Today 5.01 km in 37:01 minutes. Pace 7:22 min/km
Category: running (Page 4 of 5)
After my Jingle Bell 5K experience with hills, I decided to enter the Little Rock Half Marathon instead of the marathon. With that adjustment, I decided to incorporate some hills into my training regiment and see what happens. So far so good.
Today was an 8 mile run. It’s not the longest run I’ve ever done (that would be 12) but it is pretty far and still a little intimidating. There was 10 mile an hour winds that seemed to be blowing in my face. It didn’t matter which direction I was running, the wind seemed to adjust to be blowing RIGHT IN MY FACE. It was hard enough that I felt it was slowing me down. My short goal is to manage to jog up this hill without stopping to walk. It’s pretty steep. I didn’t make it this time. Maybe next time.
No one tried to run me off the road.
I did however meet another runner which surprised me. There doesn’t seem to be that many bona fide runners around here.
So when it was all said and done. (according to the Nike + iPod)
8 miles
1:40:31
average pace 12:33 minute/mile
My favorite song for this run was “When I Grow Up” by the Pussycat Dolls.
My friend Jennybee is a new Aunt. Even though I am not only old enough to have a child and am old enough to start worrying about the freshness of my eggs, I still don’t feel old enough to actually have a kid. I’m stuck in some sort of adolescent mindset. When I get bonafide big wrinkles, I am going to faint. I have friends who have teenagers and they weren’t teenage moms. Lord have mercy, when did I get old?
Today I heard that in this town, an African American woman who lives in a prominently white neighborhood had her house vandalized and the police did nothing. I mean people literally spray painted “N&****” on the front of it. It didn’t even make the local paper. How the hell does that happen? in 2008?!? I am stunned. Completely stunned. Of course, I had to call my friend to apologize for making jokes about her Fort Knox style security system on her house.
My post Jingle Bell 5K soreness and hill running problems during the race have convinced me that instead of signing u for the Little Rock Marathon, I am going to sign up for the half instead and do more hill training and pace training instead of just trying to finish. I think my legs will thank me.
As a business owner, I can attest that I am feeling the economic fallout of everybody being broke. It’s a sad sad day in Melissaland.
A few weeks ago while running in the dusk, a guy turned his headlights on bright and swerved toward the shoulder where I was located. Seriously, some mother fucker tried to “pretend” to run over me. What if he had lost control of his big ass truck and not been able to swerve back in time. I had on the big hunter orange vest with reflective tape that promised to be seen from 1200 feet away. Who does that?
I woke up bright and early for a Saturday to run in Craig’s Jingle Bell 5K. Craig is Craig O’Neil of KHTV Channel 11 fame. He has big eyes and big lips. Think Mick Jagger but replace rock star sexy with goofy and that’s about it. This is the first race timed race I’ve run. It’s also one of the first larger races I’ve run. By larger, I mean large enough where I would have to worry about hitting or getting hit by other people in the beginning due to the crowd. Since running a marathon is one of those life goals on the bucket list, I figured I should get used to it.
It was exciting. Crazy exciting. I invited my mother to come with me to watch the action. It turned out she hates the cold and sat in a restaurant to keep warm the entire time. Oops. She was a trooper otherwise though.
It was chilly this morning. I hadn’t registered beforehand so I got to be there before 10:30 to get in. It was windy and chilly.
When I picked up my race number, I also got a temporary tattoo and some tiny jingle bells to put on my shoes.
ME and my TATTOO!
JINGLE BELLS!
I wasn’t expecting the big push of adrenaline waiting in the crowd at the starting line right before the race. It is a “I wanna go! I wanna go NOW!” feeling. Also, my training runs on the high school track and the shoulders of roads didn’t prepare me for the pounding that is running on the street. . Also, I didn’t know you could wear your iPod during a race so I had no music. There weren’t tons of spectators cheering you on like there were at the Race for the Cure.
My calf threatened to shut the race down on me at the first hill so I had to slow down my pace and walk up most of the hills. My time, therefore, sucked really damn hard. I had to remind myself this was my first race and the goal was to finish. This was a FUN RUN dammit. It wasn’t like I had any chance in hell of coming in first.
This 5K run/walk had the distinction that you could walk your dog in the race. There were lots of cuties. Some wore Christmas-y garb and some didn’t.
Here’s a picture of me looking like a dork at the finish line. (Dear Lane Bryant, Can you pLease make some jogging pants that don’t want to go up to my boobs. Seriously those are some Steve Urkel style highwaisted jogging pants from hell. I might send the other pair of pants I have unopened back.) Craig’s in the background.
My post race lunch was a gyro platter at Leo’s Greek Castle. YUMMY!
While I was in capital city, I went to the running store last week and bought some new running shoes while I still had the money to do so and restocked by Body Glide. Body Glide is the BOMB. It’s one of the best inventions known to man. Body Glide protects against blisters and other friction related injuries. You can see Paulie Bleeker using some in Juno. (about 30 seconds into this trailer)
See?!!! Okay I love Juno but LIBERTY BELL? Are you serious?!!
I ran 4 miles on two separate days this week. The first 4 miles was the fastest pace I have run in years and definitely the fastest pace since I’ve been using the Nike/iPod tracker. The second run, which was the next day, was a lot slower. I intended it to be an easy run and while it was slower,
the first half mile felt like death.
Some runners are purist who don’t think you should run with music but I am a music fan. SO What by Pink is a great running song. Some of my other favorites are “Right Here, Right Now” by Fat Boy Slim, Firestarter by Prodigy, Disarm by Smashing Pumpkins, Hey Ya by Outkast…. hrmm…
Maybe I need to make a running mix later.
- Thursday, Breezy, the best dog in the word ™, came to my house for me to puppysit while my grandmother is living it up in Vegas. She will be here all week. Let the good times roll.
- I keep drafting this magnum, literary opus about my volunteer work on election day complete with voter intimidation and watching the historic event of the first African American man being elected president in the town known for being the last lynching in Missouri. There’s something surreal about that.
- My Aunt Reba died Thursday night. My Mother and she were very close. It’s a little off that she’s not here. Then again, Reba loved to have fun and would probably won’t my Mother who is the person who is always there when someone needs her to cut loose every once in a while.
- We heard rumors that they were going to a male strip club. The next day, they told us it was just rumors. I’m disappointed. The mental picture of my mother and grandmother in a Chippendale’s has provided MUCHO GUSTO LAUGH— errro??? Laughing my ass clean off. Yes I am.
- According to my Mama, My Dad told her she couldn’t go see men stripping. Uh huh, old school husbandry. And people wonder why I’m not married.
- Of course, then my Mama immediately said that if she really wanted to go to a strip club, she would have gone anyway. Ah yeah quiet rebellion, that’s my MAMA.
This is the front of my “voter protection team” t-shirt provided by the Obama campaign.
This is the back of the “Voter Protection Team” shirt. IT says “Voting Questions? Ask me!” yeah I’m the shiznit.
- Of course, Obama wants to know about this blog if I have any chance of working in his administration. Oops maybe I shouldn’t have written that open letter to the ex boyfriend from Hades… NAH! It was worth it. bwahahahahahhaha.
- The polling place was a combination police and fire station. They decided to have a training exercise and close half the parking lot. Of course, they decided to do this on election day. Of course, this particular polling place was the “black part” of town. Of course, there are two other fire/police stations in this town. And Of course, there were police barricades.
- NO really. I am serious. Here’s a picture!
- The county clerk came and opened the industrial strength can of whoop ass and that training exercise was closed down and the parking lot was opened up in less than 30 minutes. Democracy in action people
This is the chicken fried round steak platter from Lambert’s Cafe. Since it was world famous, I figured I had better go. I mean if you go to Orlando and not step foot in Disneyworld . . . it seems sort of wrong.
- Today was Aunt Reba’s funeral. It was a small and cute funeral. It was also about a month from the day that her son, Rick died. It’s weird how that works out.
- It’s also weird that my Aunt Janice, who lives in Florida and calls me maybe twice a year called me the day before she died. My Mom told her about Reba and that she was in awful shape and she was able to make the funeral. How weird is that?
- I bought some new running shoes and a reflecting vest. Oh and body glide. I can’t forget the body glide. It’s the best stuff ever. Prevents fat lady thigh rubbing friction burn. (if you’re fat enough, you know what I”m talking about) I am training for the Little Rock Marathon in earnest. I’m scared, though.
- I am embarrassed at some of the provincial, racist attitudes that have gushed forth from some of my friends, family, and neighbors since Barack Obama has been elected president. Completely embarrassed. And no, he has never said he was going to take your guns away.
- I met a writer at Reba’s funeral. Well she has a day job as an English teacher but she writes novels. She’s trying to find an agent. Her favorite author is Earnest Hemingway. Sometimes it feels good to be able to talk somebody who likes to read books.
Due to all the election craziness, I didn’t get the weekly mileage in according to the Little Rock Marathon training page. So instead of 8 miles, I ran 10. And that is pretty much all the running I did all week.
Okay so I jogged 3 miles yesterday and 4 miles today as was dictated by my marathon training sheet. Both seemed to be relatively easy runs. I wasn’t able to time them and did them on the track since I can’t find my Nike plus ipod white piece that connects to the ipod itself. OH the tragedy. I might have to spend some money to replace that.
10.01 miles
2:05:55
12:34 minute mile pace
This was done in 2 minute run/1 minute mile splits via the Galloway method.
Okay my Ipod/Nike running software isn’t downloading to the nike site so I will just put that stuff here.
But today, it’s an estimation since I left the iPod in my car.
Four and a half miles.53 ish minutes with an average page of 12:08 minutes per mile. (okay the 4 1/2 miles and the pace are correct. YOU DO THE MATH)
It was 500 meters/100 meters run/walk split.
