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Turkey Trot 5K 2016 Race Recap

Posted in ElliptiGO, Race goals, Race reports, Racing, Running, tagged , , , , , , , on November 6, 2016| 1 Comment »

Five years ago I first ran the local school district’s Turkey Trot 5K. (Five years ago? How can that be?!) I couldn’t run it again until now because the date always conflicted with my fall marathon training. But it fit in nicely this year since my next marathon is not until February 4, the Death Valley Marathon. I didn’t train specifically for a 5K and I only tapered two days for this race, so I didn’t have a great idea of what I should set for my race goal. It’s a hilly course so I knew I couldn’t expect to come close to my 5K PR of 22:19 set at the Downtown Anaheim 5K over a year ago, but I at least wanted to beat my time from the 2011 Turkey Trot, 24:37, and I hoped to come in under 24 minutes.

It was a gorgeous morning for racing. Cool but not cold, sunny but not blinding.

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292 finishers participated in this lovely neighborhood race.

The junior high choir sang a beautiful rendition of the national anthem, and then promptly at 8 a.m. we set off with the sound of the blow horn. So many youngsters took off at a blistering pace and my job in the beginning was not to trample any little kids. You would think I would learn not to get swept up in the excitement and go out too fast with them, but when I first checked my Garmin the pace said something in the 6 minute mile range! Oops. I reined it in over the rest of the mile and the mile splits for the race ended up being 7:39, 8:02, and 7:57. Maybe someday I’ll master 5K pacing and not suffer so much in the 2nd and 3rd miles!

I raced the big finish line clock down the home stretch to come in just under 24 minutes as I hoped. My Garmin said 23:56. But then I checked the official race results and my time said 24:07. So unsatisfying! That’s the problem with races that are not chip timed, I guess. I shouldn’t care so much, but I do, so I ended up writing the timing company to ask why my result didn’t match the finish line clock (I don’t expect my result to match my Garmin, but I do expect it to come within a few seconds of what the finish line clock said). At any rate, I was happy with my effort in the race and pleased to win 1st in my age group out of 20 women ages 40-49 (I am 45).

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The first place medal came with $15 in gift certificates to A Snail’s Pace running shop in Brea.

Saturday is my long run day and my plan called for a long bike ride (this plan from Smart Marathon Training sometimes substitutes long rides for long runs, which I find very refreshing). So after the race I drove to a paved path and rode the ElliptiGO for an hour and 40 minutes.

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Oh how I love a dedicated bike path!

That hour and 40 minutes on the ElliptiGO was truly easier and more fun than running a race for 24 minutes, let me tell you! I listened to running podcasts (Another Mother Runner had on Dean Karnazes and The Runner’s World Show talked about Running While Female) and enjoyed all the thumbs-up I got for the ElliptiGO, which remains a curiosity on the trails.

Are you watching the NYC Marathon today? Because I don’t have cable I’ve had to content myself with following the live coverage on Twitter. Hooray for American Molly Huddle coming in 3rd for the women in her marathon debut with a time of 2:28:13!

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Looking Back, Looking Forward

Posted in Blogging, ElliptiGO, Family life, Inspiration, Marathon, Running, tagged , , , , , , , on January 3, 2016| 6 Comments »

I find it a little funny that my first long run of ’16 was 16 miles! I didn’t plan it that way; in fact I thought I was supposed to run 14 and I was dismayed to see that 16 when I double-checked my Boston training schedule. It’s week five of training, 15 weeks to go. The run went well. I took it easy at a 10:00 pace and listened to podcasts by Another Mother Runner and Runners Connect. I just finished listening to a great audiobook for runners: My Year of Running Dangerously: A Dad, a Daughter, and a Ridiculous Plan. CNN correspondent Tom Foreman narrates his own book and makes it entertaining and informative about coming back to running at an older age, running with your children, and dipping your feet in the ultra marathon waters. I have contemplated running my first ultra as the next big goal but it doesn’t sound like it’s for me, especially after I just burned out on a plan that called for running four to five times per week. I’ll stick to three times a week, thank you very much. I would like to get into trail running, however.

Looking Back at 2015

Here are the highlights for me for 2015 — a wide range of things that made me feel proud. I’ve put links to posts I wrote if you’d like to read more about any particular item.

  • Qualified for Boston 2016 in a PR time of 3:36:58 at the Phoenix Marathon in February
  • Used my own compost to grow a great summer harvest of tomatoes, basil, and hot peppers
  • Helped create a team of 53 members for the iCureMelanoma 5K to raise $5,418 for melanoma research
  • Volunteered each week at my girls’ school, working both in the classrooms and in the school library
  • Crossed off a bucket list item when my girls and I volunteered at the Girls on the Go Los Angeles Half Marathon in Bonelli Park
  • Proofread a friend’s memoir of her experience growing up under the oppression of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia
  • Set a PR in the 5K of 22:19 at the Downtown Anaheim 5K in June
  • Harvested over 200 pounds of lemons with my teenager and donated them to a local food bank
  • Qualified for Boston 2017 by a 15 minute, 52 second margin at the REVEL Canyon City Marathon in November
  • Performed with my middle daughter in six shows of The Nutcracker in December
  • Reached out to ElliptiGO and overcame my nervousness about trying something new, and was handsomely rewarded with finding a new workout I absolutely love!
  • Got a job for the first time in 13 years (aside from writing/blogging), working in the school district as a substitute assistant in the special education classrooms
  • Wrote up a training plan for my husband and teenager to train for their first half marathons next June, the Fontana Days Run Half Marathon

Looking Forward to 2016

I am eager to see what 2016 has in store for me! My first day on the new job is tomorrow, working 12-3 in the special education classroom at my girls’ school! The next race on my calendar is the Boston Marathon in April — my first time running that race and my 7th marathon overall.

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My sweet friends insisted that I take a photo in my prized new Boston jacket that Mike gave me for Christmas!

The only other race on my calendar is the Fontana Days Run Half Marathon in June. If the budget allows (i.e., I get enough work substituting in the district and my husband gets a new job), I hope to try my first big trail race (a half marathon, a full, or maybe even a 50K in spite of what I said about ultras not being for me — the Chino Hills Trail Run Series 50K is so close by and the timing would be perfect in November).

What are you proud of from 2015? What are you looking forward to in 2016?

 

 

 

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The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, in Pictures

Posted in ElliptiGO, Injury, Running, tagged , , , , , , on December 19, 2015| 2 Comments »

Let’s start with the ugly. I sustained a non-running running injury — a foolish slip in the bathtub that sprained my left big toe and affected my ability to run. If you don’t want to see my ugly foot, start scrolling now.

Foot with sprained toe

As a rule, I don’t run through pain that affects my gait in any way, because I know that just causes more problems in other areas of the body. This sprain hurt when I ran but didn’t change my gait and didn’t affect my ability to take on this bad boy:

Hill for hill repeat

Why do hills always look so tiny in pictures and so massive when you’re running up them? I did this hill workout on Wednesday:

1 mile warm up
6 hill repeats (1/3 of a mile up, 1/3 mile down (my favorite))
0.4 mile cool down (usually I’d run a full mile but I had to get home to my kiddos)

I have been struggling to get in my running over the last couple of weeks. It’s hard to get motivated to go out the door when it’s 4 p.m., 40-something degrees out, and starting to get dark. Yesterday I was supposed to do a 7-mile tempo run and I came up with every excuse not to do it until I finally just forced myself out the door. I only ran 5.6 miles before I had to take my youngest daughter to gymnastics, but 5.6 miles is greater than 0 miles (I was a math minor in college, can you tell?) and I was super proud of myself for getting those miles in. I ran the first half (the uphill portion) at an 8:55 pace and the second half (the downhill return portion) at a 7:49 pace. Normally I’d choose a flat stretch for a tempo run but when you live in “the Heights” you take what you get when you run out your door.

And finally, two pieces of good news. About five minutes after I posted this post about how my husband lost his job, I got a call offering me a job as a substitute instructional assistant, helping out the main teachers in special education classrooms in the district. The hours are perfect and allow me to drop off and pick up my girls from school. If I cannot work one day, I can specify that I am not available that day. Supposedly there is enough work to work every day if I want, but we’ll see when the job starts after the holidays.

And Santa heard my wish for an ElliptiGO! My parents gave me one for an early Christmas present! Mike and I drove back out to Hermosa Cyclery on Thursday and picked up my Green Machine, an ElliptiGO 8C!

Normally I would wear a helmet but we just took the ElliptiGO for a quick spin on the Strand at Hermosa Beach to make sure it was assembled correctly.

Normally I would wear a helmet but we just took the ElliptiGO for a quick spin on the Strand at Hermosa Beach to make sure it was assembled correctly.

I love it! It’s super quiet and smooth and frankly right now I would rather ride than go for a run. (Does that make me less of a runner? Or just a girl who loves her new Christmas toy?)

Have you ever sustained a non-running running injury? Do you like hill repeats? What gift is on your wish list?

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Running through Life

Posted in ElliptiGO, Family life, Running, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on December 15, 2015| 5 Comments »

Two weeks ago, my husband lost his job. It came as a complete shock to us. We certainly never expected anything like this would ever happen, much less just three weeks before Christmas. But life kept on trucking, no matter that we’d been thrown for a loop. In fact, it was very surreal. All of these wonderful things were happening in our lives. My middle daughter turned 11 on December 11 (her “golden” birthday!) and we celebrated with a cake she designed herself. Those are Trader Joe’s peanut butter cups:

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Mike and I performed in six shows of the Nutcracker ballet, playing the parents of our “party boy” and Chinese dancer. It was such a joy to be a part of the production and to watch our golden girl thrive on the performances. She will soon go en pointe in ballet, and gets to play one of the lead roles in the summer production of Alice in Wonderland!

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It was fun to trade my typical running clothes for this gorgeous Victorian gown for a while!

My oldest daughter is applying to a special program in high school next year, and was recently selected to lead a flute ensemble in 8th grade band. And my youngest daughter is ready to begin competing in swimming and has nearly mastered the splits in gymnastics! We are so, so lucky in many ways. Thank goodness we had set aside a “rainy day” fund just in case, and have family members who are willing to help us through this difficult time. Life goes on as normal for the girls, and that’s the best that I could hope for right now.

I had just started training for the Boston Marathon — literally two days into the 20-week plan — when we learned that Mike lost his job. Suddenly marathon training seemed trivial and inconsequential. Why should I take time each day to exercise when I have more pressing things to do? But I quickly realized that it was more important than ever that I keep on exercising, for my mental health as well as my physical health. And it was important that I drag my husband along too! We love to spend time together and it feels like an odd sort of luxury that he is home and can go out for a four mile hill run with me on a random Tuesday morning. So I’ve kept up with the plan, no matter how much I haven’t wanted to head out the door. I always feel a million times better when I get back from a run than before I went out. And last Sunday was no exception. I had a 12 mile long run on the training calendar. It was a cold morning (by SoCal standards — low 50s maybe?) and the whole household was still asleep, but I forced myself to hit the road and I was so glad I did. I haven’t had such a strong run in a long time. You might recall that in my training for REVEL Canyon City, I was running 4-5 times a week and pretty much ran myself into the ground. Every run felt like a slog. Now I’m back on a plan of three runs per week plus two sessions of cross-training (bike, ElliptiGO, or Insanity workouts) and two strength training sessions. The runs are harder — a hill or speed workout, a tempo run and a long run — but because my legs are fresh for them, I feel strong and powerful! I’m back to the joy of running, and so grateful for that, now more than ever.

And guess what’s the best news of all! Santa heard my wish and I’m getting an ElliptiGO for Christmas! My parents have always been extremely supportive of me and my training, and they knew how much it would mean to me to have an ElliptiGO for those cross-training sessions. I can hardly wait to head out to Hermosa Cyclery again this week to pick out my very own Green Machine (yes, I’ve already chosen the color and named the ElliptiGO).

So please be sure to count your blessings, set aside a rainy day fund, and send some good thoughts Mike’s way in his search for a new job.

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