New Gaiters

I ordered gaiters from Dirty Girl Gaiters and they came in this week, so of course I had to wear them at WyCo on our Thursday night runs to break them in. I don't remember the name of the pattern, but the bright green and pink complement my bright blue (and muddy) shoes nicely.

They seem to work well and they were a bargain compared to your fancy-schamncy name brand gaiters. And way cooler, I might add.

I was going to skip WyCo as part of my taper for the 1/2 marathon until I thought about it a little. I doubt I'll PR on Saturday (and I've kind of stopped caring) so it's not like 6 miles on the trails will hurt me. And after last week's weird run, I felt compelled to go back to WyCo for an enjoyable run. As it turns out, Bad Ben, John and I are all getting over colds, so we had a nice easy run which was very enjoyable and no one got lost.

Tomorrow is a rest day and then Saturday is the 1/2 followed by the Fall Fell race on Sunday. John is running it too, since his 50k is next week. Starting next week, I'm going to try to make 2 Nerd runs a week, WyCo on Thursdays and SMP on Tuesdays. I need to start increasing my trail mileage since I AM going to do the full Psycho Wyco. (If I keep telling myself that, I will eventually believe I can do it)

Rest

I chose rest.

Run or Rest?

That is the question.

All morning I was really fighting to focus and stay awake and it wasn't due to a lack of caffeine. I felt awful - sinus headache, light-headed, fever/chills, body aches and runny nose. I had debated leaving work early but I am surprisingly starting to feel a little better. My sinus headache is gone and I haven't had the chills in an hour or so. Food, maybe? You would think the piece of Orange-lime-rum cake I had for breakfast would have done the trick. Oops. Don't worry, I had a bowl of cereal first. I love the butternut squash and apple soup I made this weekend. Too bad my taste buds are still a little dull. I know it has good flavor, I just can't completely appreciate it.

The debate now is what to do after work. Go home and sleep, like I had planned, or go to SMP and run 5 miles with the Nerds, which I had planned before I was not feeling well. If I'm not feverish and still feeling OK, I'll go run. If I crash mid-afternoon, then I will sleep. I'm supposed to be tapering anyway. I'm unsure of what will be more beneficial - an easy run or a night of rest. I usually pick the run and that's ususally the wrong choice. Hmmm... To run or to rest, that is the question.

HR Never Lies, Part II

I've been slacking on the blog but it's not because I'm not doing anything. Last week I put in several runs, including a 9 mile long run and another trail run at WyCo. I also did a leisurely bike up to the Kansas river with a friend on my hybrid. I have about 3 posts worth of information.

But it appears my HR monitor was right - I wasn't feeling so well this weekend and I still have sore throat. Much of the weekend was spent resting (after the bike ride, that is.)

Let's back track and see where this little cold is going to put me.

10/6 - 4.5 mile run at SMP with DH. He commented I sounded more out of breath than normal and asked several times if the pace was too fast. Ouch.

10/8 - 9 mile run at the airport. Much slower than I had hoped but HR stayed low. I'm obviously working harder to maintain slower paces.

10/9 - 6ish miles at WyCo. My HR was higher than usual and, I GOT LOST. I've never been lost before. I was walking the uphills due to my high HR and lost the guys. Then I lost the trail. I wandered around until I could no longer see any lights ahead of me or hear voices, then I started yelling. At least the guys were able to come back for me right away. As Ben said, that run had a weird vibe. I have never wanted to get out of the woods like that night. I was going to blog about it that night but I was too darn tired. It was an unpleasant run and I'm going to blame it on evil WyCo gnomes. I swear they exist.

10/11 - 21 miles up to the Kansas River and the hills on my hybrid about killed me. But it was a gorgeous ride and I'll blog about it later.

Now we're back to today, after spending most of yesterday on the couch. Unfortunately, I don't think I'm going to hit 1:55 in the 1/2 this weekend. I'm still going to try to PR, but it might be rough. My HR has consistently been 10 bpm higher than normal. Add the usual 10 bpm due to racing nerves, and I'll barely be able to hold an 11 min/mile pace. I'm exaggerating (I hope) but I don't know if 8:45s will happen. I guess it's more of a "run how I feel" race. Oh well, life happens. I'm drinking lots of fluids, taking vitamins, and eating lots of fresh fruits and veggies.

I'm still thinking about running in the Fall Fell race on Sunday as well, not to really race, but to have fun. Double races sound like something I should try, expecially if I'm serious about doing an ultra in the near future. And what's 7 miles on the trails? Plus, I hear there will be donuts.

Mmmm, donuts.

HR Never Lies

I'm happy to report that my ankle is fine and my knee is scratched and bruise, but otherwise OK. I was really looking forward to tonight's run - cool weather on the trails is always enjoyable.

We started off a little on the slow side. There were 4 guys and 1 other girl beside me. Within the first 1/2 mile (which is mostly downhill) I noticed my HR said 188. WTH?? I figured it was interference or something. But we kept on and the uphills were killing me. My legs were bricks and I was panting; I felt like the fat kid during the first day of track practice. I was drenched in sweat and my hair was dripping.

We kept on at a modest pace, much slower than some of our runs out there, and I could barely keep up. By the end, I had completely fallen off the back of the wagon and was just trying to get back to the car. My head, neck, and chest were cold but my HR was in the 180s. There is something wrong here.

I think I've decided I'm fighting off a cold. I've had the sniffles and been sneezing a lot lately, and coupled with my awful run, I think it's safe to say I'm not 100%. For the run, my ave HR was 171 and max HR was 190. 190!! I don't think I've ever gotten it that high before. And it's not like I'm out of shape. I've been doing this same run every Thursday for the last few months and I'm training for a 1/2 marathon. So I have decided tomorrow is a rest day. I should take my vitamins, avoid alcohol, and get lots of sleep. I don't actually want to get sick.

But I got to thinking: How cool is it that I already KNOW that I'm not 100% and I'm not quite sick. HR monitor training (and training in general) really makes you become more aware of your body and what's it's doing. It's pretty amazing, really.

And now it's time for some much-needed rest. I have a race to train for!

Fall!

I took my first fall on the trails tonight. I scraped up my knee but bruised my ego more than anything. There was barely any blood, so it doesn't really count. Like a Nerd, I picked up and kept going.

Running with the Nerds on Tuesdays is a good, hard run for me. My ave HR was 171, which is really freakin' high. My max HR was 185. Not an all time high, but anytime I hit the 180s, I know I'm working hard. SMP is nice, but I think I prefer WyCo. I'm not good on the rocks - I blame my giant feet.

Tomorrow is a floater day and I think I'm going to take the night off so I can cook. I just don't have time to cook and workout during the same evening. Could be motivation for me to get up in the morning, but I don't see that happening.

In with the new!

In celebration of my new job (kind of) DH and I bought a fun car! It's a '96 Z3 Roadster; the Bond car in Golden Eye. I wanted to get "BOND GRL" for the license plates, but DH vetoed the idea since he drives it too. We're still debating. He suggested ZZZIPPY but I was thinking RUN WLD. Decisions, decisions. It looks pretty damn good for a '96. Just think, in about 10 more years, it could be a classic car. Just wait until we trick it out.

Besides the new car, I started my new job this week. So far, I really like it. I'm working on a new casino in Atlantic City, so I'm hoping for a site visit. I jumped right in and was at my first meeting today. They weren't kidding when they told me they do "the crazy crap."

As for training, I did a tempo run tonight around the DT airport. I did a 5 min warm up and then took off. I don't know what my splits were, but it took me 31:31 to do the 3.8 miles. Including the warm-up, I averaged 8:17 min/mile. Not too bad considering I haven't done a lick of speedwork in a while. Then I did about a 10 min cool down. Gorgeous weather for a run. Or a convertible ride. I think we may need to go for ice cream. :)