Wetsuit Test - Get Forgiveness

Cyndie picked up our wetsuits from Wasatch Running today for the triathlon on Saturday. We decided to take them out and try them. Really to try us out in them. Last time I rented one I got one that was too tight and I couldn't breathe. I was only at an open water clinic, but basically the swim clinic last year was a bust because of the tight suit.
So we decided on Herriman Reservoir to try them out. When we got up there after fighting a lot of traffic they were doing construction on the parking lot. There was a sign, CLOSED. That is NOT what we wanted to see. There were a lot of kids swimming so......we ignored the sign (we were feeling young) - put on our wetsuits and into the water we went. I put my Garmin first on my wrist and then Cyndie helped me put in under my swim cap, while we were in the water. First thing Cyndie was excited about was how buoyant we were in the water. This relieved a lot of her stress about the swim. Plus we were warm in the suits, we saw that we could swim - our confidence level is strong. We swam around and we were headed back in when I noticed the beach was clearing of kids. As we were getting out the cop walked over and asked if we were getting out and we said we were. He had been walking around the back of the reservoir probably trying to get our attention and get us out. We never did see that. But we happily got out because that is what we were planning anyway. Mission accomplished. Get forgiveness.... an old trick my kids loved.
Garmin says we swam .24. See you at Rockport Reservoir!

Got Myself Outta Bed and RAN

Can I just say first of all, I love my Garmin. I can just turn that puppy on and run any direction I choose, make mys course up as I go along and I will know how far I've run and be able to give myself brownie points for a run well done. Luckily for me this helps to keep me motivated. It helps get me out running. I get up early around 5am every day but lately I go to my laptop and just sit on the couch in the early morning and mess around on the computer as I cuddle with doggies. 

Not today, I looked at the temperature, already 61 degrees and so I thought I better get myself out the door quick! No dogs seem to want to go with me lately so I went by myself this morning.

Here are the slow run stats, I sure am slow without Cyndie:  Mile1: 13:55 Mile2: 13:59 Mile3: 13:23 Mile4: 13:30 + .25

Swim Marsha Swim

I hope that cramming for the swim Saturday will work because that is what I will be doing this week. I just have not taken the time to practice swimming. Mostly I worry about the strength in my shoulders. They can get sore... sometimes the calcium deposit irritates it. So the stats are: 1300 yards or  .74 mile - about 43 minutes.

Maybe I should have worried about my neck. I now have a kink or something that hurts. Put Myomed on it. Might have to go get it worked on at Muscle Works. Geez.

Walking a Marathon

This information comes from http://www.thewalkingsite.com/.  Check it out. Could walking be an option for you?

Marathons are becoming popular events among walkers. Training for walking a marathon is a great way to get into shape. Crossing the finish line is priceless!

In past year, the challenge of finishing a marathon was a feat reserved only for runners. Now, many walkers are getting in on the action, from the casual athlete walking for fitness to race walkers who maintain a particular style and speed on the course. Walking a marathon is an impressive accomplishment!

Marathon Training Programs for Walkers

Nearly anyone can train to walk a marathon. The first rule for any new athlete is to see their health care provider to insure that they are able to safely train for a marathon. Once they have the green light, it's time to choose a marathon training plan. Many are available, even some specific to walking a marathon, such as those in the book Marathoning for Mortals by John Bingham. Marathon training programs designed for runners can be used for walkers simply by following the same mileage recommendations. To complete the 26.2 miles required for walking a marathon, walkers need to train to be on their feet for 6 to 7 hours or more.

http://www.marathonwalking.com/  Another cool site to check out.

Have you ever thought about walking a marathon? In a recent poll 70% of walkers surveyed stated a desire to train for and participate in a marathon or distance walking event. 18% of those polled have previously walked in a marathon, and most of those would like to do it again some day. Maybe you want to, but don't know where to start. The purpose of this site is to encourage you and provide information to help you along the way.

Marathon Training - Basic training schedule information

Training Plans - Choose from a variety of training plans.
Marathon Training Tips - Tips for your marathon training and the BIG day.

Training To Walk A Marathon - It's a great challenge and if you accomplish it, you'll know why so many marathoners think they are invincible.

Could I Be A Marathon Walker - Most people, barring physical injury or serious illness, can!

Still not sure. Is there a little voice telling you impossible ... you CAN'T do that. 

Honolulu Marathon

The Honolulu Marathon takes place annually in December. The course is open from 5 am to 2 pm, a generous 9 hour time limit. Many support services will still be in place until 4 pm, allowing an additional two hours. Race directors allow everyone that starts the race to finish.

RunningFree Report Easy Week

Ay Carumba marathongrandma!
Here's your report from last week on runningfreeonline.
Last week you completed:

Sport#  Distance   TimeRun  1   4.0 mi        0:57:09
Total1   4.0 mi        0:57:09

According to Tom Fleming's sign:Somewhere in the world someone is training when you are not. When you race him, he will win.

Weak Week

Ay Carumba marathongrandma!
Here's your report from last week on runningfreeonline.

Last week you did: Sport # Distance Time Run 2 4.0 mi 0:57:09 Total 1 4.0 mi 0:57:09

Designing Training Plan - 10% Rule

Today I am going to work on a training plan for Alicia. And tweak another one to fit me and what I am doing the next few months and what my running buddy Cyndie is doing. Running blind (without a set plan) hasn't been the best thing to do since the marathon. It is difficult when I am taking part in 3 different events: run bike swim. So I return to my successful training calendar roots, articles on the Salt Lake Running Company website. Here is the one on how to increase training each week. I have included the whole article here:

"When beginning a running or walking program, people often want to know how to increase mileage (or exercise duration) quickly without getting injured. For most people, the expectation should be about 10 percent per week.

For example, if you’re walking or running 10 miles this week (a good mileage to start), don’t do more than 11 miles next week, 12 miles the week after, 13 miles the next week, 14.5 the next week, 16 the next, and so on. It doesn’t take long to get to a mileage that you feel comfortable sticking with.

When you feel ready to increase the intensity or duration of your workouts, you become more at risk for injury. If you’re planning on increasing your intensity during the week, you should back down your weekly mileage by 10 percent.

For example, if you’re doing 10 miles this week, but you want to add a more intense workout to your week next week, back your weekly mileage down to 9 miles to ensure you don’t put too much strain on your body. This allows your body to react to the stress of the added intensity without the added stress of increased mileage at the same time. This helps decrease your risk of injury and allows your body to more fully absorb the benefits of your intense workouts.

The 10 percent rule is designed to allow your body to adjust to this new stress. The body is incredible. It will adjust and respond very well to your exercise, but it can’t do it all at once. If you increase your mileage a little at a time the body will respond and become stronger more quickly."

8 Miles

Geez, when was the last time I ran 8 miles. My legs are sore. Let's see, oh yeah, does my 7.4 leg for Ragnar on Avon Pass last Friday count? I guess I am just being a baby. I better hit the Myomed more consistently in preparation for a long run. Cyndie just sprang this run on me a couple of days ago, so I said sure. My fault, I asked for her training schedule. Guess I will be doing some serious stretching when I get home from work. Maybe not enough water preparation, or nutritious food...
Both Cyndie and I forgot our GYMBOSS so we had to wing it. Oh well, we did ok. Probably ended up running more.

Split	Time	Distance	Avg Pace
Summary	01:46:02	8.22	12:54
1	00:12:25	1.00	12:25
2	00:12:44	1.00	12:44
3	00:12:39	1.00	12:40
4	00:12:48	1.00	12:48
5	00:12:30	1.00	12:30
6	00:13:17	1.00	13:17
7	00:13:06	1.00	13:06
8	00:12:42	1.00	12:43
9	00:03:46	0.22	17:14

Night Run with Tinkerbell

Tink and I went out last night for a evening run. It was light and buggy when we left, I forgot my knuckle lights and vest. Geezz. Next time. It was still warm. I wanted to do 4 miles. We did, running most of the time which actually kinda makes me slower but I just wanted to run. Tink hasn't been in a while, she did great. We ran a little in the Jordan River Parkway but there were too many gnats so we went up to Reeves Lane and ran around the neighborhood. Did some uphills and downhills. 
Stats: Not impressive but had fun.

Split	Time	Distance	Avg Pace
Summary	00:57:09	4.01	14:16
1	00:13:36	1.00	13:36
2	00:14:33	1.00	14:33
3	00:14:23	1.00	14:24
4	00:14:31	1.00	14:31
5	00:00:04	0.01	15:02

Ragnar Week Report on Runningfree

Good jawb marathongrandma!
Here's your report from last week on runningfreeonline.

Last week you did: Sport # Distance Time Run 2 19.1 mi 4:05:15 Total 2 19.1 mi 4:05:15

Ragnar Wasatch Back 2011

Yes, we did it for the sticker.

I heard about this relay 3 years ago. Kelli Davey, my bosses wife runs it with an all girl team called "Legs Breasts and Wings." I thought it sounded crazy. And all that running seemed impossible, I knew I could never do it even if I wanted to.
Last year Kelli organized a coed team so her husband and other family members could be on it. Kelli gave me Mike's training schedule and I put it on our work calendar. Each day I'd tell him what he was running. Sometimes it would be just downright funny to me. "Mike, it says here you have to do 50 minutes of hill running. Twice today."

Wasatch Walkers 2nd Place in Master's Division

Fast forward, I learned to run. Then the Ragnar Relay didn't seem so impossible. Through Cyndie I found out that the Wasatch Walkers, a walking club, was looking for a replacement runner for their team. I was planning to do the Shark Attack Triathlon that weekend and so I didn't jump on taking the spot or pay that much attention. It was Runner 11 and I didn't have the confidence to do that huge downhill leg. Or even "Ragnar." Plus it was not in Van 1 with Cyndie.
As the vacancy was still available after several weeks the adventure of possibly running Ragnar with Cyndie got to me, all the sudden I committed to the team when they did some rearranging so that I could be in Van 1 with Cyndie and take Runner 5, the one with the uphill.
Fast forward I really am going to do this! I go in to list making mode. You all know one of my favorite parts. (I will put my list in a separate post.)
Fast forward to the Wasatch Walkers Ragnar planning meeting. It was fun and informative. I got to meet all the wonderful ladies and see who was going to be in Van 1 with me. One of my  van buddies had driven our parts of the course and she handed out copies with notes to help us. 
Fast forward to the Thursday before the race. Van 2 ladies all met at Cyndie's house to load all our gear in her truck. 


Runner 1 - Cyndie Nell
Runner 2 - Marjorie Mullaly
Runner 3 - Leah Forster
Runner 4 - Madeline Quayle
Runner 5 - Marsha Monson
Runner 6 - Kristy Ames


Cyndie had decorated the truck with red lights and the walker. We drove to Logan and stayed in a hotel. We purchased some lighted flowers for our hair so we would all have something matching. Came back to the hotel in Logan to get some sleep. Set our alarms for 3am, we had to be at our safety meeting at 4am. 

Getting ready for the safety meeting at 4am.

Cyndie doing a grumpy face.

It was a very cold windy morning in Logan. The starting line was at Utah State University. Cyndie was our first runner and the first group left on time right at 5am. They promptly directed to run the wrong direction - never listen to cops! By the time the group of 30 or so got going the right way they had added an extra mile to their run.
Things got better after that. We went to meet Cyndie at Exchange #1. I saw Lance Brandow & Kimberly Wilde from the team "Snot Rockets!" Sounds like they let their kids pick the name. 

Marj Mullaly, she is an awesome race walker.
She has run 30 marathons all over the US.

Madeline Quale, another great race walker.

Leah Forster, our van captain she runs and walks, with
a cute style you can spot in the distance.

Things flowed well for our team and soon it was my turn to run my first leg, a 7.4 miles Very Hard leg up Avon Pass. It was dusty and the day was getting warm. 

Running up Avon Pass.

Up the hill I on my first leg I go.

Runner 1, 1st Leg, Leg 5.

Finally, the end of Leg 1. Avon Pass conquered.

I thought my leg went well. Yes, it was very hard and it was uphill on a dirt road. I benefited from a little shade from the bushes and trees along the road. There were full sun parts and I got pretty hot, but I had brought water. I also got a couple of "mists" from other teams driving by - that was NICE. I did run out of water, and so I kept watching a choose a van that was stopped helping their runner and asked for my water bottle to be filled. The girl says "I know you, didn't you just run your first marathon?" I was puzzled because I did not recognize her. She ended up being a Marathon Maniac know as the Italian Stallion and she had remembered me from the marathon in May. Small running world.
Soon we were finished with all six of our legs, 38.7 miles and meeting for our first exchange with Van 2 at Liberty City Park. They were on time and ready to run or race walk!
Now it was our chance to get over to the next exchange and have a needed rest before they arrived. By now it was getting pretty warm, so we cranked up the air conditioning and headed for Snow Basin. At this major exchange the traffic was pretty backed up. We drove slowly for miles to get up the hill to Snow Basin. All the runners were progressing slowly up the steep hill. I was so glad that wasn't my leg.
After reaching Snow Basin we hung out, rested, ate an overpriced dinner at the ski resort. Hey, I was just glad they had food. I needed a good dinner, although a spicy chicken sandwich and fries isn't really what I had in mind there was not much choice. We had a little longer at the resort than we thought we would as Van 2 was about an hour behind their projected time. Heat is not kind. They had 22.4 miles to run for the team.

Ready to run. Van 1 is rested. Go Cyndie, Go Cyndie.

Time to get the music on.

Here is the exchange between Cyndie and Shelly.

Cyndie took off on Leg 13, a Very Hard 8.3 miles. She is awesome. Her total miles for Runner 1 in Wasatch Back was 21 miles. With the course problem she ran 22. I ran 14.6. Quite a difference.

Runner 1, 2nd Leg, Leg 17.

By the time we got to me, Runner 5 it was late. Around 11:00pm. I had a short distance of 4.2 miles. There was a full moon. It was beautiful, the temperature was so much cooler. I was ready to rock the nighttime run.

Dressed for the night run.

By this time our team had fallen behind and so we had called up Ragnar and talked to them about the possibility of leap frogging to catch up. They said that would be fine, they would leave it up to us. So we began leaving before our other runner came in to save time. We did not want to get to the finish line at 10 or 11pm at night when everyone was gone!!
Van 1 finished our runs late and boy were we tired. We headed to a high school gym, I can't even remember where. We all found a spot in the dark gym where there were lots of runners sleeping on the floor. I told Cyndie that we'd sleep better if we took a shower. So after laying out our bags we went to the shower. At 2am. With no private showers and tiny towels it was like gym class. Only one pole shower worked. It was not pretty. But hey, that is a $2 shower and we were desperate women. At least most of the young skinny runners were done. Got some rest, got some sleep.
Since our team was going to leap frog the next day, we didn't set alarms. We just got up when we were ready. Some of us earlier than others. They had a nice breakfast in the cafeteria, eggs, ham and pancakes. $6, what a deal. It was really good.
We got the truck loaded and we were back on the road heading to the next exchange place. Cyndie again being Runner 1 was first up.

Cyndie taking off on her third and final leg.

I thought everyone did nice on their final runs. Everyone was holding up.

Dressed for final run.

My final leg was 29, which took our team into Heber. I started running along Hwy 40. It was hot, but I was actually thankful for a head wind that kept me cooler. I decided to mostly run, go for a good time. As I was running down Hwy 40 a big semi truck went past and the force of the air blew my visor right off!

Cyndie's gets me finishing Leg 3.

Coming into the exchange area.

Passing the slap bracelet to Kristy Ames.

The course took a turn up into a place called Coyote Valley Hills in a housing track. I had one last hill to climb. My van didn't support me because they were driving Runner 6 to the exchange location. But plenty of other vans gave me some "mist" and even a little girl in her yard with a hose. Finished running strong, just the way I like to. 

Runner 1, 3rd Leg, Leg 29.

Our team, 816 Wasatch Walkers finished in 38:13:42.3. Remember though, we did run all our legs but we did not wait to pass the baton to the next runner. Out of the two Women's Masters teams, we finished second.
We had fun.
We laughed.
We got tired.
Oh yeah, and some got sore. There is already an email out by Nancy Linky, team captain for this year that she wants to do it again in 2012. Several ladies have already committed. I know that Cyndie says no way, she's got it checked off her bucket list! I need to find her a new bucket with another Ragnar in it. I'd like to do it again.