Training in the Summer is hard. In fact I’ve debated which is worse, training in the Winter or training in the Summer. And those of you who know me, know I hate the cold! So I should like training in the Summer right? Wrong. I’m going to try my best to put a positive spin on this.
Top 10 benefits of training during the Summer
10. At least you aren’t crawling out of bed in the morning to run in negative degree weather. There’s nothing worse than getting out of bed when it’s cold!
9. You sweat out all the negative stuff; pain, stress, last night’s glass of wine, whatever you want your sweat to represent.
8. Since you sweat so much, you lose weight! Even if it’s just for a couple of hours.
7. You get a nice little runner’s glow from being out in the sun.
6. Gatorade and water taste exceptionally good.
5. You can stop more often, because you MUST take a water break for those necessary fluids/electrolytes.
4. You don’t have to see people running in pants that are skin tight, although this might be the one time a year we’re all skinny enough to wear them.
3. If you’re smart, you run early enough in the morning that you can go the rest of the day without thinking I still have to run.
2. Cross training or anything indoors seems like a treat.
1. When it turns to Fall, you’ll finally realize it was the weather that was making you feel out of shape.
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Thursday, July 8, 2010
ER
Well yesterday was interesting to say the least. I woke up with horrible cramps, nausea and lower back pain. I went ahead and went into work but not long into my day I realized that I had to go home. So I went home and tried to rest but I found it difficult to even sleep. I was very uncomfortable. So I decided this isn’t normal, I’m heading to the urgent care to find out what’s wrong. I went in and waited forever. I finally got to see the Dr and he decided to take a urine and blood test. I waited forever again for the results. When he came back he said well it’s not a UTI and you’re not pregnant (duh!) but your white blood cell count is high. So he referred me to the emergency room. He told me not to be alarmed but I needed to have more tests done. (Not be alarmed… right!) So he printed out my blood test results and called the ER to tell them I was on my way. He warned me that my wait might be long but he didn’t warn me it would be an eternity! While I was waiting they take your vitals, I guess they want to make sure that you aren’t about to keel over right there. If you are, you get right in but if you aren’t, you WAIT. I waited for close to 2 hours before I ever got in to see a Dr. Don’t get me wrong, I’m SO glad this wasn’t a true emergency. During my wait I saw thugs galore and even a guy in handcuffs. Awesome, the criminal got in before me. Little did I know that St. Johns had so much action on a Wednesday afternoon. So anyway back to the cute guy who took my vitals. While I was sitting there hooked up to the blood pressure monitor he asked do you smoke? I said no and he said I didn’t think so, you have the heart rate of an athlete. So I told him that I ran and he said I can tell. This was the highlight of my long, drawn out, stressful day. I may have been in the ER but dangit I had a strong heartbeat! :) It really was cool to see that running had played a positive impact on my health. It made a noticeable difference on my vitals and I think that’s awesome. So that you aren’t left wondering what’s wrong with me, I finally got into a hospital room. They hooked me up to an IV and took my blood again. From there I went and got a CT scan. After much more waiting, the Dr came in and said everything is fine. To cut to the chase, I had spent a total of 5 hours trying to find out what was wrong to hear we aren’t quite sure. It’s kind of unsettling to not know why you are having a pain or why my white blood cell count was high but most importantly all of my tests came back normal so I guess I won’t worry too much. I got a shot for the pain which helped tremendously and I’m currently on a non-narcotic pain killer. What a day!
Freedom Run
I recently completed my second 10k. I had planned on going to see my mom in KC 4th of July weekend. The day before I left, I thought I wonder if they have any runs that weekend. I told myself before, no more Summer runs because it’s just too hot but it was an unusually nice week for Oklahoma so I thought why not. With it being a holiday, there is typically a run somewhere. Oddly enough I found one in Lenexa where my mom lives literally 2 minutes away from her house. The 32nd annual Lenexa Freedom Run was Saturday morning at 7am. I got to KC late Friday night and woke up early Saturday morning to go register for the run. This was the first run I’ve done completely on my own. My mom wasn’t able to come watch because she was at the Lake of the Ozarks until that afternoon. I must say it was kind of liberating to be in a new city, at a new run by myself. I didn’t know what to expect but it all went really smoothly. There were about 1500 competitors. The 5k and the 10k started at the same time. This made for kind of a hectic start. Everyone started out so fast here. I was like dang how long are we going to run like this??! Ha-ha! Eventually people started to slow down but I was surprised at how little walkers there were. After the 5k portion was almost over, you could keep running and do the 10k or veer off to the side to complete the 5k. I must say that I thought about ending my run but I knew I should do the 10k so I went ahead and finished. It was tough. I’m still amazed at how hard every run is. I keep telling myself this one shouldn’t be so bad but I’m always surprised that it is continuously challenging. I was pleased with my time. My first 10k I finished in 1:03 at the Remember the 10 run in Stillwater but granted we weren’t really running for time plus it was rainy that day. But regardless this time I finished in 56:11. It feels good any time you beat your PR. Once again when I was done, I almost threw up on the lady cutting off my time chip. I don’t know what my deal is with this. Maybe I’m pushing myself too hard, maybe it’s just how I feel after a hard run, I don’t know. But I told her I needed a couple seconds. Of course it felt like minutes but eventually I told her I was ready and in no time I felt normal again. Like every race I went to get my after run snack, I got a banana and this time they had some yummy homemade granola. I also noticed a bunch of people in a long line and thought what in the heck is this for?! Then I noticed that it was to get your official time and place, etc. So I thought well I might as well. I stood in line and ate my granola. I got to overhear some pretty interesting conversations while in line. The funniest one was a trainer talking to 2 larger ladies that had just walked the 5k. He said well the good news is, if you haven’t had a heart attack yet today, it doesn’t look like you will. Ha-ha! I thought this is so true… for all of us. Luckily the line went pretty fast and when I got to the front, a guy scanned my bib and a receipt printed out with my time information. It was pretty cool. After the run, I drove back to my mom’s and crashed. Another run completed. My dad brought to my attention that I had now ran a race in 3 states Oklahoma, Missouri and Kansas. I’ve completed 2 10ks and 2 half marathons in 2010. Considering that I just began running in December, I feel pretty good about where I am.
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Monday, June 14, 2010
Run YOUR Race
I just finished my 2nd half marathon on Saturday in Joplin, MO. I signed up for it shortly after my first run in OKC April 25th. I think I was still feeling a surge of adrenaline and wanted to do it again! I can say however that throughout the month of May and the first 2 weeks of June, I began to question my decision. Not because I didn’t want to but because it was HOT and HUMID. Running had become much harder. I didn’t realize how much the heat would affect my ability. And I’m not only referring to running after work in the heat of the day, runs at 5:30 or 6:30 in the morning were more challenging too. I began to question whether my running had gotten worse or if it was strictly weather related. I think it must have been a little bit of both. There were a couple of Saturdays that I was on vacation or something came up where I wasn’t able to run as much as I should have. I debated cancelling this run for several reasons, one because I didn’t feel as prepared as I should have been and two because a couple of days before, rain was in the forecast with 30% chance of thunderstorms the morning of the run. Now I know 30% isn’t a lot so backing out based on weather would have been a bit of an out but I heavily debated it. Anyway I decided to stick to the plan and go and I’m glad that I did. As it turned out, it didn’t rain. It was a nice muggy morning at 81% humidity. :) Not ideal running weather by any means but doable. When my alarm went off that morning at 5:10, I thought oh crap. I was a little scared because I felt like I was winging it a bit. I hadn’t ran 13 miles since my last run in April so I felt a little insecure. But I had made the commitment to do it so by golly I was going to do it. My Mom had met me in Joplin to support me on my 2nd run. We woke up and got ready and headed to the race. Luckily this race was nothing like OKC. There were approximately 500 participants. Considerably less than OKC. But it was nice because we just drove right up and parked. We didn’t have to worry about traffic or parking. The race was scheduled to begin at 6:30. I lined up with a pace group and began feeling a little ancy because we didn’t get the race going until 6:40. I swear, halfway into my first mile I already felt tired and hot. I thought oh my goodness try to make it through the hard part, run the first 3 and then see how you feel. So I did and like always, I started to feel better as I got into my run. Now that’s not to say that I felt good or great but I was doing it. Mile 5-7 was pretty hilly so I coasted the down hills and walked some of the hard up hills. I didn’t want to burn too much of my energy and strength. I knew I’d need it, especially in this weather. This was a really nice run but nothing like OKC. There weren’t tons of fans and absolutely no fun signs to read, but there were a lot of really nice volunteers. I swear there was someone at every half mile for the entire race to yell out your time and say something encouraging. I don’t think people realize how much an encouraging comment helps. I tried to say thank you to every person who yelled something for me or gave me a smile to keep going. At one point, I ran past a volunteer who said I like your hat! I had to think for a moment that’s right, I’m not in Oklahoma.. She stood up and I saw that she was sitting in an OSU chair. Here we were 2 OSU fans in Joplin Missouri. That brief connection cheered me up even if it was only for a minute or two. I kept trucking along and thought to myself, it sure would be nice if they had some of those misting fans like OKC did right about now but I never saw one. They did however have ice cold towels that you could use and then throw down when you were done. I took advantage of every water stop and every ice cold towel I could get my hands on. I knew with as hot as it was that I needed to, literally needed to be very careful or I might not finish. Miles 8-11 were probably the hardest, as I’d anticipated. I say that but this time even miles 11-13 were quite difficult. Last time adrenaline got me through the last couple miles but this time my adrenaline was lacking. It was at this point that I realized if I can just keep up my pace, I have a chance of beating my time. I didn’t go into this race expecting to beat my time by any means. I mean yes when I initially signed up, I thought it would be great to beat my time, but considering my month leading up to the race, I didn’t expect to. My ultimate goal was to run my own race and finish. No joke, I was less than ¼ of a mile to the finish line and I had to stop and walk again. At this point I was having a hard time, and I knew I needed one more deep breath before I finished this race. So I looked ahead and thought here goes! There were a couple of make it or break it moments in my race and this was one of them. I knew I had to suck it up and finish what I'd set out to do. The finish line became closer and closer and right before I crossed I heard Amanda DeMoss from Tulsa, Oklahoma! This was different and I liked hearing my name. Immediately afterward we were instructed to walk straight up to a volunteer who would cut off our timing chip. I hesitated because for a brief moment, I thought I might yak all over her. But luckily I didn’t. Ha-ha I held my head back and took some deep breaths. I was alright. It was over. The feeling I had been waiting for had finally arrived. I had completed my 2nd half marathon and it felt great! I also beat my previous time which was just icing on the cake. I can’t explain the feeling you get after a race but it’s worth every second of training and every minute of the hard run you've just endured. It’s hard to run but if it’s wasn’t as hard as it is, the sweet just wouldn’t be as sweet. I’m happy with my race and proud of myself for sticking to my commitment. Thank you once again to every single person who has encouraged me to do my best. Your kind words inspire me more than you know.
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