Urban Wildland Half Marathon

Wow! It has been a while. I have been trying to study like crazy. I take my written prelim exam in 1 week and my oral prelim exam in about 3 weeks. If I pass both of them, I am officially a doctoral candidate. Yippee!

I have been running a little. My hip and knee are bothering me some but I need to run to stay sane.

On to the race report:
The Urban Wildland Half Marathon is a great race! It is a green race, even the bibs are compostable. The bibs are imbedded with black eyed susan seeeds. Cool!!! I can't wait to plant mine. The race...I wasn't sure how it would go with my hip and not running much in July. I thought I would take it pretty easy, shoot for around 2 hours. Well, I started out and I was excited to be racing and I felt good. I passed the first 5k in 22:05...oops that was way too fast. But I was feeling so good so I thought maybe I will just go with it. At mile 4, my hips started giving me some trouble so I slowed down and continued to slow down for the next 6 miles. It was miserable to be running and to have blown up so badly. People were passing me left and right. I got to mile 11 and said to myself just go, get this race done with. Okay so I picked up the pace a little and started to pass people. I finished in 1:42:59. Better than I thought I would do.

Stats:
39/641 women
16/254 age group

The bib while a great idea, in practice it wasn't so great. It fell off around mile 4.5. I grabbed it because I really wanted to plant the seeds.

So I have a duathlon in a week. I have yet to ride my road bike this year and I probably won't ride it before the race. I commute to school by bike but it is only 3.5 miles a couple times a week. This is the extent of my bike training. The bike portion is 18 miles. I did bike 14 miles one day this summer but I don't think it counts because I stopped twice for ice cream and once for tacos during the ride. Should I ride my road bike or just use the commuter that I have been riding all year?

Back to studying...

Hip pain and patellofemoral syndrome

Since the beginning of July, I have been dealing with a pain in my right hip and patellofemoral syndrome of my left knee. I have been taking it easy with running. Hence, the lack of posts about running in my running blog. I took a few days off at the beginning of the month but the pain seemed to be getting worse. So I went to see my sports med doctor (who happens to also be on my dissertation committee that happens when you study Kinesiology). He took an x-ray of my hips and said my hips didn't look very good...what, how can that be, I am young. Basically, he really didn't know what the problem was so he was going to send my x-ray to a hip specialist. He said I have coxa profunda...deep hip sockets. So what does that mean? I have no idea. But it may or may not be the cause of the pain in my hip.

Therefore, I am going to physical therapy. I had my first session of PT last week which was an experience. My appt. was at 10:30 so they tell me to get there at 10:15 for paper work so I do. I then start waiting for my PT. Finally at 11:15, as I am heading up to the desk to see if they forgot about me, my PT comes to get me. She says they have overbooked her and that she also has an 11:00 appt. and that my appt. will take about 45 min so she is going to work with both of us. It turns out just fine but I just had to do a lot more waiting. I left around 12:30. But she is suppose to be one of the best PT around so I am willing to wait if it means the pain in my hip will go away. I left with 4 stretching exercises.

On another note, I really want to become a Brooks I.D. member because I love Brooks products. I only run in their shoes and I just got a new pair of the Brooks PR short. Wow, these are the most comfortable shorts for running. Back to becoming a Brooks I.D. member, I sent my application in a couple months ago and just received word that I needed to send in a referral form. I have to get a sales rep, Brooks GURU or a store owner to recommend me. I have no idea how I am going to do that because I don't frequent one running store. I usually go to the store that I have a gift card to. Ideas anyone?

More to come...soon I hope.

• bicycle pacman
• TRX certification course -awesome!
  
• Bod Pod testing
• VO2 max test
• half marathon next Saturday

Fun Run Minnehaha Park

I ran the MDRA fun run last Wednesday evening. The weather was even worse than the previous week. There was a heat advisory until 6pm. The race was at 6:15 so it was hot and humid. I wasn't sure how it would feel with the weather. There was only one other woman running the 8k besides me. I decided before the run that I wasn't going to run too hard. I ran the first 2.5 miles around 7:00 pace. I hit the turn around with 3 other runners. The had 3 cups of water so the other runners took the 3 cups of water. I walked over to the car where they were filling the water and got a cup, drank it and set the cup in the car. I took off running again and my body just didn't want to run any more. My hip was hurting (more on that later) and I just felt like it would be a bad idea to push it. So I settled in at a nice relaxing pace to finish the run. I finished in 39:45 which is a lot slower than last week but I really backed off the pace. When I finished the race, my name was being called. I had won the prize drawing again! I headed over and thanked the fun run director and told him I won last week so he should pick someone else. He kept insisting that I pick a prize but I kept insisting that he pick another person. Finally, he gave in because I wouldn't pick a prize so some other person got the prize I wouldn't pick. I drank some water and biked home.

Tour de Taco!!!

My friends Melanie and Reuben host the Collins Family Cycle Fest every year. This year was Tour de Taco! Awesome! Who doesn't like tacos, ice cream and bicycles. We started at Powderhorn park and biked to Liberty Frozen Custard. I had some delicious chocolate custard. Then we got on our bikes and rode to Sebastian Joe's. I wasn't sure I wanted ice cream so I got lemon sorbet. It was amazing...I love lemon! Sour...mmm. They had a flavor called "roasted garlic almond chip." I noticed the flavor and said gross who would ever order such a disgusting flavor of ice cream. Of course, the person standing next to me would order that flavor. Oops...next time I will...probably do say the same thing. Sometimes I can't help myself.

The last stop was at Pineda Tacos. I was so full by the time we reached the taco place that I didn't order any tacos. They only had large combo plates so I just shared a Guava nectar with a friend and ate some of the leftovers from the other Cycle Fest riders. All in all it was a great day for cycling! The Collins family also did a great job of picking out an awesome route that utilized mainly off street bike trails.

Plus they made these awesome Collins Family Cycle Fest accessories for our bikes or you could wear it as a necklace like I did!

Oops, I don't know how to change the photo so I am not sideways.

Yeah! Next Saturday is the annual bicycle Pac-Man. Where we race around South Minneapolis playing a game of Pac-man on our bikes. There are even people dressed up as fruit.
Yep, that's me dressed as a banana!

I love summer and all the great opportunities to ride my bike with friends!!! Yeah for Minneapolis and all the awesome bicycle crazy people!

Track workout or maybe not

Yesterday, I met a friend at the U of M track. The plan was to do 12 x 400m with 400m jog between. We met at 6:30am started the warm up. We did one 400m then on the 400m jog we noticed a group of about 20 wrestler heading toward the track and then another group and another and another...get the picture, they just kept coming. We decided to start the next 400m and see how it went. Well, they were all over the track and we were dodging high school wrestlers so we opted to leave after 2 x 400m. Okay, lets go to river road and do 10 x 400m hill repeat...oops river road is closed. Okay next plan, lets take this gravel road. After 5 cars pass us, lets stop breathing this dust and go run the normal loop we do from campus. Great idea...so much for trying new runs today. Perhaps on Thursday the wrestling camp won't be on the track and we can do the full workout then.

Tonight, I am heading to the MDRA fun run at Minnehaha Park at 6:15!

Photos from the Red, White and Boom! Half

Before the rain...

No, I don't run for Run n Fun. My awesome training partner gave me the jersey before she moved to Houston, TX. She ran on the race team. I wish I was on their race team but I am not fast enough. You have to be a very speedy runner to make the team.

During the rain...

Check out the steam coming off the road.

Almost to the finish line!!!

Crossing the finish line!

Okay Julie, you can stop running now. You've crossed the finish line.

But I just love running so much that I want to keep going.

MDRA Fun Runs

Every Wednesday in July, the Minnesota Distance Runners Association host a fun run at Minnehaha Park. The distance is 2k, 4k or 8k. You pick your distance. It starts at 6:15 and only costs $1! Yeah!

They have done these fun runs for many summer but yesterday was the first time I did it. The weather left something to be desired. I was planning to bike to the park but it was raining when I was heading out the door so I opted to drive instead. It stopped raining before the run but it was very hot and humid. The air was so dense, it felt like I was running through pea soup. Side note: I haven't actually run through pea soup, it is just what I would image it would be like.

Since I ran a half marathon a few days ago, I decided to use it as a tempo run. They said the numbers were less than usual because of the weather. There were only 3 women and 8 men. The majority of the runners were from the Minnehaha Academy cross country team.

There wasn't anyone running my pace so I ran the 8k by myself. I was a little disappointed in this because I was hoping to find some people to train with, maybe next week. I finished in 35:10. I am happy with that time. I got a ribbon for participating.

After the race, they have drawing for prizes. My name was the first one drawn. Yippee! I could pick from a bunch of race t-shirts or a mug. I picked the mug. I have so many race t-shirts that I don't know what to do with them all. Plus, I think would feel a little weird wearing a shirt from a race that I didn't run. The mug is from the City of Lakes 25k in 2006. Do I feel weird about drinking from a mug from a race that I didn't run. Wait, let me check...nope, the water tasted refreshing. Here is a picture of the mug and ribbon!

Happy Running!
Julie

Red, White and Boom! Half Marathon

I finished my second half marathon. I realized today that I have a half marathon the first weekend of June, July and August. That is a lot of half marathons in the summer in Minnesota for someone that hadn’t done any half marathons before June. Clearly, I wasn’t thinking straight when I signed up for them all. Speaking of thinking…The day before this half I was thinking why did I sign-up to run 13.1 miles. I don’t want to get up at 5am tomorrow to go running. I was also wishing I had a friend to meet at the race. Running a half marathon all by myself sounded kind of miserable. I really enjoyed the half that I did at the beginning of June with a friend.

I set my alarm for 5:25. The race started at 6:30. I figured that I would have plenty of time to eat and get to the race by 6:00. I was a little worried about parking but that wasn’t a problem at all. I got to the race a little before 6am and got in line to use the porta potty. The line was so long that it took 20 min for me to get to the front of it. I was hoping to run into Julie before the race. She is another blogger from the cities with an awesome name!

No time for a warm-up but it was 85 degrees and humid so just walking to the starting line made me break into a sweat. With the heat and humidity, I was trying to decide if I should try to go sub 1:40. I have really only been running 3 days a week with no races in mind, just running. So I decided to line up with the 1:40 pacer.

The race starts after a quarter mile with the pacer, I decide I want to run a little faster but I am not quite up to running with the 1:35 pacer so I am on my own. I have my Garmin set to give me half mile splits which might be overkill for a half but perfect for a 5k. I want to see 3:40-3:45. I actually did a good job of keeping it between 3:35-3:45. I had one 4:17 on the crazy long hill and a couple 3:23…oops too fast.

Mile 2 or so – a girl passed me. After following her for a mile, I run up next to her and ask if I can run with her and say we should catch the girls in front of us. We chat for a bit and then run together for a mile. Then I fall behind on a long gradual down hill. She yelled back that she loves down hills. At this point, there is a crazy downpour that cools me off nicely and fills up my shoes so they become kind of heavy. I pass the girl after a couple more miles.

I am surprised how quickly the half miles are ticking away. I try to smile at the people cheering. Sometimes they tell me that I look strong. It actually helps me when they say that because I think to myself, “yeah, I feel strong”. Around mile 12, after I just passed two guys, a woman yells to them, “You’ll never catch her. She is still smiling.” They just laughed but never caught me.

Mile 9 – I see a police officer that I know from some fitness training that I have done with the MPD so I yell hi to her and we exchange a few quick words but I have to keep racing. A guy passes me and says you seem like you are having a really good time. Yeah, I am having a good time and to think I didn’t want to run the race yesterday.

Mile 11 – I see Steve from Steve in a Speedo. I wish I had yelled, “Steve in a Speedo, I want to be a foxy Moxie.” I thought of that just after I had passed him. He was having a giveaway on his blog for a Sugoi running skirt.

Mile 12.5 – a girl passes me. She is flying…I wonder how she can be so strong this far into the race. I let her go. A minute later…what you just let her go, you have less than a half mile and you can’t push yourself for only half a mile. Okay, I pick up the pace. (these are the conversations that I have in my head while racing) I don’t catch her but I tried.

Final results:

Time: 1:36:52 (Yeah, I made my goal of sub 1:40!)

Pace: 7:24 per mile

Overall place: 99/2375

Sex place: 17/1321

Age group place 4/250 (I would have loved to make top 3 but that can be a goal for next time)

End thoughts – I really enjoyed the race and am looking forward to my next half marathon. This always seems to be the case even though I usually don’t want to race the day before. After the race, I am usually quite happy that I did it.

My legs have been tired today. My ankles and feet seem to be a little swollen so I am thinking about trying compression socks for recovery. Has anyone used them? Do they help you with post-race recovery?

Strides

I haven't done a track workout in almost 2 months so I decided to do one today, 2 days before a half marathon. Maybe not the best training plan but since I am not currently following my training plan.

I didn't do anything crazy on the track. Here is the workout:

200m - :45
800m - 3:02
400m - 1:31
400m - 1:31
200m - :45
200m - :45
200m - :45

Yep, I have one pace. Run everything at basically the same pace. I can't seem to run 200m faster than 800m.

The best part of thee workout was at the end I decided to do barefoot strides on the infield of the track. I did 6 x 100m. It felt so free to run barefoot in the cool morning grass. It was a great way to end a workout. I am going to try to do 1 track workout a week and end each workout with barefoot strides.

On anther note, I have been using the TRX for 2 weeks now and love it. I will post about it later with some pictures. It is a great strength training workout.

A race in 3 days...

I just signed up for a half marathon...in three days. What was I thinking...13.1 miles is a long way. I haven't been training much since my last half marathon at the beginning of June. So I have a secret goal for this race. It is to run fast for this half than the last half. That might not be the best idea I have had but that's my goal. I would love to run sub 1:40 but I think that might be pushing it too much. My plan is to start with the 1:45 pacer and see how I feel. If I am feeling good, I can always speed up or I could slow down but I am not going to think of that as an option yet.

I got a package in the mail this week.

It was from Erica over at I Run Because...I Can. She had a GU giveaway and I won! I am super excited to try out all the different flavors. Thanks Erica! This is going to come in handy for my upcoming race.