Amy's 1st Marathon

23 milez away

2007-09-24T20:46:00.000-07:00

Ran 23 miles yesterday in 4 hours......on track to finish in 4:30. Hoping for a 4:20 time, but who knows. I was hurtin like a mutha in the my last mile. I wanted to walk! I kept on keeping on though. I am shuffling around today like I'm 80 years old. I walked a recovery 2 miles. I'm sorry, but there was no way I was running today! Let the tapering begin!!!!!

4 Weeks and Counting

2007-09-17T20:48:00.001-07:00

I've been slackin' on my blogging, so, I apologize.....Brian. So it begins.

One more month until my very first marathon. Was talking to Kurt today and I'm super excited and he's freaking out. Shouldn't it be the other way around? I hope we can push each other during the race. Although, being it's my first 26.2, I don't have any experience with hitting the wall or anything........yet. See, Kurt said for him it was at mile 17-18, right at the ugly part of the race, on Studebaker. Which, we ran the ugly part yesterday. It was only 13, but super foggy and cool. I stepped it up a bit and ran with Henry, Kirstyn, DeAnn, and Jules. We averaged about a 9 min pace? I don't know, but we were done in 2 hrs 3 min. It was great.

In 6 days is my first 23 miles. I'm actually looking forward to it. I think we're running the marathon course almost exact. Then it's taper time. I don't think I'll have a problem with tapering with my diet either. I hear it's really hard, but hmmmm......we'll see. I'll be determined and besides, I read it's only natural to gain a few lbs., since you should be carb-loading and will need it for the race.

Ran 6 miles tonight. I still feel like I haven't run off the fucking deep fried Coke I ate at the LA County fair on Sat! Even after the fast 13 miles yesterday too!! Man, Tracy and I felt like shit all day yesterday, like we partied hard Saturday night or something. It was weird and so totally due to the grease we ate. GROSS. She had a deep fried S'mores. We didn't even really eat as bad as we could either. Oh well.........

We met up with Kurt, Steve, Henry, Jimmy, Arnold, and a few others last night for Indian food. RRRRRRRRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRR here come the 2 dykes on their Harley through the streets of Little India! LMAO!! Funny shit, anyways....not really diggin' the Indian food to say the least, but hey, I'm game to try anything once! Kurt had the nerve to call me tonight and say how hot I looked last night and that he didn't think I could pull that off! Like excuse me? What did you say??? Honey I can pull off hot in my f-ing sleep. Damn it! That was a good line, wish I would've said that to him instead of laughing! You can tell him Brain.......Then he asked me if I've done modeling before. Like is this a compliment or is this Kurt being Kurt? I think he was sincere.......? Regardless, it's not the first time I've heard that, so there! There's no way I could ever do it. I run to eat, therefore, I couldn't model because I couldn't eat, therefore, I'd have to still run and not eat too??? NO WAY.

OK. It's after 9 pm and I have to shower and get ready for work. I miss you Briance........When are we going to hang out? Name the time and place.

xoxoxoxoxo

HotRunnin'

Holy 20 Miles Batman!

2007-08-27T20:17:00.000-07:00

I finally have a 20 mile run under my belt. OUCH! Kept slightly under 10 min pace until about mile 17. Then thought I was going to vomit. Drank a ton of water! That's all I would've puked up and maybe it would've been tinted a slight brown from the GU. Gross. I slowed to about a 10:30 after that, until mile 19. Man, I just had to! Jimmy ran with me and we even walked for one minute which actually did help. He told me not to worry if I need to walk a minute. I still managed a 10:05 overall pace. Which, I shouldn't complain because it's considered respectable. Plus I had this like weird cramp thing in my chest. Almost felt like an air bubble. I swear, I'm not making excuses, just telling it like it is. I felt mighty proud when I was finished though and didn't want to die or anything, so that's good right? I laid down for awhile afterwards, then went down by Shoreline village where our friend has his sailboat. Then had dinner at the Yard House.

Today I didn't run, I deserved a day off from my 50 mile week, plus I had a massage appt. Um, yeah....The most pain I've felt in a long time. I haven't had a massage since last Oct, right before I did the Long Beach 1/2 marathon. Jilly said I was way worse this time. She also lectured the crap out of me. Ok, so I'm in more pain today and will probably be worse tomorrow. I screamed in therapy today. Literally, ok, well I went through all the motions, I just didn't let any sound escape my mouth. So so so painful. My achilles tendons are in bad shape, as well as my calves. My right hamstring was a solid freakin' rock and gave Jilly a bad time. My left quad was pretty bad too. I really wonder how I can walk with all the knots in my muscles??? And I don't even realize just how bad they are until I get a deep tissue massage from a cute little lady who puts all she has into working out my tangled tissue!!!!! I was also told that flip flops are really bad for me and that I should invest in the ugly-ass crocs. Hmmmmm......interesting pointers!

Oh and this happened to! At work, I knelt down by my desk and noticed my right ankle was swollen. And tender and a little purple =( I just iced it, Jilly tried to gently work it. Man, I feel kinda f-ed up come to think of it. Jilly thinks I have a high pain threshold. That may just be. Either that, or I like to stress the hell out of my body. Which, then in that case, I chose the right sport for the job!

Back in the Saddle

2007-08-16T21:15:00.000-07:00

I've missed my running buddies. I was gone for 10 whole days! I did however manage to get in 30 miles while on vacay. I tried to be good, really I did. I ran in Utah, Wyoming, and South Dakota. The altitude sucked man! Like my miles were much slower and I was sucking air like a hoover vacuum! Oh well, coming back down here, I feel a little faster =) at least. Started back with 9-5-9-5, not sure what I'm doing Saturday, since I have to sit online and order tickets for a concert in October, so I may try to get to the running group, but they don't set out til like 9:15 am. Maybe I can just run home and not run back to Redondo and hang around? I'll have to see. Only 13 miles on Sunday. I think I'm going to like the Sunday thing, although, I'll miss Dara's powerhouse 2 hours, but oh well. I need to focus more on miles and not try to cram so much cross-training/weights in. I miss them, but man, I feel I'll burn out by the time the marathon's here. Kurt had mentioned you have to start tapering other things out, other than running. I'm still going to try for Body Pump at least once a week, if it doesn't happen, I'm not going to beat myself up over it. Besides, I can cross-train til my heart's content AFTER the marathon and a little bit until LA's marathon, assuming I'm going to run it, which depends solely on how I feel after my 1st one.

So, guess that's it. I miss you Brian and can't wait to see you Sunday morning! We should go do breakfast afterwards? What do you think? We'll discuss. Oh and as far as (I wish I'd get an e-mail when you leave a comment on here!) having a water station for the triathlon? I'm all for something like and dressing slutty too! LOL. XOXOXOXOXO

9 miles tonight

2007-07-31T20:52:00.000-07:00

Here are the super dope-ass new kicks I got to run my very first marathon in??!!!! Aren't they just HOT? I love them....Anyways, back to them in a few minutes.

Let me start off by telling you I ran an EZ 4 miles last night. Um, yeah, so NOT ez. It was weird......wait! I know why it was so damn hard, maybe because I ate 2 pieces of ww toast with blueberry jam AND a bunch o' chocolate chips like 45 minutes before setting out for the run! Note to self: No pigging out prior to running NO matter how starved I am!!

Broke in the new shoes tonight with 9 miles. It was a good run overall, felt my right leg at first, but then I kinda got into the new shoes ya know? Ran 4 miles @ about 9 min pace, then once I joined up with the FR's, I kicked the next 5 miles into an 8:20 pace. Tonight was a tempo workout for me. Tomorrow is an EZ 4 miler again, then Body Pump @ Gold's. That's it for me, I am pooped the f*ck out yo!

Night Night!

PS-

Thinking about volunteering for the Long Beach Triathlon on Sept 23rd..Stevie suggested I actually compete! HA HA HA. Not yet. I figure I volunteer for enough things, I'll eventually find myself signing up for things, right?

Post 17 mile

2007-07-29T19:51:00.000-07:00

It's Sunday, the day after the longest distance I've yet to run. Surprisingly, I don't feel too shabby, just tired. I am still learning all the do's/don'ts about what's good for my body. A lot of it, I know, has to do with plain ol' listenin' to my body. Since I ran last year's LBC 1/2 marathon, I kicked it into overdrive and overdid it. I had registered for the OC 1/2 marathon in Jan '07, but got way injured, sick, and I swear it was the measles! Anywho....Needless to say, there was no second 1/2 marathon for me!

I stopped running, got better, and cross-trained my ass back to recovery. Here I am (after hopefully, doing the right thing by taking time off) and already midway through training for my 1st marathon. I am feeling my right leg though. I was pretty sure the injury I had was Iliotibial band syndrome. I never went to a doctor, but am positive it's what I have. I know it's still there. It's gotten less though. I'm not so sure an injury like that will ever go away. It's so connected to like everything else in your leg! I also try to stay off the concrete, especially while doing my tempo runs. It's so hard though, I mean, never a freakin' dirt path in sight! I know the faster my pace and the surface I'm on? Yeah....pretty much determine how sore the back/side of my knee feels. I try to stay persistent with my Body Pump classes though, they seem to really help strengthen it. It just sucks to know that one leg is weaker than the other you know? It's like something you learn to live with. Or at least that's how I feel about it. I mean, I've learned to be smarter and back off if I need to.

Honestly, what's hurting me the most today, are my calves. They're super tight. Oh well. I read Runner's World mag like it's the Bible and according to those marathon articles, it's normal to be feeling soreness. I swear, there's always something I "feel" though! I feel like I'm finally getting used to running for extended periods of time. It's so weird to be training for more than 2 hours straight! I remember during a long run in high school cross-country, I looked down at my watch and though, "OMG! I've been running for 73 minutes?!" That's funny to me nowadays!

Ok, it's a little after 8 pm and I'm SO TIRED. Like actually being really serious about training, I find I'm going to bed earlier and earlier. Which is good I suppose, right? I'm not that crazy party girl I used to be damn it. Or maybe, she's still there, just taking a long overdue break, lol.

I'd like to say thank you to Ms. Bryonce for giving me the link to his blog, which in turn made me start my own training blogs. Also to Ms SlimandSkinny for starting that 40+ e-mail replies that included Ms Bryonce, therefore, starting up great convo's ranging from S&TC - Brazilian waxing.

*MUAH*