Ops

I did one of the stupidiest things in this training cycle today.
I did my long run - 9 miles. One day after my hard workout yesterday. And I knew that 9 miles would be a close call for the ITB but it went ok. Although I felt tingling at the end, I do not feel anything now.
I had a 6 miler and a 9 miler planned for this week and since I will be in a new place on Fr, Sat and Sun and I do not know whether there are any trails (I am not running on a road!!!) and I do not want to end up doing 9miler on a 100m grass stretch. I can do 6 miles back and forth (maybe) but not 9.

So 9 miles today and 6 miles and 1 small work-out during the weekend.

And I really need to get back on eating-right track. I have been eating fancy food past week but most of that was just crap without any nutritional value (eating cashew nuts and Starbursts for dinner is no good, even I know that.) So back to eating right!

Everything is good

I did the workout in the morning and as far as I can tell no ITB problem.
I have not even fell any tingling today (yet. I know it is only noon...), which is great. So seems it was just a false alarm on Saturday morning.

Although ITB feels good, I feel blah.
Now I know why I liked 1k repeats so much (although I have suspected it for a long time)- it is because I have always done them slowly (that's also the reason why I always managed to hit my paces), not at my true 5k pace, so it was easy for me. According to my time from last Sunday, my 5k pace for 1k is around 3:47, and I have done my workouts at 3:53-55pace and then usually hit negative splits to run a bit faster.
Therefore, past two weeks when I did my workouts at 3:45 pace were HARD. Really. But that's what is going to help me progress, right?

Today I did
4k sub-tempo at 4:19ish pace (17:17) and then 5x1k w/ 2min rest (I cheated on the last one because it was just too hard).
I did 3:44, 3:44, 3:44, 3:43, 3:42. Before the last one, I did not jog for 2 min, I walked 200m to the start so it was 3min break.
First 2 repeats went ok, pretty easy but then it started to get harder and harder. Both my legs and arms got tired. (I should start to do some arms exercises. When I was younger we would do 1minute "arm drills". 1min circles with one arm, then change, then both arms, then movement you do while running and so on. Maybe it will help.)
And the 4th and 5th repeat- I was working hard on those.
Times are faster probably not because I ran faster but because it was very windy on straight sections of the track and after 3 repeats I decided to change my start so I run 3x with the wind and only 2x against the wind during those 2.5 laps. Or maybe I ran faster:) Because there was this guys that little started before me and I told myself to catch him and I did and then he stayed with me, so we pushed each other. Too bad it was the last repeat. We could have run together.

Conclusion: 1k repeats are not my favorite workout anymore. I will choose something easier as my favorite workout.

Short update: I am going to run tomorrow

I do not know what the deal was on Saturday. It really looks like it was shoes-induced. Stupid shoes! If only I could get a note from a doctor that I cannot wear anything but sneakers. That way I could wear sneakers all the time, even to work where business casual is required...

ITB feels alright, like usual, not too bad not too good so I am going to run tomorrow. I told my coach but have not received any response to that. She was either too horrified by the idea and now she thinks I am a lost case and does not want to have anything to do with me anymore or she thinks it is an obvious choice and it does not deserve a comment:) Or she just lets me choose since it is my leg. I suspect it is a combination of number 1 and 3.

I have not had any problem (and only very occasional tingling, like 1-2 a day) since that scary Saturday morning. I really got scared. Because I am trying hard to keep ITB happy and then suddenly that.

I do not think it will get worse if I run. So tomorrow early morning it is a workout time! I have 3 workouts next week (2 hard ones, 1 easy-peasy) and since I am working till Tuesday night and going to Hawaii on Thursday (I have probably mentioned this here on my blog like 10x, but I do not care. I am excited!), I need to do one workout on Monday so I can fit in with work and travels.

And I have not ridden my bike for 2 weeks now. Of course I ride it to school and to work but it is not the same as doing long weekend rides. And I am not going to ride it next weekend (Hawaii) or the weekend after (race) or the weekend after (Thanksgiving, my sis is here). I can ride the weekend after that and then next weekend is a race and then one more free weekend for bike (if I do not sell it by then). Wow, it seems I have only 2 weekends (maybe even only 1:((() for riding a bike before I leave on Dec 20th! Shoot! That's not good.

ITB!!!!!!! Keep your fingers crossed

I woke up this morning to an easy 6miler before I head to work. And as I was walking around I realized that the ITB hurts with every single step. That just made me wanting to cry and really bummed.
I knew that the race on Sunday, which led to 9miles on a road, then the easy run on Monday and the workout on Tuesday might have been little too much for my poor ITB, although it did not hurt during running, not at all. I just felt tingling in the area throughout the day, not the whole day just for short moments. Therefore I have been extra careful, stretching and rolling every day. So WTF?!?

But this morning it really hurt. So I decided to skip the run of course. I was contemplating going for a short bike ride but no. I juts want to rest it.
I stretched, rolled and iced and now it is ok. No pain, nothing. Rolling really helps a lot, everytime I feel something in that area I try to use foam roller and it gives me an instant relieve.

It seems that I really cannot wear anything other than sneakers. I was wearing different shoes yesterday so that might be a problem. They are pretty good shoes so I do not get it. But I am almost sure it is the shoes.
So I will try sneakers today although I am not sure whether boss at work will allow it. Because I do not have one of those "fashion" sneakers, only running-style sneakers. I can wear jeans, that's no problem, it is pretty casual market but sneakers not sure...

Even if it feels ok during the day, I do not think I am going to run today. Too scared. I will run tomorrow if I think it will not cause any trouble. 1-2 days off will not kill me. (or so I hope at least)

Mile repeats- my new favorite?

I love 1k repeats. Now sure why. Probably because it is not too fast and I usually run them at 5k pace, so it is a comfortable pace.

Today I did my second session of 5xmile @ 6:20-30 w/ 1min rec. And loved it. Now I cannot decide between 1k and mile repeats:)
I was working the whole morning until 3:30pm and then had to run to class until 7pm so I did not get to track until around 7:20pm. Way too late but better than never. I was not sure how the workout will go because I was already tired from standing the whole day or at least that's what I thought.
So I decided to start closer to 6:30 pace and see how I feel. And I felt awesome. Easy, it felt like a jog, really, the whole time.
6:27, 6:26, 6:25, 6:20 ( I wanted to do 6:24 so I decided to give me a little cushion and it did not work out:)), 6:22.
Great workout. I am not sure, are these supposed to feel hard at the end? Because they did not, I could have continued at this pace for couple more repeats.

But I think that 1k repeats are still my favorite because miles are just too long and uneventful (ok, 1ks are not eventful neither but at least they are shorter).

This and next week are going to be crazy. I am working the whole day Friday, Sat and Sunday like 8am-8ish pm, then most of the day on Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday the film market is over, so it will be a normal day and on Thursday I am off to Hawaii!!! I cannot wait.

Work is fun and get to eat fancy food. Although those film people must know something I do not because I would not buy any of those films we are selling. Most of them are more like artfilms and I prefer "normal" movies- no thinking, just bad guys versus good guys and they lived happily ever after at the end. I definitely could not be a film seller for that company. You really must like that stuff. I was more on a technical side when I did my internship there so I did not have to be enthusiastic about movies. But some of them were/are cool and I liked them.
So far I have seen only one movie at the market because I do not have time to see more but I hope to go to see some over weekend.
Also when the company went to Cannes, everyone went only me, a poor intern, had to stay in the office in Paris and take care of emergencies:(

Desperate times call for desperate measures

American Film market start tomorrow and I start working there this afternoon (between classes and from early morning to late night) so I had to take an advantage of "last" free morning for workout.

4k sub-tempo + 5x800 at my newly found 5k pace w/90sec jog rec.
I warmed up, stretch and started the sub-tempo. Something however felt off...After 400m I realized that I forgot to do strides. What an idiot I am!?! Sub-tempo was hardish but I blamed it on missing strides. Did it in 17:21. 3min full rest and on to 800s.

Man, that was hard. First one went ok at 3:01. I was thinking, come on you just did 5k at that pace, you can do couple 800s. Wait, I JUST did 5k. I wasn't probably recoved enough but I had to get it done today.
Second and third went well, both @ 3:00.
Then it started to get interesting and HARD. I was working my ass off on those last two 800s. 2:59, 2:57
Then did a long and very slow cool down untl I felt legs started to loosen up.

And I was trashed at the end.

Then I was a slacker and did not do swim work-out. That would be way too much on me today. My usual swimming buddy had a meeting so could not come so I just swam easy 1.5k. And it felt great, I was surprised! However, every time I pushed of the wall I was like, OMG, my quands are sore!

I am off to class and then work:(

26 on 26 not happening, Happy B-day to ME and some cool pictures to show you

Yeah, I turned 26 today. So I am officially on the wrong side of 25:)

Obviously I am not running any marathon today, so no 26 on 26. I will just wait 16 more years and then do 42 on 42. And it will be Sunday so it should not be a problem to find a race to run.

You know what the best part of my birthday is? All Halloween candy went on sale today. I already got some.

And here are some cool photos I wanted to show you: (I do not have any photos when I was a little baby because I was born 2 months before due date (I weighted hardly 6 pounds and was 18.5 inches long) and apparently I looked horribly so my parents did not take any pictures of me. I think that most babies do not look that nice for first couple weeks but imagine a small crumpled not fully developed baby and then that baby gets pneumonia when 3 months old and looses even more weight to sub-5 pounds...But I still turned out pretty good:) And I know this is not funny, at least it was not back then but now I find it amusing. I think I was a dream baby of all parents because I would sleep the whole night from the day they were allowed to take me home. My parents have lived with my grandparents for first couple months and because I did not scream in night, my grandmother used to sit in front of my parents' bedroom and cry because she was sure I died in my sleep and my awful parents were having a good night sleep by my corpse. I told you. Not funny.)

Here are those pictures:

My own private pool:) Nowadays kids would not consider a bucket filled with water a private swimming pool but as you can see I had a blast. (I also used to ride a small kids bike that my grandfather found somewhere behind their garden. He brought it home, my dad repaired and painted it and off I went. My mom also used to give me a bone from chicken thigh with a bit of meat on it instead of lollipops. Bucket as a pool, a junk bike and bones? Don't think anything bad of my family though. This was completely normal (and candy is BAD) 26 years ago in a small village of less than 1000 people in Czechoslovakia. Or so I hope:)



Start of my running career. This picture cracks my sister up.


Me and my little sister. You see that sisters' love?


Me and sis playing in our parents' first car! (I am surprised my dad let us in:)



I do not have any more baby pictures on my computer to amuse you:(

Training related: I swam 1.2k during lunch break and am off for an easy 6 mile run.

Triple success!!!!!!!!!!!! (5k RR)

Goal A - check (Check out my previous post with goals)
Sub-19 - check SURPRISE! (Ok, I was secretly day dreaming about sub-19, but you know those dreams....)
Overcoming whimpiness - check

Woo-hoo!

Chip time: 18:56.4 (6:07 per mile pace, 3:47 per km)
Gun time: 18:59.9 (fhuuu, so close)
Garmin time: not sure since I did not stop it when I crossed the finish line
Garmin 1k approximate splits:
3:51
3:42
3:42
3:52
3:51
I won my age group (25-29) and was 2nd woman overall (1st ran 18:46) and 26th person overall. Although I do not care about this, I cared about my time.

I slept pretty well, although I had hard time falling asleep, I went to bed at 10ish and did not fall asleep until midnight. I was not thinking about the race, but other important things that are going on and plus I cannot fall asleep unless I trash/tire myself throughout the day and since it was pre-race day I did not do anything.

Got up at 7am, ate tortilla/peanut butter/banana wrap (when an Olympic gold medalist says it is good, I believe him)and was off at 7:30 for 9am start.
I had little trouble with my bike lock. It got stuck but thankfully after I unlocked the bike.
Got to the start little before 8am.

(I actually picked up my packet last night, I did not know it was possible but I received an email that people can come and get their bib numbers, so I did that and I also rode the course so I knew what to expect.
And it is a good thing that I did because I would have been screwed because it was pretty hilly so I knew how to strategize to make up for time lost on uphills. It was a loop, so whatever distance we went down we also had to go up)

Warmed up for around 25min, stretched, did strides until I felt ready to go. Coach told me to warm up well and to do some longer strides at race pace. And it really worked. I felt loose and ready to go.

I have not realized this but there were a lot of people, definitely over 1000! But a lot of them were walkers. Because this was a fundraiser for pancreatic cancer.
I squeezed into 3-4 line from the start line with fast guys:)

Race was very well organized except for the start when we started over 10min past the official start time because there were people still registering last minute. So were were just standing there for over 10min...

Eventually off we went.
1st k: long, long, long appx 800m uphill. Not steep but long. At one point my average pace was 4min so I freaked out a bit because it was way slower than I wanted it to be. But last 200m of the first k were flat, so I tried to make up the lost time and eventually went through 1st k in 3:51. Right on plan.
2nd k: short maybe 150m uphill, then 150m flat and rest downhill. I let go on the downhill (because I knew that the last 1.5k close to finish is uphill so I had to make up time NOW). 3:42. Cool. I felt pretty good. Although some negative thoughts started to creep in at the beginning of this k. But I kept telling to myself, you pussy, you have not even done 2k and you are already starting to think you are tired? It is all in my mind. I managed to push through these thoughts. In my last 5k race this was the time I started to slow down. Of course I was not in a good shape back then but I persuaded myself that it is hard already and I slowed down although it was not hard. But no slowing down this time.
3rd k: Some short steep downhills and some short steep uphill, then little bit of flat, then uphill and then not so step downhill. Here I started to feel my arms getting tired. It was not my legs, those felt pretty good the whole time, but my arms, ouch. Again some negative thoughts at the end of 3rd k. I actually forgot about the whole "assessment thing" I wanted to do when I start to have doubts, I have never assessed how I felt, I just ran thinking about what a pussy I am if I quit. It really helped me to know what is head of me so I persuaded myself that it is only 2k to go, with one downhill, then looong uphill and then final sprint. I was this close to be like "whatever, just jog in", but no no no (I wanted to run the fast time, plus I am scared that my coach will dump me. She spends her free time preparing my workouts and therefore I would not be surprised if she tells to herself that I am just a waste of her time if I am not even trying hard). I did not feel too bad, it was a good effort though but not throwing up/passing out effort.
4th k: Little bit of downhill and then longish and pretty steep uphill - to get back to the same level we lost while going downhill before. It was hard. I felt I was just shuffling, but still managed 3:52 so I guess it was just my impression. Plus I knew I was close to the finish and that it will be a piece of cake once I get to the top and therefore this time I had no doubts I can finish strong.
5th k: I was told to run last 800ish as fast as I could. But 5k was still uphill at the beginning, then some flat, then short steep downhill, short steep uphill and last 300m flat to the finish. I knew this so I knew I could not run very fast this last k. I decided to just keep a good effort on those up/downhills until the final stretch and then run those 300m as fast as I can. And I did. I pushed hard, my legs were starting to itch a bit but 300m is not that far, I knew I can suffer for 1min.
I have not looked at my pace that much during the race, I just kept track of my 1k splits when Garmin beeped. So I was not sure where I stood time-wise before that final 300m stretch. But I overcame the temptation to look at my watch and I just run for it. And it felt awesome!

When I finished I did not know my time. I knew it was under 19:10, but was I fast enough to break 19min? I knew I was close but was not sure until I saw the results! I was so stoked!!!! And still am.

Retrospectively, I kept a very good effort, but it was not too bad. I can definitely "suffer" like this again or even little bit more.
I am very glad I did not chicken out. Once I pushed through those 2-3 negative thoughts I had (at 2-3k)everything was good and felt controlled.
5k is pretty short. I like it:)

In total I did around 9miles on a road today. I have not run on road for this long since mid-June. I am stretching, rolling and icing like crazy to keep the ITB band happy. It did not bother me, although I had a "feeling" at the end of the cool down, it is just prevention.

Race strategy and goals

The only reason why I am writing this is because putting it in writing helps me to think the whole thing through. Plus it adds some extra accountability for the race. (Yes, even if only max 4 people read this I will still feel more accountable)

Goal A: (way too optimistic): sub-19:10
Goal B: sub-19:15
Goal C: sub-19:20
Goal D: sub-19:30
Anything above 19:30 should make me just forget about running and move to other things. But I know myself and it will not have this affect on me because I love running way too much.

I have never done this much preparation for a race strategy:) (Although I have not seen the course, only mapped it on mapmyrun and I have no idea how many people will come, last year there were more than 1000 people but a lot of them were walkers and I do not know how it will be organized so maybe there might be some weaving, but I promise I will do my best to start in front)

First 1k should be a very slight uphill. Then next 2.5k slight downhill. And last 1.5k slight uphill. (Well, the profile was in miles and feet so honestly, I have no idea whether uphills are indeed slight or not because my brain can't process it being not in metrics)
My plan is to run around 3:51/k for first 1k (6:09 pace) and then try to pick it up for downhill to 3:48-49 range for next 2.5k. And than just hang on and run HARD for the last 1.5k and do not run slower than 3:52 pace. That would give me sub-19:10 time.

But being as whimpy as I am (and having no idea how to pace myself outside track) that is too optimistic. More realistic would be start at around 3:51, then run 3:50 pace for downhill part and then just try to hang on and not slow down past 3:53 pace. That will give me sub 19:20 time.
According to my work-outs I should be able to run sub-19:20 no problem. And I am going for it!!!

That's the plan. I am going to write this down on a piece of paper so I can revise it before the race starts. Problem is that you do not have public access to grounds where the race is taking place so I cannot check out the course. But I am biking there tomorrow and hope to do the loop on bike so see how it is.
I am also wondering whether there are miles marked on ground or not. I doubt it, but it would be nice in case my Garmin dies half way through. But wait, if it dies I will not be able to see my splits anyway because I am not dorky enough to wear both Garmin and a watch. I cannot wear watch only, because I am a lousy pacer and checking splits only on mile marks will not help me.
I am going to prepare my pacing chart in both k paces and mile paces:)
I am thinking about this too much.
I do not remember the last time I was planning a race this much. It was probably back in high school. And even then I did not run by paces, I just ran as fast as I could.
I have not thought about the marathon this much. I just went there, ran and went home. But it will not work for 5k race, it is too short to correct the mistakes from the first half in the second half.

Hawai, Vegas, beach volleyball and...a run of course

Wow, what an eventful day!!!

I booked a flight to Hawaii for Veteran's Day weekend (Th-Sun)!!!! I am excited. So originally I wanted to go to either SF or Seattle to use my Delta miles because I do not think I will ever have chance to use them since for now it seems I am going back to Europe after I am done here:(
I do not have enough money to travel by car or bus so traveling by plane using miles is the cheapest way to travel for me. Sounds countra-intuitive but it is true.
Flights to SF, Seattle and Hawaii were the same price, $5 + miles. So for 5 bucks would not you go to Hawaii?

I am flying to Kona on Big Island airport and do not know yet what I will do there. I will either find a cheap hostel and chill out at beaches but I think that will not be fun. So I am thinking about doing Waipio to Waimanu valley backpacking trip. I can rent a backpack and tent and all that stuff very cheaply here at UCLA and just hike and camp, which will be cheaper than hostel and more fun.Or maybe rent a car and make a tour of the island from camp to camp and throw in easy hikes. This way I can both chill out at the beach and swim in a waterfall lakes. Awesome.
I have never thought that I will go to Hawaii and it suddenly happened. (Although I am sure I will regret this because I have 2 exams and 2 problem sets due the week after. Ah, WTH, who cares? With a bit of time management I can do it)

Then my sister is coming for Thanksgiving weekend and she wants to go to Las Vegas. So we will do that. Our parents have offered to pay this trip as our Xmas present. Cool but I still think that I am back to my bread and water diet that I did when I had to pay a rent for an apartment in Paris...

It is LA Film Market next week and I will be working there next week for a film sales company I used to do an internship with in Paris. It will be interesting and fun. Maybe I will meet a very important film producer or director and he will ask me to star in his next movie. Ok, that probably will not happen. Plus they will pay me:)

So this is how I spent my morning - planning all this.
And I did laundry as well. My grandmother would freak out if she knew that I put everything together. I just do not care about my cloths and plus why would I spend all that extra water and energy for multiple loads? So I always wash sneakers, underwear, t-shirts, black, blue, white, jeans. Everything together. And then when I go home and my mom sees my white t-shirts she is always like what have you done to those? Then I usually realize that they are not white anymore but more like grayish. So she washes them in a special whitening thing and they are like new again. And I can start my washing-everything-together thing over again.

In the afternoon I met some friends for beach volleyball. We had so much fun, played for about an hour.
I think that summer is back. I mean it was close to 25degrees!!! I can definitely get used to living in Cali, I love hot weather.

After I went to Barnes and Noble and read a book about running for a bit.

In the evening I did an easy 5 miler with 5 strides to get those fast muscle fibers aware that they are going to work hard on Sunday!
I have a day off tomorrow so will be little bored so I will probably write a post with my race goals.

I have found this very interesting article about progressive tempo runs. I hate tempo runs and suck at them but reading this make me want to do them. I know that everyone is different and no workout can be successfully applied to everyone but still, it might be worth to try it.

I do not like days like this

I want to keep legs fresh so I could not run, bike, swim or anything. So I should have time for other fun stuff like watching DVD, TV, read a book..., right?
But I had an exam this afternoon so I could not do any fun stuff because then I felt guilty that I was not studying.

But studying is boring and not fun. This was managerial accounting exam and I was economics major at college so most things were not new to me and if I have not learnt that stuff at college then there is no chance for me to get it into my brain now. But I still felt guilty if I was not studying. So I tried but was not really studying. I was like 15 min reading through my notes and then moved to my computer for few minutes but then I my guilt would kick in so I moved to studying again, did it for 30min, then decided to eat (because eating is a necessity and when I ate I did not feel bad about it), then 55min of studying, got bored so moved to computer or started reading a book and so on.

So I have spent the whole day being bored and feeling guilty and was crawling out of my skin.
If only I could have gone running or for a walk. But I could have not, because I had to "study".

Horrible day. I am glad it is over and that I have 5miles planned for tomorrow.

Grrrr

We lost our volleyball game again today! Makes me mad because we were playing pretty good and if we had concentrated little bit more and communicated better we could have won!
But we have not trained for a week so not surprising. People had midterms or other lame excuses so nobody was interested in practice. Some people need to get their priorities straight or be better at time management!


I also ran 5minles today. But alone, not with my usual (very slow) group:(


Tomorrow is a day off. I think my body will go to a shock. Thursday is usually work-out, weights, swim but tomorrow=nothing!
At least I will have time to study for the exam I have in the afternoon.

Mind is playing tricks but I am not falling for them

So last pre-race workout that I treated like a real preparation.

I was supposed to any combination of intervals @ 5k pace totaling 5k with jog rec of 1/2 the time between.

I decided to do 800, 1200, 1000, 1200, 800. I wanted to do longer stuff, just to give me more confidence (if it was going to work out. If I was going to fail the workout then obviously it will not be that great for my confidence...)
And I decided to strictly pace myself to see how that goes, no faster or slower. And I actually chose the best case scenario pace.
So I did 3:04, 4:37, 3:50, 4:36, 3:05. That's called THE consistency because each 400 split was 1:32+/- couple tenths of a second!

I tried to honestly assess myself during each of the intervals when I started to have doubts.
When I started to feel little bad (but honestly the work-out was not that difficult so I was not feeling really bad), I asked myself: Are your legs hurting/tired? NO. Is your breathing controlled? YES. Are you truly suffering? NO. (ok, my shoulders/arms were little tired because of leg-less swim yesterday). So it was all in my weak mind.
I need to learn not to assume that I feel bad and cannot run faster, because that's what I usually do in races. Well, I do not race that much but still. That's what I did in my last race and all through college.
It's all in my mind!!!

Another thing I have learnt is that I probably won't be able to race at my best-case-scenario pace because it is, well, too fast.
I have started this training only few months ago, so I cannot have a very high expectations (OMG, it looks I am already making excuses for failing...BAD BAD BAD).

Overall, I am satisfied with the workout. Legs felt tired last 100m of the second 1200. But then they did not feel bad on last 800. If only I could take a short break in the middle of 5k:)

I also brought my Gramin to use it for this workout because I will probably use it in race. I have never used Garmin during track workout. I used it 2x for intervals on trails and only 1x on track for (my first and so far only) 10k race and 1x in a 5k road/trail race in June. I do not use it very often. I used to use it a lot for long runs in France to figure out distances I run but now I just do my long runs on minutes usually.
But that stupid thing died after 1000m interval although the battery was 90% full in the morning. (However, I was expecting problems so I brought my watch also).
And it was showing 1.19k when it was supposed to be at 1.2k. But that's no surprise, these gadgets are not 100% accurate, especially not on track or for short distances.
So now I am not so sure about using it in race because it will probably die half way through anyway. But then how am I going to know my pace? Because I care about time not about place I finish in.
I will think about it later.


Then I did swim workout. I figured, race is in 5 days so I will have enough time to recover.
We did w/up 200, 3x100 on 2min, 100 rec, 5x50 on 1min, 100 rec, 3x100 on 2min, 100 rec, 5x50 on 1min, c/d 100.
Arms were killing me but I was actually faster on 100s than last week. I did them in 1:35-1:40min. Cool, I am progressing:)

Ran to class afterwards and almost fell asleep. Good thing it is an interesting class.

I am tired now. And hungry. And I have lots of school-related things to do for tomorrow and Thursday.

Mini taper

Yeah, it is true, even if your highest mileage is less than 40miles a week you still can taper for a race:) Which basically means that I will run only 30miles this week.

Isn't that sweet (and little pathetic)? But I know, I know, I cannot run more for maybe next month or two and then I can try to run more and see whether ITB makes its appearance.

It is actually pretty good that I am in taper mode, because then I have more time for school and this week is loaded (1 paper, 1 presentation, 2 problem sets, 1 mid-term). Not that I am taking advantage of that extra hour and fifteen minutes I get with running 10miles less...But I am telling myself that I have extra 75minutes if I needed them and it makes me feel better and less stressed.

So I swam only 1k today since I am in taper and did not use my legs that much to keep them fresh.
I have my last workout tomorrow (I checked the track today. Full length was open, I hope it will be open tomorrow as well because I am not sure about doing 25x200 as a pre-race work-out...)

I am talking about this as if I was racing a marathon trials at least. But com'n, it is my first "competitive" race in a while, so I can get excited (and nervous and worried).

Back to my usual

Sunday = brick
I have mentioned before that my roommate is a former cyclist. So she asked me to join her and her friends for a short ride today. Cool. At first I was little worried that they would leave me behind but she said that they were old and done with speed rides. So that re-assured me.
And ride was fun! Plus it is official, I suck at flats and am pretty good at climbs. My roommate wanted to do only around 35miles, so after they were done I continued to do 56 miles total (ok, I know, I am a pussy and should have done 80miler). She told me I should join some weekend riders because there is a lot of them in the area. Of course I expressed my concerns that I feel like an idiot on my poor little bike. But she said that it does not matter as long as I can keep up and it is not me who should feel bad but those people on Cervelos and Cannondales riding with me and me being able to stick with them on my Walmart bike:)
One funny anecdote: when we were leaving house she looked at my bike and was horrified and told me I should wash it (well, I know I should. You cannot see a color.)and she said she must give me a one-to-one maintenance workshop after she saw that the chain and cassette is covered with dirt and it is a miracle that I can still shift gears with that. Whatever...

I did 56miles, got home, changed to running gear, rode 1.5 mile to trail and did a 9 miler. Felt awesome! I do not know my pace because my stupid Garmin did not get charged overnight.
So total of 59miles bike+ 9miles run

And now 2 fun facts from yesterday at the Expo:
1, I was walking around and one girl came up to me and said: "Your legs are so toned! What do you do for that?" I was like, "hm, really?". And she said "yes, it looks great. What do you do?". Ok, isn't that what every girl wants to hear?:) I did not know what to say since it was kinda obvious being at the 1/2marathon expo...right? But then I figured she is here as well, so she runs as well. And if she does not think that her legs are getting toned enough by running, then she should do something different. I told her to bike.

2, Also I was at one of the booths and it is enough for me to say one word and everyone knows I am not an American because of my very cool accent. And this guy asked me where I was from and then asked me whether I was one of the invited elite runners. Cracked me up, but it is also what every runner would love to experience- being mistaken for an elite runner. I should have said yes, maybe he would have given me some free goodies:)

3, This is not funny, it is rather sad. Somebody gave chewable concentrated fruits and vegetables supplement tablets! OMG, is that where we are heading? No fruits and veggies but pills instead?? I can't believe that people eat that!


I had a little crisis today. Something got screwed up and it looked like I had only $100 to last me until end of December. Ok, I could probably pull that up, believe me, I can survive on $50/month (I think I did that for first 2 months when I was living in Paris until . But fortunately it got cleared up and I have little bit more.

Now that I am rich again (hahahahaha), I would like to make a trip somewhere. I have Delta miles and I do not think I will be ever able to use them, so I am thinking about going to SF/Sacramento or Seattle/Vancouver during Veteran's Day weekend for 4 days. I just cannot decide where.
Tickets cost the same, I have a special thing for renting a car where I pay only a car, I do not pay gas or insurance so I can rent a car in SF and drive to Sacramento (or rent in Seattle and make a trip to Canada) for only couple bucks. So I only need to pay for hotel really and I think I should take an advantage of that now because who knows where I will end starting in January.
I have not been to any of those cities, so any suggestions?