multipurpose running gear

My husband decided that my foam roller also makes a pretty good iphone stand.

Holy crap

And now...I just officially registered for my first triathlon. It's in 6 days. I feel nowhere near prepared enough for it. (However....as somewhat of a perfectionist, I recognize that I never feel prepared enough for anything, and I need to just jump in and do it, and it generally turns out better than I think it will. Eight years' worth of college exams taught me that.)

I'm not likely to drown, I'm not likely to kill myself (even if I do fall off the bike), I'm not likely to make the injury worse at this point, and I'm likely to cross the finish line. Guess that's good enough criteria to give it a try!


It feels so good (and sooo scary!) to be registering for races again!

triathlon and marathon endeavor updates

This year is going to be a year of firsts for me, for sure. First major running injury, first real road bike, first sprint triathlon, hopefully first olympic distance tri.....and first marathon.

I officially registered for the US Air Force Marathon on September 17. I'm in. I'm paid. I'm committed.

I'm terrified.

This is with the blessing of my doctor, and my PT, whom I asked MULTIPLE times before I signed up. When I signed up for the Pig, that seemed like a tough road, but something doable. Now, when I can barely squeak out a few miles and I have four months to octuple the distance I can run.....this endeavor now seems to be somewhere along the same level as making pigs actually fly. But ya'll know I'm going to try my head off. Or my feet off.

This also means that I'm officially marathon training again, I guess. I began the official training with....a near 4-mile run. In 40 minutes. And, going slower than my previous long run pace, I was wearing myself out. Sigh. Running endurance sure disappears fast!

The very good things about that run: it was 40 minutes of running straight. The most I've done since the 10k. And my running buddy came to visit for it!!! I've soooo missed running with her!! Nice to ditch the ipod and have a good chat every once in a while. And the other good thing: I'm fine now. Leg is tired, but not in pain. I'm still hyper-aware of the signals I get from it and what they mean. I still have some discomfort and weirdness from it from time to time, but very little pain. I can tell it's getting stronger. I'm thinking/hoping that when the injury is really gone for good, my endurance and speed will shoot back up to their previous levels.

.....maybe?


NEXT WEEKEND: Tri for Joe! I haven't officially signed up yet....but I'm gonna do it. It's going to be tough. The other day at the gym, I did a mini-triathlon: 20 minute swim, 20 minute stationary bike, 20 minute run on the track. It wasn't exactly the same, obviously, because I leisurely changed my clothes and fixed my hair between the swim and bike, but it was good practice for doing three in a row. Holy crap. That kicked my butt. This triathlon thing looks so easy on paper, but it's a whole new mental game when you're tiring yourself out before each workout!

But I will finish and I will have fun, and since I've never done a tri, I'm not thinking too hard about the time at all. I can't remember the last time I've done a race without being a little OCD about time and pace, so it'll be nice. I just want to see how this goes!

And finally: I think I've got the clipless pedal thing figured out. I'm by no means good with them, but I can set my bike in motion without falling over now, and kinda clip as I go. I can unclip at will, although I'm still a bit skittish so I start unclipping looong before it's necessary! I even rode in freaking traffic, with multiple stop lights, clipping and unclipping. Nearly fell over when a car suddenly stopped, but I hung in there.

Fell once on the bike trail. I was going to pull off into a parking lot and turn around to head back home. My inner dialogue went something like this:

"OK, unclip right foot. UNCLIP RIGHT FOOT. (Note: by default, I stop using my right foot when I bike, so I'm working on unclipping that one to stop.) WHY won't it come out?? Aaah! It's stuck! It's so stuck!! OK....I can keep pedaling a little longer. Now, come out right foot. Hmm. Left foot? OK, left foot's out. Now I can stop! Wait...wait....why the eff am I leaning right to stop?? No! Wrong way! Aaahhh....*crash* Don't even tell me my stupid foot is still stuck to that stupid pedal. Oh....NOW you're unclipping!"

But nobody was around to see, and a little road rash never killed anyone. :)

triathlon = money pit

Since deciding that injury = darn good reason to take up triathlons as a new hobby, I have acquired:

• bike
• bike shoes
• swim cap (because I always just swam in a ponytail before)
• new goggles (on backorder from amazon...but my old ones, which I think are from wal-mart, are getting leaky)
• tri shorts
• tri bra (quick-drying after being immersed in water)
• bondi band with a tri logo, after I realized that I'll need a quick - and of course fashionable - solution to the "running with crazy wet hair in my face" dilemma
• wetsuit

This had better turn out to be a really fun endeavor.

PS - of course I got a pretty decent deal on everything on that list!!! :)

She's a brick......OUCH.

First of all....I took a little bit of a hiatus from blogging, since I spent a few days out of town for a wedding, then came back to the post-vacation-return-to-work craziness. But here I am....

More specifically, I went to the Outer Banks, where there is a BEACH. And I got to RUN on the beach!! And I found out that running on the beach is hard!! (Yes, it may seem obvious, but when you're usually hundreds of miles from anything resembling a beach, you tend to not know these things.)

The interval thing is slowly but surely working, I think. I feel an awful lot like a baby learning to walk. Holy crap....running is HARD. I'd forgotten that. Now I'm up to 5/1 jog/walk intervals, and I find myself REALLY looking forward to that one minute. It's hard to believe that a couple of months ago I was running 15 miles straight and finding long runs to be (mostly) relaxing. And it's a little discouraging at times. I mean, I want to train for a marathon, and right now, a 5k would be a struggle. When does running start to NOT feel like I'm killing myself?? When does it feel like second nature again? When do I get my pace back? Arrgh.

And you know what else is hard? Training for a triathlon. :) I'm learning many new things about cycling that non-cyclists are not aware of and generally invoke an eyebrow raise and a "wtf?" from those who do not cycle. One of the biggest ones - and my current nemesis - racing requires cycling shoes. Cyclists actually clip their shoes to their pedals. That's right, you're attached to your bike. And they make it look super easy.

So, I got my cycling shoes, which were free because I signed up for the bike shop's rewards program and had plenty of points from buying my bike to get some gear. I was quite happy with myself, because I found a pair that was not only on clearance, but in a world where shoes are built primarily for function, so consequently most biking shoes are U-G-L-Y-you ain't got no alibi, I scored a relatively cute pair.

Function, appearance, and frugality all in one!

I figured out how to attach the cleats to the bottom, and took them to the gym to practice clipping and unclipping while riding a spin bike, which happen to have the pedals that match my cleats. (There are different kinds of cleats/pedals, which I'm not even going into right now!) It was surprisingly not hard, and I practiced for a while until I felt like I got it.

Thursday's workout was supposed to be another 30 minute jog/walk. I had time to combine it with a 30 minute ride. Then I thought, "Why don't I make it a brick??" (A brick would be a back-to-back workout to simulate what it's like to go from one to another in a triathlon.) Then I thought, "Hey! I want to try this clipless shoe thing!"

Get up in the morning, get ready for a workout. Triathlon is making me miss the days when getting ready for a workout involved throwing on the nearest clean-ish running clothes and heading out the door. Now I've got to get dressed, put on calf compression sleeves (<3 them, btw), strap on the garmin, put on arm warmers (because you dress like it's 20 degrees warmer for running, but do the opposite for cycling), make sure my hair is in a low enough ponytail so as not to get in the way of a bike helmet, but a high enough ponytail that it's not all stuck to my neck because I *hate* that, grab water bottle, bike shoes, socks, running shoes, road ID and spibelt with phone in case I wipe out and have to call someone to scrape me off the bike trail....holy crap, I feel like I'm going on vacation.

I put my shoes in a bag, decided to drive over to the bike trail in my flip-flops (because I was not going to make my first clippy attempt anywhere that I would be in traffic or stopping at lights), and oh yeah - grabbed my wallet just in case someone decided to pull me over during the less than two mile drive over. Grabbed husband's truck keys, left him a note that I stole his truck (as he slept like normal people do in the morning),  drove up to the apartment complex bike garage to sling my bike into the back of the truck, and off I go.

Oh, those shoes made me nervous. But it looks so easy when other people do it, and I'm smarter than a lot of people, so surely I can get this bike shoe thing down. I walked my bike over to the trail and stood there for a minute analyzing things. Then someone passed me, and I realized that my dumb butt was right in the middle of the trail. So I moved to the right side. Still standing, I swung my right foot over and after a few tries, the satisfying "click". I'm in! Attempted to push off, get left foot in, and....WHAM. WTF? My bike was on the ground. In the process, I had managed to jerk my right foot free so I was standing over the poor bike. Try again...this time, much the same, except I ended up on the ground, too. Luckily, I landed mostly on one butt cheek, which is sufficiently padded so it didn't really hurt. (Plus I had aimed the fall toward the grass and mud.) I kept trying, but I couldn't get that left foot in without falling. When it looked like my choices came down to either fall repeatedly, or get a ride in, I decided to back up a step and try one biking shoe, one running shoe.

Returned to the truck and....I had forgotten my running shoes.

So I went for a short ride in one bike shoe and one flip-flop. I didn't get too many weird looks - I don't think people really pay attention to feet. And I could totally tell the difference with the bike shoe - it felt way more efficient and fun to be attached to the pedal.

Back to the truck, went back home, grabbed running shoes, did a short ride on the bike, but I still had my bike legs, so I think it was a successful brick attempt. I think they call it a brick because it feels pretty much like running with bricks attached to your legs. But, although it felt slow, my pace really wasn't off from its norm at all. I was SERIOUSLY tired by the end of the run, though. I'm gonna blame that partially on the brick, partially on the injury, and partially on the fact that Cincinnati has decided that it's August now and it was much hotter and more humid than I bargained for. I came back SOAKED in sweat....but the morning had been a pretty good workout.

Got some advice from a tri forum, and I think I'm ready to attempt the shoes again sometime soon, even though I can't be convinced that they're NOT out to kill me (and my poor bike!!)

Song Challenge week 6

This week is....Your Favorite Song from a Movie.

Interestingly enough, I have yet another running-related answer, and it came to mind as my for real favorite movie song. It just happens to also be motivating as heck as a running song.

I first saw Hedwig and the Angry Inch as an undergrad in my cult film class. (Something you may not know about me: my bachelors is actually in film and communication, minor in theater. Near minors in psychology and Spanish, for what it's worth.) There's way more to this film than I can put into words, but a quick synopsis: it's the story of love and identity from the perspective of a botched-transsexual German rock singer. It's also a stage play. It also has pretty much the most rocking soundtrack I've ever heard. I bought the CD (because this was before the days of the ipod - I feel old!) and pretty much wore it out. It brings back tons of memories from my film major days.

So here's the actual movie clip of Tear Me Down, which is the first song featured in the movie. If the video draws you in like it did me, get a hold of the movie and watch it - it'll make you laugh, think, and rock out.

And as I mentioned, it's a great motivator when I'm out running. You want me baby? I dare you - try and tear me down!!

 

bonus:

The Flying Pig volunteer t-shirt = pretty much adorable. I love how the pig's butt is the G. Heehee!