratory studies. hehe My poor eyes and my poor nostrils from whiffing ethanol every now and then.

Then I had to endure a long, HOT, sweaty bike ride home.

Now that I'm back home I have to worry about finding someone to jump my car so I can get the damn battery replaced. After all this...all I can think about is having one giant Cinnabon cinnamon roll for dinner.

It's justified. lol

etched in stone by carmen @ 5:15 PM 11 comments

for my happy feet

I forgot to even mention that the Brooks shoes I had purchased a week ago didn't feel so hot when I got home and walked around in them. So I finally got around to going back to the running store to get an exchange. I was fitted for an Asics pair but unfortunately they didn't have my size. (Me and Bigfoot share the same size, I swear!) The nice guys there offered to order it from the company and call me when the order arrived.

Then I received a call yesterday saying that Asics wasn't going to have a new batch in my size til September! I couldn't wait that long so back to the store I went. This time I was fitted for a comfy new pair of Saucony's. They match my mp3 player! :)

The awesome thing was that they were cheaper than the Brooks shoes so I was able to grab pepper spray and a Headsweats (these are RAD!) visor to make up for the difference. When I ran the Iron Girl 10-miler last December, Hubster bought me a Headsweats cap with the IronGirl logo and name on it for me. I wear that hat every damn day back and forth from campus. I swear by them for keeping sweat at bay and keeping my noggin cool.

By the way, I neglected to mention I'm not doing the ARR #4 5k this weekend. I was browsing an issue of RW while doing x-training the other day and found that the San Diego Track Club is hosting a 3-miler at Balboa Park while I'm in town so I'm doing that instead. My first time running in a different city and my goodness, San Diego nonetheless!

Good luck to all who are doing the ARR 5k this weekend. I'll be thinking "cool" thoughts for ya.

etched in stone by carmen @ 8:33 PM 7 comments

Hear! Hear!

It's not quite official yet but I GOT THE JOB!!

Yay to new experiences and resume building.
Boo to having to live without Hubster for approximately three months! :(

Double yay that I will now be training at higher elevation (from 1,100 ft in Tempe to 5,500 ft) and in beautiful scenery. Remember those Canyon de Chelly pics? That's my new office. :P

Triple yay that I will be nearby for the birth of my niece in September/October!

Through all the yays, I will definitely miss Hubster but we've weathered the long-distance thing before.

etched in stone by carmen @ 3:34 PM 8 comments

shakey leaf

I've been feeling a bit loopy lately, hence the dry and seemingly skeletal posts. I've been feeling as anxious as a dog who recognizes the route to the vet clinic this week. I have my first Genetics exam on Thursday which is akin to having my life on the line. Just thinking about it makes me sweat bullets.

I also have an interview scheduled with someone from the Navajo Nation regarding my application for a temporary wildlife tech position this afternoon. I bought this interview question and answer book over the weekend and have been skimming through it as best I can without neglecting my studies. The good thing is that it's a phone interview but at the moment, I feel that I'm not adequately prepared. Maybe I'm making a big fuss over it but I'd rather be somewhat prepared than sounding like an unsure recent college graduate.

Hopefully, the interviewer happens to be a running enthusiast as well and we can bond on that. hehe

When I get anxious, I feel like I swallowed my heart and it's about to rip out of my chest to plot a mutiny against me. Ugh.

Other than that, I'm still on track with my running schedule. Yesterday I had a scheduled day off and the only thing I did was ride my bike to class. As for today--
The Workout
Mileage: 4.5 miles
Type: Tempo

This workout was divided into 10 minutes of warm-up, (2x) 10 min tempo/2 min recovery, and a 15 minutes cooldown. I had to cut my cooldown short because the gym was closing. However, I did get a good workout. On the tempos, I was running at an approximate speed of 9 min/miles and as fast as 8:30 when I got into a groove. It was awesome!!

Sometimes I hate doing tempo workouts because time seems to crawl by slower than usual. I'll be running and then looking down at the clock to see how much time I have left to go only to realize I have minutes instead of seconds. How I get through it is beyond me.
----
Lastly, I feel like I have not been giving adequate attention to other running blogs. After Thursday is over, I'll be back to regular commenting but please don't think I forgot you or think you've been boring. lol It's just one of those weeks.

P.S. Could you suggest some typical interview questions as well as some to-do's and not-to do's? I'd appreciate any help!!

etched in stone by carmen @ 10:04 PM 3 comments

no title--that's how original i am today

The Workout
Type: Cross-Training
15 minutes stationary bike
15 min elliptical
10 min rowing machine
20 min incline walking (treadmill)

Short and sweet.
I'm working on a homework assignment right now but thought I'd write down the workout before I forget. I'm sleepy. :(

etched in stone by carmen @ 10:40 PM 6 comments

Today I had wings on my feet

The Workout
Mileage: 5.8 miles
Type: Hills

I was dreading this particular run all week.
All one needs to say is "hills" and I'm already doing a 180. jk

The good thing is that I got through with it. Like I promised, I did said run at the gym. Oh how I love Saturday mornings. My treadmill was waiting there looking forlorn before I arrived. It saw me and I swear I could see energy halos coming off of it. Needless to say, it stuck it's tongue out at the crummy Woodway machines because it was picked. hehe

There was hardly a soul there and I loved it.

The miles were just flying by today, I swear and the hills were not as menacing on my legs as I thought they were going to be--especially coming from a week and some days without hill/incline training. So I have to say right now Good job legs! They are starting to feel super strong. :) I felt absolutely sensational when I was done. Boy do I love that runner's high!

Tomorrow is my scheduled day of cross training. I 'm glad that I made a calendar of specific workouts for each day. It's such motivation to be able to write a check mark with my red pen after I've accomplished the daily goal. Who would have known that the biggest difference in motivation would have come from such a simple act!

Right now I am preparing dinner. On tonight's menu is Sage seasoned porkchops simmered in beef broth and a side dish of green bean casserole. It's getting to be known as my specialty aroudn this house. hehe I've posted a pic of it in progress.

About an hour ago, we came back from watching Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth which is about the global warming crisis. I was expecting a little more but nevertheless I think it's an essential film that EVERYONE needs to see.

And I don't know if I mentioned but Hubster and I are headed to San Diego the first weekend in August. We hitting up Street Scene where a menagerie of our favorite bands will be playing (Tool, My Chemical Romance, The Shins, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Bloc Party and a couple others.) I made hotel reservations today!!!!!!! It's my way of rewarding myself for finishing up my final summer classes for my degree. :)

etched in stone by carmen @ 8:02 PM 8 comments

somebody HOSE ME DOWN!!

The Workout
REST

I'm seriously really IRRITATED right now.

Hell, I've been crabby all day long man! Why?
It was stinkin' 113 F today and maybe even slightly higher in some areas. Shit, I felt it when I rode to school and when I was mulling around doing errands in town.

I'm the type of person who tries my best to withstand the heat as best I can. I feel like a wimp if I have to withdraw from the heat and be a whiny little baby about it. But Today? I felt downright bitchy but I kept it to myself. However, Hubster got the bad end of it later in the evening when I felt like the apartment wasn't cooling down and I had to walk back and forth to our laundry facility to do some loads.

I was preparing to do an early AM run for an hour tomorrow but considering that it's 10:30 pm right now and about 105F (!!) I'm not going to take my chances outdoors. I'm headed to the gym to do a treadmill workout.

When I was younger I was always in and out of the ER because of slight heat stroke or dehydration. Me and IV bags were like this...*crosses fingers*. The last thing I need to be doing is hooked up in a hospital when I've got studying to do for an exam next week!

My gosh! I really feel for the homeless folk here. I hope they find decent shelter and decent AC over the next couple of days. I'm sure I have experienced hotter temps but it feels like the hottest day I've survived that I can remember.

Blah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

However, it could be worse.
It could be not only over a hundred early tomorrow morning but it could also be bloody humid as well!

etched in stone by carmen @ 10:19 PM 6 comments

another chestnut

I have nothing exciting to blog about other than to leave the outcome of my workout today. Tonight I am resigning myself to a night of laundry and Genetics. Fun stuff.

The Workout
Mileage: 3.5 miles
Type: Interval Training

I had a crummy treadmill today. Usually I run on a Precor machine but this time I arrived around what seemed like peak hours (around 6:20 pm) so my treadmill was taken. I had to run on a Woodway machine and it just rubbed me the wrong way so I was irritated the whole time but the workout had to be done. I'm such a finicky runner. Those ways sooo need to be shed.

My Chemical Romance carried me through the last 15 minutes. :)
Note to self: put AFI songs onto mp3 player.

etched in stone by carmen @ 8:16 PM 3 comments

Be vigilant Phoenicians!

Yesterday evening, Hubster and I went out to dinner. We were headed for one of our usual Mexican cuisine joints when I decided at the last minute that I was craving pizza instead. There was a new restaurant next door so we headed over there.

The indoor decor was very cozy but the service was terrible! We waited almost 25 minutes for our appetizer to come out and when it did, so did the rest of our order. The waitress hardly came around to check on our drinks and our status. I was very perturbed and Hubster was ready to walk out when the damn appetizer came out.

Anyhow, when we first came in we choose a table in the northeast corner of the establishment. Hubster was creeped out by a framed drawing near our table of a pair of owls, which in Navajo culture as well as some other Indian tribes are messengers of bad news. To make it worse, we were facing the north direction which is also considered a bad direction for traditional Navajos. So we moved to another table which was located right near an elevated TV.

Access Hollywood was on for a bit before a local AZ newscaster came on to report on live coverage of a Phoenix community meeting with the Phoenix Police Dept. They were meeting to discuss a crime spree of sexual assaults, rapes, burglaries, murders, and serial shootings that have plagued the area.

Hubster has always worried about me when I have decided to run at night. Lately, he has been riding his bike and following me on my routes. Most times, I sighed at having to bring along my cell phone because it irritated me and my form. (I know, it's dangerous!) So he made me watch and listen to what the police dept was telling the public.

I was freaked out that some of the shooting incidents were almost nearby my route and took place right around the time I run. In addition, I had been thinking about jogging at Kiwanis Park in the evening and the serial rapist has been hitting areas along Baseline Rd. (Kiwanis is on Baseline).

Before then, I had this innocent and naive outlook on the world and scoffed at the chances that something could happen to me. Afterall, who would mess with a woman who is 5'10" and could put up a fight? ? I forget that people don't fight fair and use weapons to subdue their victims.

So now, I'm going to curb the night runs as much as I can and exercise utmost caution to protect myself.

Sometimes I forget how scary the world is. Please be careful when you are out running...because you just never know.

Maybe it was a good thing the framed owl picture shooed us away from our initial table because I would have never come across the news.

For more info on the crime spree in Phoenix, go to the Silent Witness website.

etched in stone by carmen @ 12:59 PM 5 comments

the beginning of starting again

First off, I just want to thank those who stopped by and left good messages that wished a speedy recovery from the bike wreck. Thanks!

I had lunch with my best friend JC the other day and apparently, he had once gotten into a wreck with his bike on the way to campus too. So he told me to expect to wake up with soreness the next morning which was exactly what happened. I was as sore as a mutha this morning. I thought about hopping on the transit bus to campus but ended up riding my bike. Yay brave Carmen! I rode much slower though.

So I was counting the number of weeks I have until the marathon and I have approximately 27 weeks, more or less. No sense in beginning the Higdon 18 wk plan until the last week of August so I decided to work on my 5k training until I near the first week of September. Then I will switch over to the marathon plan.

I've been getting magazines of Her Sports + Fitness in the mail over the past couple of months. I suppose the free issues came as a perk of one of the races I entered last year. It's a very good magazine that provides us regular everyday women with athletic female role models such as Lokelani McMicheal, who by the way is my new inspiration (along with Lance Armstrong).

In the most recent issue there was a plan for a better 5k. It lasts for 8 weeks and provides enough intensity for me to improve my fitness, stamina, and time without burning out. So i thought, What the heck! I'll try this.

As soon as I made up my mind, I went to work on an Excel spreadsheet to create a running schedule calendar for this month with a check off slot under each day. Today was Cross-Training day (60 min) or I had the option of running 45 minutes, easy.



The Workout
Running Mileage: 3.1 miles
Bike ride: 10 min ea x 2

I was not able to run the full 45 minutes because you know...I had to consider that I almost broke my bones the other day! haha I thought a 30 min run was appropriate. I also included the bike ride to and from school, 20 minutes. That should be enough.

Here are my lap times:
mile 1: 9:52
mile 2: 9:45
mile 3: 10:15

I was going to walk after 2 miles to catch my breath but ended up slowing down to a trot. That explains the slow mile 3 time. I'm trying to stay consistant with each mile time but I find it hard to run slow for the first 2 miles. My goal is 10:05 miles. Ah well. I'll return to that problem after I start the marathon program.

for now I suppose the faster times are acceptable given I'm under a 5k program now.

Well, I gotta get to bed now. Adios folks and happy trails.

P.S. The heat was brutal tonight. I ran at 10 pm and it was still hotter than a mofo!

etched in stone by carmen @ 12:47 AM 5 comments

she hit the concrete hard in an almost gnarly way

I am seriously trying not to make excuses but I still have not run. It was on my to-do list today. That is, until I took a major spill on my bike on the way to campus today.

I was an idiot and put uneven weights on my handlebars. (Long story but my regular backpack was dirty from a banana I left rotting in there so I had to use a shoulder bag.) Catastrophe was inevitable as I was also late and riding like a mad woman for class. I made a fast and sharp turn and before I knew, my wheel locked (probably from the bag knocking into it) and all I could do was go with the flow of the fall.

What's funny was that my first instinct was to "pancake". I played some high school volleyball so it was pure instinct to lessen the impact but landing on my belly. haha

Some nearby painters helped me to my bike and realigned the chain on my bike.

I considered skipping class and going home to lick my wounds. Both knees were scraped and I have a huge boody red deep scrape on my left elbow. However, the superwoman in me wanted to go on with the show and kept riding to campus. What's worst was that I spilled right in front of a passing transit bus. lol

I was telling a classmate that the sadist in me actually liked the fall. Crazy, I know but it made me feel tough for getting back up and riding on. Maybe I can take mountain biking afterall. Big kahunas for someone with a fear of falling. lol

I'm considering a session on the elliptical but we'll see.
I still feel like my knees and elbow are on fire. :(

Update: My left arm is now experiencing a dull ache as is my wrist. I did not do the elliptical. We'll see what tomorrow morning brings.

etched in stone by carmen @ 10:08 PM 5 comments

Canyon de Chelly pictures

etched in stone by carmen @ 8:07 PM 9 comments

also long overdue

I finally bought my new shoes today!
Thanks to Ann's advice, I visited Performance Footwear in Tempe where my gait was analyzed and I was given expert advice and information on the biomechanics of my stride and pronation tendencies. I was quite horrified to say the least at the magnitude of my overpronation! lol

These new shoes are a dream!
Marathon, you had better be scared now.

etched in stone by carmen @ 11:00 PM 5 comments

way overdue

etched in stone by carmen @ 6:49 PM 8 comments

i'm still around

A couple days of break is turning into almost a week without running. MUST RUN TODAY!

I had a wonderful time back home. Hubster and I visited Canyon de Chelly and Monument Valley. We took some pictures of which I will post later on today.

Off to class soon.
Genetics is so excruciating...

etched in stone by carmen @ 9:23 AM 5 comments

5k race report (short version)

Well, 5k mission this morning was ACCOMPLISHED!

The other evening Hubster was asking me what my goal time for the race was. I told him, I don't know. I really didn't know what to expect because I didn't know how many hills there would be and what percent incline they would be at. So I estimated a 32:00-ish finish.

I kept telling myself that this 5k was a gauging run--a starting point. Basically, I was already trying to make up excuses in case I came in with a time over 31:00 which I find disappointing for myself.

Then I kept thinking about it and thinking about it. For most of my life, I failed to set my expectations high so that the disappointments wouldn't hurt as bad in the end. This usually made me feel even worse when I did something mediocre which was actually a little above average effort and I sit there regretfully with those thoughts of If only I tried harder! I could have ended up with a better time, grade, pace, etc, if I had tried hard all the way.

So I made up my mind to start doing my best in everything I do.

And it started this morning with the 5k. I tried to run that puppy hard all the way through and you know what? I surprised myself!

I came in with a sub 30:00 time.

My watch says 29:13 but I'm waiting for the results.
That's a 9:24 pace yo!

I have nothing to feel bad about. I tried my best and it paid off! So did all those incline workouts on the treadmill. The hills were where I actually passed a lot of people.

I'm awesome.

Update:
It turns out the official time is 29:12. :)
I really wish I wasn't committed to my no-alcohol pledge. Grrr. I could so go for a Sierra Nevada. Shucks!

etched in stone by carmen @ 8:55 AM 14 comments