One Week Left before my first 10k

I realized this morning that my 10k race will be in one week. I'm-freaking-out. Mainly because I have not been training as well as I should. I only got to run ONCE this week and it was a simple 2 mile loop just to make sure my leg was ok after last weekends 6.5 mile run/ foot injury.

My foot felt 90% better the next day and felt a little tender but otherwise good by Monday. So I ran on Tuesday and it went fine.

However I didn't get to run again at all this week. I got to do small hikes during work sure, and I got to try out a belly dancing class on Thursday so at least I haven't been completely idle this week but still.

I'm going to just have to do my best next Sunday. I'm going to try my best to get multiple runs in next week before the race but I don't think I'll be running 6 miles straight again until race day. (It's not really recommended to over-exert yourself right before a race anyway.)

I suppose that's not a bad plan. Plus this race is mainly to get me moving. Get me motivated. I'm thinking that I'll try this race, see how it goes, and then sign up for a new 10k later next month to get better.

Maybe by May I can sign up for a half marathon and try that out.

So I suppose in the end I'm just going to wing it. Honestly that's EXACTLY how I do everything. 


"Hmmm, I don't really know much about this job. Let's wing it!"
or
"I didn't really study for this test... Aw well let's wing it!"

Yeah. That's me all over.

Every once in a while I get small pointers from my co-workers and believe it or not they've helped. I suppose I should thank them... and ask for more tips!

Wish me luck next week!

Nervously enthusiastic

-w0rld

Running 6.5 miles... and an injury.

Today was the day. I was finally going to be able to have the time, the motivation and the plan to run 6 miles non-stop as part of training for the 10k race I signed up for at the end of the month.

I got one of these suckers.

I waited a few hours in the morning, had breakfast, chatted, and used the facilities. I put on my new sports bra, old sports shirt, over shirt and slacks. I laced up my running shoes grabbed my phone and it's new arm band I got at Target a week or so ago. I set Pandora radio on "Club Music and was ready to go. My run on Wednesday helped me find a new loop that would take me around for 4.6 miles. All I had to do after that was do the 2 mile loop I've gotten used to and TA DA! I'd complete a 10k run! More than that actually.

It was a great plan. I'd run 6 miles before but I had to stop after the first 2 miles last time because I don't know about you but running makes me have to visit the little girls room like you can't believe. It's annoying, uncomfortable and a hassle. I'm learning to work around that body fluke. But anyway the first time I ran 6 miles a few weeks ago I had to do a potty break after 2 miles and then complete the next 4 miles. So I ran 6 miles but I had to stop.

Yeah, maybe one day right? LOL

This time I wasn't stopping. It was interesting because most of the run was going to be on pavement but there is an almost 2 mile stretch next to a highway. I found out that there is a horse trail parallel to the highway and I figured it would be a better, safer route to take than have to move to let cars pass every five minutes. It was good because I didn't have to worry about traffic but I am NOT used to trail running and although I've done some of that stretch once or twice before that horse trail always changes with weather and erosion so I had to be very careful of where and how I stepped.

After the two mile trail running stretch I headed back to camp down a curvy trail, made it back to my starting point and kept going. I was going to do another, smaller 2 mile loop to finish my 6+ miles.

I had to motivate myself to keep going on that last stretch but I did it. I finished my jog in 1hr and 28 minutes. Most of that time was spent either watching where I was stepping, day dreaming about cooking or enjoying the view of all the gorgeous ranch houses I passed along the way. But when I finally stopped and sat down, relieving my feet of my weight I was able to feel my feet and legs throbbing. Talk about pounding the pavement. A minute later I started feeling a piercing pain in my left arch. "Aaah sh**" was all I could say to that.

Right about there, yes. 

This wasn't the first time I'd felt a bit of pain in my left arch. I figured the last time that I stepped wrong during a hike and my foot had swelled up. I had iced it and elevated it and eventually the pain went away. So today when I felt my left arch hurt, and as the minutes continued the pain got stronger and stronger, I knew I was in trouble.

By the time I finished stretching, went back to the house and took off my shoes my left foot was in agony. My first instinct is to use 'arnica' and massage it. But I don't have 'arnica', don't even know what it's called in English, and my foot was in too much pain for me to want to touch it.

Eventually, after google-ing foot cramps, texting my mom, and feeling my foot out I left my room and hopped to the fridge where I knew we had ice packs. My roommates gave me suggestions and one of them handed me a book called Fix you Feet. I gratefully accepted everything, wobbled back to my room, elevated my foot, put on the ice pack and opened the Foot book to heel and arch pain.

Gotta love it. 

Eventually after putting on and taking off the ice pack and stretching my foot to localize the pain I realized I was starving. I needed to get up to cook lunch and take some Advil. (I learned the hard way that you can't take Advil with an empty stomach so I NEEDED to eat something before I could indulge in pain killers.) So I wrapped my foot up and headed to the kitchen.

I heated up tomato soup, added garlic, garlic salt, oregano, baby spinach and slices of grilled chicken. I had to limp run to the smoke alarm to turn it off because apparently my kitchen doesn't appreciate the smell of smokey garlic cooking. I had to call the Fire department and tell them it was a false alarm, but finally I got to sit and eat.... and take Advil. LOL

Now I'm in bed with my wrapped foot slightly elevated and the pain killers are taking effect. In a few hours I'll inspect the damage and I might add a hot press.

I'm a little bummed I got hurt but I'm hoping that the foot will get better soon and that it mainly had to do with over exertion and lack of hydration on my part (I definitely didn't have any water on this run, and it was a warm sunny day too.)

Do I regret running this far. Not at all. I'm actually ecstatic that I was able to finish such a long run. This is the farthest I've ever run non-stop EVER! I know now that I have to take care of my feet if I'm planning on continuing this running regime. I really hope that by tomorrow my foot is better. I need to keep training to be ready for my 10k at the end of the month.

Wish me luck and remember to take care of your feet!

love
-w0rld

Non-Weigh In/ An epic race and familiar faces

Good Morning and Happy Monday! I've had a long eventful week, and at the same time a very lazy week. My numbers show that pretty well this morning.

Measurements:

Hips: 48.75 inches (+0.25 inches)
Waist: 45.25 inches (+0.25 inches)
Arm: 14.75 inches (same)
Thigh: 26 inches (same)
Calf: 17 inches (+0.5 inches)

I am sadly  not surprised at these numbers though I had hoped to maintain just a little more this week.

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Achievement(s): Last week was very lazy food and exercise wise and yet it was very eventful otherwise. My results show that.

Water: I drank over 50 oz of water about 4/7 days the rest of the time I drank enough but I found myself pretty dehydrated.

Calories: I stopped and re-started counting throughout the week, although I tried my best to stay away from grains and try more paleo friendly varieties. I'm trying to slowly wean myself and it's going.. well slowly.

Monday: 1690
Tuesday: 1950
Wednesday: ?
Thursday: 2038
Friday: 1958
Saturday: ?
Sunday: 1683

Although it may seem like I didn't do too badly, the type of food I was eating, and the little things I might have added the days I didn't count pretty much added up. Gotta be more accountable.

Strength Training: The main strength training I might have done is using my muscles on Monday when I finally climbed our climbing tower. It was an amazing day and I definitely felt some muscles I didn't even knew I had. Other than that, on Saturday I decided to walk over to our archery range and practice my form. Let's just say I need a lot of work but it's not bad. My arms however really felt the pull I was giving them. LOL

Cardio: Lazy, lazy week. Most of the cardio I ended up getting was part of work, and very little was on my own.

Monday: I climbed a 60 foot tower.
Tuesday: Short uphill hike
Wednesday: -
Thursday: 3 mile hike and 30 minutes of cardio dancing
Friday: 3.1 mile jog and 1.5 hours of dancing
Saturday: 1 mile hike
Sunday: 2 mile fast walk

On Monday and Tuesday I was still tight and sore from the epic hike I had the weekend before. It limited my activities tremendously. On Wednesday, although no longer sore I had grown accustomed to being lazy and didn't end up doing anything. On Thursday we ended up having our long hike we have with the kids and it felt great. On Friday I FINALLY got off my ass and decided to go for a jog. It was slow and unsteady but it was done and I was glad I did it.

On Saturday I was lazy again but got up long enough to accompany my co-worker to do some trail blazing. He would bring the big loppers and cut branches from an old hiking trail we have near our camp. My job would be to follow him and get rid of all those cut branches. After a while I developed a nice tossing form. We ended up staying out until about dusk and had to figure out how to get off the hill, without a trail, in the dark. Nice!
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On Sunday, oh Sunday, my co-workers had a race in Palm Springs. They were a relay team and it was awesome. I was not part of the relay team but I instantly assigned myself to be the cheerleader/ support group.

We got there right before 7 a.m. The start was there and there were tons and tons of people.

My co-worker who started the race was so fast I didn't get a chance to take a picture of him as he rode off so instead I took a picture of the giant troop of people going around the corner after the start. Crazy!

After the first relay tag exchange I suddenly see someone else zoom by that I recognize. "David, it's David!" An old family friend. I instantly call his wife and she's in Palm Springs too! Just around the corner from me. So I literally RUN to where she is and end up catching up with her as she helps the racers hydrate  in one of the water stations.

small world!

After running around like crazy the race ends and my co-workers won in their division! We wait and lounge in the grass while we wait to receive their first place prize. Here the overall male winner and female winner of the half marathon shake hands. What amazing people!

Although I wasn't running in this race, just being around this event, and meeting people, cheering and running in to old friends (who are an inspiration themselves) really got me pumped up. I will never regret getting off my ass and allowing myself to enter this world. I really love it. I love how happy people seem despite how tired they are. I love seeing how active people are, how healthy people look and how they bring their families with them. I love looking at all the different ages, sizes, and types of people at these events. I get a kick of their outfits and love it when they run with their baby strollers. It's amazing.

Now I have to start training so I can join in the next race; which brings us to....

Goals:  It's time to stop lazying around. I'm going to get stricter in my diet and start training for my 10k in March. I have never run that far. I want to start getting used to it and not kill myself during the race. When I talked to my old friend she reminded me of something, "It's not about the time or winning, it's about having fun and going for it." I completely agree. So I won't be worried about how fast or slow I am. I just want to run in this race and do a good job. I can do this! I have to start now... especially because I really want to do a half marathon in May. LOL

Have a great week!

love
-w0rld

My COASTAL 5k January 28, 2012

Yesterday morning I woke up around 5:45 a.m. nervous yet ready to run my second 5k. I decided to spend the night at my friends house since he lives about 15 minutes away from the L.A. beach that would host the race. I got ready silently, ate a toaster waffle, had some water and by 6 a.m. I went outside to do a practice jog around my friends block. I wanted to warm up but also wanted to feel my outfit for anything annoying or distracting and make any necessary adjustments.

By 6:30 I was ready to go, woke up my friends with a morning greeting and received sleepy "good luck's" in return. I chuckled gratefully out the door.

When I arrived at the beach parking lot sunrise was at it's finest.

I stretched and walked over to the registration tables to pick up my number and T-Shirt. I was happy they had the right size for me. I really liked the long sleeve cotton shirt.

The morning was chilly and I wasn't sure if the weather would warm up enough for me to not need some sort of sweater so I put off pinning on my number and decided to power walk/jog the beach strip while I waited for 8:00 a.m. and the start of the race.

This wasn't the road we would be running on but the road crossing the actual beach. 

Me early in the morning as I power walk the beach in wait for the main event.

By this time I wasn't very nervous and I was happy seeing people coming, meeting, greeting and registering. Although I didn't recognize anyone I had a lot of fun watching all the different kinds of people; different ages, different sizes, different nationalities, people with dogs, people with strollers, pregnant, wrinkled, short, long, athletic and not.. etc. All this people watching kept me from getting angsty but I couldn't help taking this picture of the infamous finish line. LOL

"I will be crossing you soon enough my friend, and it will be glorious!"

By 7:45 a.m. the parking area was packed. There were hundreds of people there waiting for the start of the 5k and/or waiting for the 5k to commence so they could get ready for the 10k.

By this time my family showed up and I was excited.

Mom and Grandma there to support.. and hold my camera!

Soon after meeting up with family I had to leave to the start of the race up the hill from the finish line

Heading toward the start of the race. You can see the start by the tent on top of the hill.

I decided to hang in the middle of the giant crowd and to the right. From my experience in my last race I knew now that there would be a lot of people passing me in the beginning and I didn't want to be in the way. I also didn't want a lot of people in my way as I knew I would slowly (but surely) start to pass others as time progressed.

The race was a big loop along the main road above the beach. It was a little bit of a tease because looping back I could see the finish line coming closer but I had to do a long round-a-bout and then run down a ramp before heading toward the actual finish.

By the time we rounded and headed down the hill the man that I had been keeping track of and eventually catching up to, fell behind me as I picked up my pace for the last half mile. I started keeping step with this awesome and fluorescent-ly dressed woman by the time I saw my family cheering me on near the last stretch.

Go Elina Go!

Right after zooming past my cheerleading squad I spotted the 3 mile marker and knew it was time to start gunning it. By this time I was speaking my simple mantra out loud "Keep going." Breath "Keep going." Breath "Go." Breath "Go." Breath "Go." Let me tell you it helped!

I start to pick up the pace the second I see the 3 mile marker in yellow.

 I'm sweating, I'm breathing hard and I'm running. Not jogging or 'trotting', I'm running. I cross the finish line.

Crossing the finish

I look at my time and my mother comes running up to me yelling the number; "34 minutes and 20 seconds Elina!" I beat my race time by 1 minute and 10 seconds. I happily yet tiredly rejoice

Yay!

As I'm hugging my dad we're asked to pose for their website, so we do.

Happy day~

We spend some time going around the booths and looking up the up coming spring races and then I spot the result sheets. So I go and find my name.

-I finished 173rd in a race of I don't know how many.

- I finished in 18th place in my age division

-I crossed the finish line at 00:34:21 

-My pace was 00:11:04 which the best time I've had...ever!

I put on my race shirt and take one last accomplished picture by the beach before we head out and meet up with friends for lunch in West Hollywood. What a great day!

I did it!

You can too.

love
-w0rld

My First 5k!

I woke up yesterday morning at around 5 a.m. I wanted to get a quick walk/jog in before we even left the mountain to get my body moving and the juices flowing before race time.

It had snowed the night before (the first snow of the season!) and it was still pitch dark. I put on my layers and my new thick gloves on and started a power walk/trot. The stars were so gorgeous and the snow covered Jeffry pine trees looked so beautiful in the moon light I couldn't get over it. After a small loop around the horse pasture I came back and got ready for the race.

I told myself I was going to leave my bed hair for support.

My bed hair. Yes I know, it looks like my regular hair. Nice right? LOL

Eventually the house woke up and by 6:30 a.m. we were driving down the mountain and to Palm Springs. The race started at 8:00 a.m. at the high school track and went around the block. We got there with plenty of time and checked in. I got my number, my bag of goodies and a T-shirt. My co-workers and I all went for a quick warm up jog right before the race and I still wasn't nervous. I was sure I would make it to the finish line. I just didn't know how long it was going to take me.

My co-workers (minus 1) right before the race. The mountains where I live in the background.

We lined up and I gave my camera to our boss who came with to support us. Once the gun was shot we were off and three out of the 5 of us were out of my eyesight before I could blink. I quickly realized there was no way I was going to catch up to any one of them and settled to my pace. 

I can't remember exactly what song I had in my head but eventually I tried to keep time with a runner in front of me and came up with a "1, 2, 3, 4" pace. 

Right around the 1 mile mark when I was finally getting a good pace going. :)

Soon that person slowed down and I passed them. By the time I'd finished the first major loop I suddenly realized I was repeating a mantra the whole time-Elina style;

"You-can-do-it. Oh-yeah. You-can-do-it. Al-right." Repeat. LOL

My pace picked up a little bit by the end and I finally passed the person I had been following for most of the race. In the last tiny stretch I gunned it and sprinted like CRAZY to the finish line.

Gunning it. The guy with the mic at the finish line even commented on it. "Whoa! Look at her go!" He he.

I finished the 5k race at 35 minutes 18 seconds. My best time EVER!

The whole way I had support. Our boss (who took all these pictures) met us at different intervals in the race and was able to catch a lot of our moments. By the time I got to the finish line my other co-workers were also at different ends of the track cheering me on and I never felt so grateful for support in my entire life. It was AWESOME~

The entire Pathfinder crew. My boss is the guy with the skirt. Gotta love it!

I finished the race, hugged everybody and posed for pictures. I was already ecstatic with my timing and finding out that one of my co-workers actually got 2nd out of ALL the racers. But it got better. I soon found out that in our age division not only did the two guys in my crew win 1st and 2nd place but us three girls won 1st, 2nd and 3rd (I was third.)!

So not only did we have a great time but we all got medals!

                                  

Over all it was one of the best experiences. I'm mainly excited about my time and I KNOW I can do better than that. I admit my eyes peeled in surprise at the timer as I zoomed by. I couldn't believe the time. 

It was great. I will always remember the 5th of November, 2011 

"Remember, remember the 5th of November..."

LOL

Have a great week every one!

love

-w0rld