My First Du is Done

And it's only taken me a week to write about it, that's how fast I am!

As a part of Fleet Feet Baton Rouge Halloween runs

They had a 2 mile, 5k, Little VooDu, Big VooDu and Dirty VooDu. I chose the Little VooDu which was a 2mile run / 10 mile bike / 2 mile run. I wanted to do the Big one but since this was my first I decided to play it smart. Good thinking on my part.

We had a rough night the night before and didn't get enough sleep. I drug #4 along even though he didn't get to bed until 3 am. I'm that thoughtful.

The event was at a Super Walmart and the route was kind of plain and simple. But in the defense of the race crew, they lost their permit to have it somewhere wonderful due to the city actually do work and start early. It definitely took away fear of getting lost on the route.

I had planned to wear a costume.

Pipi Longstocking

However my sewing machine decided not to cooperate. Probably due to be stored in a plastic box for about 15 years :(. I was determined not to let that get me down. Turned out only about 3 people had on costumes. I guess everyone around here is just too serious about racing (*rolling eyes).

We got there in plenty of time. I put my bike and gear with a couple of ladies from my half class that were also racing. Only to find out it need to go somewhere else. #4 tried to help place things in a way that would be most efficient but this was new to him as well.

All the races started together. We had chips strapped to our ankles so it didn't matter where we were in the line up, timing didn't start until we crossed the mat. This was probably a good thing since I tend to linger in the back.

My plan was to run the first run slow (10:50ish), ride about medium effort (15mph) and book it on the last run (10:30ish - don't hurt yourself laughing). First run felt good and slow. I was afraid I started out too fast. I don't like to be in a group so I usually have to run faster than I want to get to a spot that is all for me. My right shoe came untied on the way in, I didn't bother to stop and tie it since I would be taking it off anyway. 

I got on all my bike gear and hoofed out the back like I was told to do. I have a love/hate relationship with my bike shoes. They are great on the bike but walking in them is such a pain. I hit what I thought was head wind on the way out and I pedaled hard thinking I would coast on the way in. Turns out the head wind was on the way back. I managed 16.5-16.7 out, but only 13s on the way in. Until the last mile when I the wind was finally at my back and I was cruising at 18 (I never ride that fast!). 

For the second run, my legs were like jelly. I knew this would happen but I was still surprised. I felt like I was walking I was running so slow. I guess it worked out since when I came to point where it was time to kick I was able to do it.

I was thinking it would take close to 2 hours to finish. I was not disappointed when they posted my time.

Source

Clearly I need work in the transition area. It was a learning experience and I had a great time! I can't wait to do another one.

#4 tried to take some wonderful pics, but these are the ones he got:

I'm not sure why the rotated one's posted this way, that's not how they are on my laptop. But I'm leaving them because I have other stuff to do :D

Virtually in Love with Racing

Virtual Races that is :D

Not that they will ever replace IRL races but added to the mix, they are just plan fun.

Last week I did a 3.7 mile one with Run with Jess to celebrate her 37th birthday. She sent out everyone these cute bibs to wear:

It was early and I'm not that bright

She is giving away a slew of prizes which just adds to the fun. I did my run in 37:29. Not too bad I guess.

My next virtual race is next week, thru Spark People.

Wow - over 9000 people participating!

No prizes except for spark points, but those are like gold on the site :D

Today I signed up for the Holiday Bootie Buster Challenge 2011. It's much more than just a race. It's based on workout in general, something to help motivate us during the holidays.

Sign up here!

Since my Half training class will be ending soon, I am a little worried that I won't stick with it. Plus at some point I need to get more serious about cross-training and strength training. I'm highly motivated when it comes to these types of events. Basically if people are watching, I tend to be less lazy!

All kinds of NEW Goodness!

In order of occurring:

1. New clothes

Wednesday nights, as you know, are half class run nights. Well this past one turned out to be cooler than I expected when I packed earlier in the day. I packed a long sleeve shirt, short sleeve shirt and shorts. And shorts weren't gonna cut it after the sun went down. So I headed over to Academy Sports for some very moderately priced gear because I am cheap. It was a successful trip, new un-needed but coordinating long sleeve shirt and capris for $30 total.

Then off to my mom's for some free fabric scraps for my Halloween race costume (you'll have to wait for this one). I got dressed there and low and behold I forgot something. I forgot my running bra. The one thing you just can't go without huh ladies?!? After a short self-debate about whether or not to go back to Academy for a $12 bra, I decided to splurge. Academy is the opposite direction of where class is AND class is at a running store. I figured I would just get the cheapest they had and be happy. Good choice since I hit the mother-load of traffic.

I walked in the store and straight to a bra, picked my size and went straight to try it on. I've spent the last 9 or so Wednesday nights in this store for at least hour each time, so I know the merchandise. Bra fit so I was good to go. As I would later come to realize, this bra was amazing!

Moving Comfort Alexis

I run with my iPhone, using the Run Keeper app to track my stats. I put said phone in my bra since most of clothes are pocketless. The phone travels a lot during my runs. NOT ANYMORE! The phone stayed put. I almost forgot it was there. Halfway thru I added my lip balm and car clicker. I could not feel either of those either. I would highly recommend this bra. And the price was reasonable, $34. Of course I had store credit that I didn't know about and scored this baby for $4!

2. New distance PR

I made it to double digits!

WooHoo

I should show the route. I actually made it back to the starting point at 9 miles. I refused to stop, and did a few extra laps around the parking lot to get to 10. I'm pretty sure the rest of the group thought I was nuts!

3. New Race

Who Dat! I'm not a real big Saints fan. I will root for them since they are the home team, but I don't own any Saints clothes or anything like that. They had a great game last night, and to celebrate the Rock 'N Roll New Orleans Marathon powers that be are giving a discount. Each time the Saints win, they are giving the point spread as a discount for a 12 hour period the following day. Right now the registration for the half is $90, I got it for $35! Who Dat!!

Pretty darn good weekend!

How much can I squeeze into one post?!?

I would be first in line for to have a chip inserted in my brain IF it did certain functions. Namely, record and post all the wonderful bloggy stuff I think about while running, driving, showering and the many other activities I do while not in front of the computer. But since there is no chip yet, and I don't want to leave out anything good, I'll just see how much I can cram squeeze in here.

And because I am a little OCD, it will be in chronological order :D

1. I officially have a running buddy. One of the ladies in my Half training group is not going to be able to do the half with the rest of us, so she set her sights on one the following month. I was already planning to do it so I said I would do it with her. We now are running together every Monday and Friday mornings. Although we run different paces, we start together and meet up again after we are done. It really helps me to get out of bed knowing that someone is waiting on me.

2. The race weekend that wasn't. I managed to miss both of my free races. I wasn't totally planning on doing the mud race. It really didn't seem to be the kind of race that would be fun alone and I couldn't guilt get anyone into doing it with me. It was okay, because after my 6.4 half training run I was pretty exhausted. I was upset about missing the trail run. Our a/c unit shut down Saturday night and we were up til pretty late trying to see what was wrong with it and hopefully get it going again. But we got to go visit my DS again in her new town so it wasn't a total wash.

This is my DS Cori, and her BF Corey. I'm not joking.

3. More running, half training, blah blah blah. Yeah right, like that's not the reason I live and breathe! Monday of Week 5 felt like crap. I felt slow, had trouble breathing, wanted to stop. Wednesday we did a tempo run. I didn't do as well as the last time (maybe there is something to peeing on yourself). Friday didn't feel all that great either. I did a virtual 5k and posted my time at 33:37 at a 10:46 pace. Didn't really notice it until later. It was pretty doggone good for me.

4. New longest distance. 7.19 in 1:17:40 at an avg pace of 10:48. Go me!

5. Tried Yoga for the first time. It was AWESOME, except for the gnats. After Wednesday nights tempo run, FF had an instructor come and do a session with us. It was outside and that's where the gnat came from. I have never felt so good after a run. (I actually ran into to the little girl that did the class after my run yesterday, she does not teach anywhere anymore :( but did recommend some things for me to check into since my gym doesn't have a yoga class).

I'm gonna close it here. I did have half a diet coke this weekend so my memory is not 100% lol

A Brick and More Races

I let #4 slide on a bike ride on Sunday. He really likes to be lazy that day and since it is his only day, I decided to oblige. But I did trick him into committing to riding Monday night. The Half schedule called for a 40 minute run which is just under 4 miles for me. So I planned a brick workout.

We went to the lakes by LSU which has become my favorite place to run. Mostly because I can chose a route for just about any mileage and not have to do any laps. Have I mentioned that I hate laps?!? I planned for us to ride the 6 mile loop and then he could ride beside me while I ran the 4 mile loop.

Started out real good. I love my bikes! I do tend to ride all out tho. It just feels like cheating to coast. I brought my hard tail because the full suspension is just too heavy for the lakes and the road bike is too light. It's not really too light, but since I was "training" for a duathlon that I will use the road bike for I don't want to train with it. I want to train with something heavier. We did the 6 mile loop with no problem (other than there were a ton of people to dodge).

When we got back to the truck, I felt a little light headed. I should have taken a break but I prefer to push like I would on a race day. So we just took off. I truly understand the term Brick now! My legs were VERY heavy! I was running really, really slow. I only managed 2 miles of the 4 I had planned. My splits weren't too bad: 10:58 & 11:48. But I hit 13s quite a bit during the second mile. I knew the parking lot with the potty would be about the halfway mark so I decided to stop there.

We walked the rest of the way back to the truck. It took forever,  but was really nice to spend some slow time together.

What did I learn from this? That although I really want to do the Big VooDu, it just best that I do the Little VooDu. Does this mean I am wussing out? I hope not. I looked around at other du's in this state and the Big VooDu is one of the biggest so it makes sense that it NOT be my first du. To me and #4 it makes sense at least.

In order of event, not registration :D

10/30/11 The Little Voo-Dualthon: This race is a 2m/10m/2m du. The Big VooDu is a 5k/18m/5k. I've made the right choice. They also have a dirty voodu and 5k event. I'm pretty excited about this little race!

11/5/11 SJA Sticker Stampede 5k: a friend from High school who is training on her own for a marathon (or half) sent me a message on FB about this one. It's our alma mater and a good fundraiser. I may actually not show up for it tho. I noticed after that my schedule run for the day is 105 minutes. Although I will be in the same general area, if we don't start until 7 am I won't be able to make the 8:30 race start (unless I go a different route and just run right into the race lol).

1/15/12 - The Louisiana Marathon Half. After last Saturday's group run, one of the others was talking about not being able to do the BR Beach half with the rest of the class. That is the race we are all training for. She will be out of town. She mentioned that she was looking at doing the LA Marathon half instead. I mentioned that I was thinking of doing it as well. So we tentatively decided to do it together. I went ahead and signed up!

Another new race?!?

I'm not really a lucky person. Now I don't mean that only bad things happen to me. I just mean that I don't win things. Actually I have won 2 things before. I won a blanket in a raffle at a school fair about 20 years ago and I won some Nuun from on of the HTC teammates. Truly that is it.

Well, now I can up that to 3 things. I have won an entry to a race.

Play Dirty Adventure Run.

Twitter announcement

This is a new race in my area. I think it is similar to other "mud runs" that are growing in popularity around the country. It seems like lots of fun. BUT I'm not planning to do it.

There are several reasons why:

• It's a saturday race and I have half class that morning. Class is a 60 minute run. The race has waves so I could make it if I wanted to.
• It's the day before the trail run I have already registered for (albiet free). But I think all three events would really be pushing it.
• This is not a race I think I would enjoy doing alone (and I don't have anyone to do it with). I have been trying to find someone since I found out about the race but have not been successful.

I'm disappointing no to do it, especially since I can do it for free. But I think it's the best choice for me. Not that I wouldn't change my mind in a heart beat if I found someone to do it with between then and now! lol

New Race - St. Charles trail run

I almost forgot to post about this. I've signed up for a new race.

NOLArunning

Since I started the Half class, I've had to re-think my "want to" races. Most races are done on Saturdays and that is the day my longs run with the class are scheduled. I'm not about to miss a class. So I've just been looking at Friday and Sunday races. They are in limited supply.

So yesterday, NOLArunning made some posts on Facebook about upcoming races. The trail run caught my eye. I love running the trails. We don't do it much because there are not a lot of trails in our area. This race was originally scheduled for early summer at a time that I would not be ready, even for a 5k. It was around the time that the Muddy Mississippi was cresting the flood level in Baton Rouge and the opened the spillways. As you can see from the picture about, this race is in one of the spillways. Needless to say it was flooded for a couple of weeks prior to the race so they rescheduled and  I forgot about it.

I made a note of it and went on with my business, I do have a job after all. At some point I got an email from Active Advantage (I have a membership that I had not decided to cancel or not). I didn't open it at first but it  caught my eye about 30 minutes after getting. "Deal Alert: St. Charles Trail 5" was in the subject line. I figured I'd get some extra bucks off the registration fee.

BUT it was better than that! They were giving the first 5 people that responded FREE registration!! I figured I had missed it since I didn't open it immediately. But I was the second person to respond. I was very excited!!

Hood to Coast Relay

Currently I am stalking following 4 teams that are participating in the HTC in just a few days. Two teams are from my diet website of choice (sparkpeople.com) and two are lucky lady bloggers that were chosen to run for my sports beverage of choice (nuun.com).

It's really very interesting to me how things have almost come full circle. My desire to run comes from my desire to compete. Well, compete is bit over kill. I want to race, at least I want to participate in races. Finishing will always be my first goal. 

Earlier this year I took my exercising to a new level. I went from walking to running to 5k training. Why? Because I had no desire to actually hit the 180 mark I was headed for. Knowing that it would be much easier to motivate myself if I actually had a goal (other than weight because that has never been enough somehow) I started researching races. Of course this started with local 5ks. They are doable for obvious reasons. 

It seems a big trend this year is the dirty obstacle course races. Luckily one of the bigger ones was coming close to me. I was not ready and did not do it. But it pushed me in the right direction to find other races. The most notable one being the HTC Relay. 

I had heard of marathons and ultra marathons before, but never a relay. I watched what videos I could find on youtube and just fell in love with the idea. It really seems like a damn good time. Shortly after, I found the Nuun contest for a lady blogger team. And as soon as the teams were announced, I started following the team mates. I figure that is as close as I could get. 

Then someone on SP put in a request for Ghost runners. A ghost runner is someone that is not participating in the actual race, but will run the same distance at the same time as one of the team members. It's a virtual team mate. WOW. This was so for me! 

So Friday morning at 10:30 my time, I will be running 5.64 miles with my Coastie team mate for Leg 1 and again at 8:30 that night for 4.18 leg 13!

Now I realize this is more of a semi-circle. But it feels like a step in the right direction to get me to complete my goal of one day being on a team for this race.

Good Luck to everyone running!

When a good run goes bad.... 5K recap

Ok, I'm being a bit dramatic. But I had so much hope for this race and did so well, that I can't help but be disappointed.

Why you ask??? Because I had goals and was running better than expected AND the distance came up short.

This is the route (taken from another race so I covered the name, not so beautifully, so I don't seem like I am complaining about them). The arrow points to the area where the mishap occurred. This is where the Coach (son) and I turned around. I actually commented during the turn that I could see this being an accident waiting to happen, where runners turn at the wrong time.

According to my phone app, I only ran 2.63 miles. I had not set the goal to PR, didn't want to worry about my time. I wanted to kick. But as the phone app announced our pace and I was feeling good, we decided it would happen anyway. Coach did a wonderful job as always of making sure I was running right. He is so wise beyond his years.

During the last straight stretch he had me pick up the pace a little at each traffic light. Once the finish line was in sight, he pointed out where the kick would happen. #4, who had not run the race with us but stationed at different points to support me, was running along with us at this point. It's so awesome to have support!

I was worried about the kick because the road was wet and was not sure if my shoes would have enough traction. (I claim to have a fear of heights, but have learned over the years that it is really a fear of falling. From any height!) Shoes did fine, I kicked and ran my heart out to finish. Only to look down and see the wrong distance.

My average pace for the run was 10:55. So this would put my time for a full 5K at 32:15 assuming I continued running well, which I am sure I would have done.

These are the shoes Coach and I were fitted for earlier in the day. Asics GT-2160. Interestingly enough, after trying on several recommended pairs, we chose the same shoe. His are prettier than mine :(

My celebratory meal. It's not Blue Moon, have never had that beer. It was just a Shiner Bock because I can't get really good beer in this town.

Coach aka my son

Coach getting irritated at my flash, check out the waitress in the back ground

Coach and waitress (aka Iroc, my daughter)

Don't they look thrilled??

Coach and #4 assure me that I should be proud anyway. I will be. After the next race :D