I had a nice workout today. A lot of it was meant to be "recovery" from that race on Saturday. The weather was nice and warm when I went out for my run this afternoon. The coastal fog rolled in during the last 30 minutes and it will be getting chilly again.
Anyway, I need some advice from my xx chromosome peeps here. (*note* If you don't feel comfortable reading about a certain part of a women's anatomy, stop here. Likewise, if you thoroughly enjoy reading about a certain part of a women's anatomy, stop here).
That being said, I have an issue with my "ladies" when I run. These darn things bounce around like water balloons under my shirt, and I am getting tired of it. They're not even that big -- a basic C cup -- but they seem to be move "active" when I run now than before. What is the deal with that? I have resorted to wearing two sports bras at once to help with the jiggling, but I don't want to do that forever.
So, my fellow chesty runners, I need your help. Has anyone found a really good sports bra they can recommend? I really want something that will hold them in place but not make me feel like I am being suffocated at the chest. I personally don't care what they look like. It could be the butt-ugliest bra ever, as long as it works well. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!!!!! :-)
Today's stats:
Bike:
Time: 20 minutes
Distance: 5.03 miles
followed by a run:
Distance: four miles
Time: 46:36
Pace: 11:36 minute/mile
Monday, June 9, 2008
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Curse of the allergies
Man, I have been suffering lately.
My allergies are in full-swing, and it has been a while since they've been *this* bad.
After my race yesterday, I spent hours with itchy and watery eyes, a runny nose, sneezing fits and that overall feeling of crap (and a general hatred toward all flora).
And I know what you're thinking. Why on earth was I posing next to a ginormous bouquet of fragrant (chokingly fragrant) flowers just after the race yesterday? Well, Tim's sweet Grandma Betty gave Kara and myself those flowers, which she was selling at the farmer's market. I gladly accepted them (still riding a post-race high, which impaired my reasoning), not thinking they would be the WORST thing to be around with these allergies of mine.
Trust me, those pretty little flowers kicked my allergic ass on the way home. They've been banned from the house now.
It seems the only thing that really helps is Benadryl, but it makes me so freakin' tired and sluggish. I take it at bedtime, and it works like a charm (read: it knocks me out). I can't spend every day in that allergy drug fog, although sometimes it doesn't sound too bad (kidding, Dad!).
I bought some Sudafed today, and it did an OK job with my symptoms. And I do appreciate the non-drowsy formula.
So it looks like a continual stream of antihistamines and decongestants will have course through my veins until all the plants that I am allergic to (like, every plant known to man) are done reproducing for the season.
Now off to take my Benadryl. My poor eyes are starting to itch and weep again. *sigh*
Today's stats:
Elliptical:
Time: 30 minutes
My allergies are in full-swing, and it has been a while since they've been *this* bad.
After my race yesterday, I spent hours with itchy and watery eyes, a runny nose, sneezing fits and that overall feeling of crap (and a general hatred toward all flora).
And I know what you're thinking. Why on earth was I posing next to a ginormous bouquet of fragrant (chokingly fragrant) flowers just after the race yesterday? Well, Tim's sweet Grandma Betty gave Kara and myself those flowers, which she was selling at the farmer's market. I gladly accepted them (still riding a post-race high, which impaired my reasoning), not thinking they would be the WORST thing to be around with these allergies of mine.
Trust me, those pretty little flowers kicked my allergic ass on the way home. They've been banned from the house now.
It seems the only thing that really helps is Benadryl, but it makes me so freakin' tired and sluggish. I take it at bedtime, and it works like a charm (read: it knocks me out). I can't spend every day in that allergy drug fog, although sometimes it doesn't sound too bad (kidding, Dad!).
I bought some Sudafed today, and it did an OK job with my symptoms. And I do appreciate the non-drowsy formula.
So it looks like a continual stream of antihistamines and decongestants will have course through my veins until all the plants that I am allergic to (like, every plant known to man) are done reproducing for the season.
Now off to take my Benadryl. My poor eyes are starting to itch and weep again. *sigh*
Today's stats:
Elliptical:
Time: 30 minutes
Saturday, June 7, 2008
Tonight I'm gonna party...
...like it's 19:49!!!!!!!!!!!!
I ran the two-mile race Atalanta's Victory Run this morning, and am quite happy to say I set another PR for this distance!
If you didn't see the above, my official finish time was 19:49.
My splits were almost identical (within a couple seconds of each other, according to Garmin, unlike last year where I started out really strong and finished my second mile a whole minute slower), and my overall pace was 9:54 minute/mile.
I beat last year's time by 12 seconds! Talk about thrilling for me!
And I did win an award in my age division. A couple speedy McSpeedersons (as Marcy would say) showed up, but I still finished third in my age division (and yes, there were more than three in my division) and brought home another pin.
So yay!!!
I don't have an "organized" race report, as it is such a short race. I mean, not a lot really went through my mind during those two miles, except "Please let me PR" and "Hope I don't pass out/throw up/die." There was one young girl (like maybe around seven or eight) who fell a few yards in front of me and scraped her knee about 1/2 mile into the race, but she eventually got up and ran it off. I think she came back to pass me (as did her mom -- they were fast!) and finish before I did.
Of course, Kara tripped and fell on our way back to the van after everything was over, and she had a hysterical crying fit for about 15 minutes. And she just BARELY scraped her knee. She was convinced it was going to kill her, I guess. Luckily, her MooMa (grandma) cleaned it up and she was able to walk again (her words). It's a miracle!! *wink*
Updated to add pics:
The kids sticking to me like glue pre-race:
The sea of "womanity" taking off:
Here I come!:
Kara and Mommy at the Arcata Farmer's Market afterward:
Today's stats:
Atalanta's Victory Run:
Distance: two miles
Time: 19:49 (PR! PR! PR!!)
Pace: 9:54 minute/mile (Another PR!)
Finished 36 out of 219
Finished 3 out of 21 in age division
I ran the two-mile race Atalanta's Victory Run this morning, and am quite happy to say I set another PR for this distance!
If you didn't see the above, my official finish time was 19:49.
My splits were almost identical (within a couple seconds of each other, according to Garmin, unlike last year where I started out really strong and finished my second mile a whole minute slower), and my overall pace was 9:54 minute/mile.
I beat last year's time by 12 seconds! Talk about thrilling for me!
And I did win an award in my age division. A couple speedy McSpeedersons (as Marcy would say) showed up, but I still finished third in my age division (and yes, there were more than three in my division) and brought home another pin.
So yay!!!
I don't have an "organized" race report, as it is such a short race. I mean, not a lot really went through my mind during those two miles, except "Please let me PR" and "Hope I don't pass out/throw up/die." There was one young girl (like maybe around seven or eight) who fell a few yards in front of me and scraped her knee about 1/2 mile into the race, but she eventually got up and ran it off. I think she came back to pass me (as did her mom -- they were fast!) and finish before I did.
Of course, Kara tripped and fell on our way back to the van after everything was over, and she had a hysterical crying fit for about 15 minutes. And she just BARELY scraped her knee. She was convinced it was going to kill her, I guess. Luckily, her MooMa (grandma) cleaned it up and she was able to walk again (her words). It's a miracle!! *wink*
Updated to add pics:
The kids sticking to me like glue pre-race:
The sea of "womanity" taking off:
Here I come!:
Kara and Mommy at the Arcata Farmer's Market afterward:
Today's stats:
Atalanta's Victory Run:
Distance: two miles
Time: 19:49 (PR! PR! PR!!)
Pace: 9:54 minute/mile (Another PR!)
Finished 36 out of 219
Finished 3 out of 21 in age division
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Gobbledygook
I have a bunch of random thoughts swirling around in this brain of mine tonight.
1) I have a race on Saturday and am quite excited about it. I am hoping to PR at the two-mile distance (not that far, I know) and I will be striving to win first in my age division like I did last year. So let's hope the fast women my age are doing the five-miler (please, pretty please).
2) Join me in giving lots of GOOD LUCK vibes to my sister-in-law Becky, who is doing her first tri this weekend. It's the Danskin Women's Triathlon in Austin, TX. I know she will do a bang-up job!! Now this leads me to...
2.5) Am I the only one here who isn't really thinking about doing a tri? It seems so many of my fellow runners have transitioned to tris recently. I have entertained the thought once or twice, then I remembered the deal breaker: it involves swimming. For those of you who don't know, I have a water phobia and don't like to be water it if I can't touch the bottom and have my head above the surface. Just thinking about it gives me anxiety. I was the ONLY rower on the team in college who didn't know how to swim, but I was allowed to stay because they didn't realize that until my varsity year and I was a fast rower (MUCH faster than I am as a runner!!). And I did take a few swim lessons in college (after my lack of water savvy was "discovered"), but that didn't help ease my fear. So unless triathlons change format and nix the swimming part, I don't think I will be doing one anytime soon.
3) I want to go back to Disneyland already. It was such a blast and went by too quickly. Sometimes I think it would be neat to live near Disneyland and get a season pass so we could go whenever we wanted. Of course, my lungs would suffer thanks to the stellar air quality down there. And Anaheim water tastes like ass.
4) I want to clarify one thing about the birthday party Kara and I went to last Sunday. Even though it was on the early side, we still had a good time and it was worth it. For some reason it never crossed my mind that my friend might actually READ this blog (don't know if she did or not), but I don't want her to get the idea that I wasn't glad she invited us. Her twin girls who had the party are two of the most awesome eight-year-olds I know, and I would feel crappy if me griping about something so insignificant got back to them or her. Love you guys! :-)
5) The cost of gasoline here makes me want to barf. Seriously, almost all the stations in our town is selling the cheapest grade for $4.57-$4.59 a gallon. Oops, threw up in my mouth a little. It wouldn't be so bad if we lived in an area where there were lots of options in regards to mass transit, but we don't. So depressing.
Today's stats:
Bike:
Distance: 5.47 miles
Time: 20 minutes
followed by a run:
Distance: 3.1 miles
Time: 34:15
Pace: 11:04 minute/mile
1) I have a race on Saturday and am quite excited about it. I am hoping to PR at the two-mile distance (not that far, I know) and I will be striving to win first in my age division like I did last year. So let's hope the fast women my age are doing the five-miler (please, pretty please).
2) Join me in giving lots of GOOD LUCK vibes to my sister-in-law Becky, who is doing her first tri this weekend. It's the Danskin Women's Triathlon in Austin, TX. I know she will do a bang-up job!! Now this leads me to...
2.5) Am I the only one here who isn't really thinking about doing a tri? It seems so many of my fellow runners have transitioned to tris recently. I have entertained the thought once or twice, then I remembered the deal breaker: it involves swimming. For those of you who don't know, I have a water phobia and don't like to be water it if I can't touch the bottom and have my head above the surface. Just thinking about it gives me anxiety. I was the ONLY rower on the team in college who didn't know how to swim, but I was allowed to stay because they didn't realize that until my varsity year and I was a fast rower (MUCH faster than I am as a runner!!). And I did take a few swim lessons in college (after my lack of water savvy was "discovered"), but that didn't help ease my fear. So unless triathlons change format and nix the swimming part, I don't think I will be doing one anytime soon.
3) I want to go back to Disneyland already. It was such a blast and went by too quickly. Sometimes I think it would be neat to live near Disneyland and get a season pass so we could go whenever we wanted. Of course, my lungs would suffer thanks to the stellar air quality down there. And Anaheim water tastes like ass.
4) I want to clarify one thing about the birthday party Kara and I went to last Sunday. Even though it was on the early side, we still had a good time and it was worth it. For some reason it never crossed my mind that my friend might actually READ this blog (don't know if she did or not), but I don't want her to get the idea that I wasn't glad she invited us. Her twin girls who had the party are two of the most awesome eight-year-olds I know, and I would feel crappy if me griping about something so insignificant got back to them or her. Love you guys! :-)
5) The cost of gasoline here makes me want to barf. Seriously, almost all the stations in our town is selling the cheapest grade for $4.57-$4.59 a gallon. Oops, threw up in my mouth a little. It wouldn't be so bad if we lived in an area where there were lots of options in regards to mass transit, but we don't. So depressing.
Today's stats:
Bike:
Distance: 5.47 miles
Time: 20 minutes
followed by a run:
Distance: 3.1 miles
Time: 34:15
Pace: 11:04 minute/mile
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Sleepy me
I felt super sleepy today. Not sure why, but maybe it's this cloudy, windy, chilly weather. Sure, the sun popped out for a few minutes here today, but that's not enough to bring me out of hibernation, apparently.
I realized I haven't finished sharing our Disneyland pics yet. Here are a few from California Adventure:
California Screamin' coaster (which takes you from a dead stop to 55 mph in 4.7 seconds) and the Sun Wheel:
One of the photos of us on California Screamin'. There's a camera mounted around one of the turns that takes your pic. Once we figured out where it was, we posed just about every time we rode (six in all -- very addictive ride!). This time, Tim and I both did "Hook 'em Horns" and had just about the same look on our faces, but we had no idea the other would be doing it. Funny, no?:
The bear (we think?) carved out of "stone" which looms over the Grizzly Rapids ride:
People on the rapids ride, getting ready to be drenched by a geyser (we went on this ride once and got soaked!):
Walking down the backlot area:
The front entrance at night (you can see the Golden Gate Bridge replica, which we hear is going to be removed soon):
The last self-portrait we took on our vacation (with Tim giving the camera the zombie eye):
Today's stats:
Elliptical:
Time: 30 minutes
I realized I haven't finished sharing our Disneyland pics yet. Here are a few from California Adventure:
California Screamin' coaster (which takes you from a dead stop to 55 mph in 4.7 seconds) and the Sun Wheel:
One of the photos of us on California Screamin'. There's a camera mounted around one of the turns that takes your pic. Once we figured out where it was, we posed just about every time we rode (six in all -- very addictive ride!). This time, Tim and I both did "Hook 'em Horns" and had just about the same look on our faces, but we had no idea the other would be doing it. Funny, no?:
The bear (we think?) carved out of "stone" which looms over the Grizzly Rapids ride:
People on the rapids ride, getting ready to be drenched by a geyser (we went on this ride once and got soaked!):
Walking down the backlot area:
The front entrance at night (you can see the Golden Gate Bridge replica, which we hear is going to be removed soon):
The last self-portrait we took on our vacation (with Tim giving the camera the zombie eye):
Today's stats:
Elliptical:
Time: 30 minutes
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Why won't my Garmin hold a charge?
This is kinda irritating.
I went out for a run this afternoon, and my Garmin died. Again.
I noticed it had been knocked off the charger this morning. I didn't think anything else of it until I turned it on right before my run and it said the battery was low. It had been charging for a few days prior (I know it was on the base last night) and I hadn't used it since last Wednesday.
What the hell?
Seems to me that if it had been charged, which it had, and hadn't been used, that it would be able to go for a short run and not conk out on me, right?
Not so much. Garmin died right before I finished my first mile today. And that sucks because I was freakin' ROCKIN' the first mile. Like at a sub-10-minute pace for a lot of it. Grrrr....
Does anyone else have this issue?
So I had to guess on my distance (I was supposed to do three miles today) and I kept track of the songs I was listening to so I could add up the total number of minutes for an approximate finish time.
So here's what I got, thanks to mapmyrun.com:
Today's stats:
Run:
Distance: 3.23 miles
Time: 34:30
Pace: 10:40 minute/mile
(I also did a bike ride before the run):
Bike:
Distance: 5.28 miles
Time: 20 minutes
During my walk home, I stopped at the elementary school and voted. Not many other voters there, to be sure. The poll workers looked beyond bored and they all jumped at the chance to help me. So yay for good service! LOL! There was only one thing really worth voting for, but I am trying to kick myself into voting more often than I do. Gotta do my civic duty, right?
I went out for a run this afternoon, and my Garmin died. Again.
I noticed it had been knocked off the charger this morning. I didn't think anything else of it until I turned it on right before my run and it said the battery was low. It had been charging for a few days prior (I know it was on the base last night) and I hadn't used it since last Wednesday.
What the hell?
Seems to me that if it had been charged, which it had, and hadn't been used, that it would be able to go for a short run and not conk out on me, right?
Not so much. Garmin died right before I finished my first mile today. And that sucks because I was freakin' ROCKIN' the first mile. Like at a sub-10-minute pace for a lot of it. Grrrr....
Does anyone else have this issue?
So I had to guess on my distance (I was supposed to do three miles today) and I kept track of the songs I was listening to so I could add up the total number of minutes for an approximate finish time.
So here's what I got, thanks to mapmyrun.com:
Today's stats:
Run:
Distance: 3.23 miles
Time: 34:30
Pace: 10:40 minute/mile
(I also did a bike ride before the run):
Bike:
Distance: 5.28 miles
Time: 20 minutes
During my walk home, I stopped at the elementary school and voted. Not many other voters there, to be sure. The poll workers looked beyond bored and they all jumped at the chance to help me. So yay for good service! LOL! There was only one thing really worth voting for, but I am trying to kick myself into voting more often than I do. Gotta do my civic duty, right?
Monday, June 2, 2008
This weather is making my head hurt
Today is the first day we've seen sunshine since we came home last Monday. The weather has been a gloomy mix of clouds, fog and cool temperatures. My head has been aching because of it. I think part of it is my allergies, too, but I've been taking my allergy medicine and my head has still been hurting.
I scrapped my weekend run yesterday. I took Kara to a birthday party at 9 a.m. (WAAAAAY too early for ANY kind of party, IMO, and the cake didn't make up for it because I didn't eat any; however I will add we DID have fun at the party and it was for two of the neatest eight-year-old twin girls I know) and then we spent most of the day in Eureka. It was a fun Mommy/daughter outing. By the time I got home and unloaded the van, I was wiped. I took a nap. I think I really needed it. When I woke up, it was dinner time and I was starving, so the run took a backseat.
I am planning a nice three-miler later this evening and one on Wednesday. There's no reason to do a long run before my race on Saturday, since it's only two miles. Practically a sprint.
Today's stats (so far):
Elliptical:
Time: 30 minutes (body toning program 2)
I scrapped my weekend run yesterday. I took Kara to a birthday party at 9 a.m. (WAAAAAY too early for ANY kind of party, IMO, and the cake didn't make up for it because I didn't eat any; however I will add we DID have fun at the party and it was for two of the neatest eight-year-old twin girls I know) and then we spent most of the day in Eureka. It was a fun Mommy/daughter outing. By the time I got home and unloaded the van, I was wiped. I took a nap. I think I really needed it. When I woke up, it was dinner time and I was starving, so the run took a backseat.
I am planning a nice three-miler later this evening and one on Wednesday. There's no reason to do a long run before my race on Saturday, since it's only two miles. Practically a sprint.
Today's stats (so far):
Elliptical:
Time: 30 minutes (body toning program 2)
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