#run 2016

[justmissjewelz]

I’ve heard of balloon runs but never had a clue how it goes. Well, to my great luck I have received complimentary slots to the Avenue K Ballon Run 3.0 . Its happening this Sunday, just perfect to polish up some lost mileage (a darn good reason to run !)

  Balloon collection starts at 6.30am and flag off is 7.30am. There are 2 distances offered for this run; the 7km individual category and also 5km for family category. If you like to know more, the website is right here  . All runners will receive a sling bag and also the event tee, while finishers will be awarded a finisher medal and e-cert.

So please wish me (and the rest who will be participating in this event) all the best !!! I promise to share nice fuschia themed photos in here (since that’s the colour theme).

Just in case you have no clue where Avenue K is, its just across KLCC on Jalan Ampang.

  Yours in writing,

missjewelz

Avenue K (AK) Balloon Run 3.0 – This Sunday ! I've heard of balloon runs but never had a clue how it goes. Well, to my great luck I have received complimentary slots to the Avenue K Ballon Run 3.0 .

[ogtuboflove-blog]

Race Results

     Today has been a long day, but so much was accomplished. I only have the Sedro Woolley trail half marathon to talk about so this should be a relatively short update. Overall the race went better than expected. I even managed to get Haylee to come volunteer and help sign in the racers while I helped with the set up. It was an early morning for us, but I believe we both had a good day out there with everyone.     The race was definitely a smaller one and the competition was limited. There were a lot of great runners out there who put up some good times. I managed to run the half marathon in 1:26:59 with an average pace of 6:37/mile according to my watch. This was amazing for me. My original goal was to run it in 1:35:00 or less. I shattered my old personal record for that distance by 16 minutes! Even with this amazing performance from myself there was still someone faster than me. She ran a 1:25:00 half marathon. I kept up with her until about mile 9, but after that I just didn't have it in me to hold up the sub 6:30/mile pace she was running. I give her massive props. She had an amazing race. That means I came in 2nd overall and came in 1st place for males and also by technicality my age group.     The course was on the Cascade Trail. It is the same trail I used for the run to Concrete the other week. It is a nice flat gravel course that is an out and back run. It went by so quickly because of the pace I was running. The fun part of the run was where the creek had washed out some of the trail so for about 50 yards you were running through water. That was around mile 4.5 and mile 9.5 since it was an out and back run. It was actually refreshing running through the cold water. It also made the race feel a bit more like a trail race. Overall it was a flat fast course that I would use again if I was trying to set a personal record. I really look forward to running the Woolley Trail Run next year.     I am blown away by how well I did today. I couldn't even imagine running at the pace I did for the whole race this morning yet I managed to achieve it. It really helped having someone in front of me to chase. Now I know I need to keep preparing and put in some more effort and see if I can do even better at the Everett Half Marathon. If i get my overall time down to the 1:22:00 to 1:25:00 I could quite possibly take a top three finish overall there. as usual though that will depend on who shows up and how I feel that day. As of now I will be going into that race extremely confident and ready to set a new personal record. Happy running folks!

[ogtuboflove-blog]

A New Week And A Fresh Start

    It has been a while since my update, but the good news is not much has happened in my world. Wednesday I ran with the group again and had a great run. I took Thursday and Friday off as part of a more relaxed recovery week. I ended up going to Canada for the weekend with Haylee so i had an impromptu long run. I also walked a good distance with Haylee in Vancouver, but I wont count that in my weekly miles. Overall it was a good week, but it could have been a bit better.    Wednesday I decided to throw in an extra 2.3 miles before the group run to make up for taking Tuesday off. I really needed Tuesday off after the 21 miler and the previous days group run. My watch died during that little run so I don't know my pace, but I do know I was gone for about 15 minutes. The real run started with the running group and I put up some great numbers. It was a very hilly run and went on for 6 miles. It was almost all uphill for the first 3/4 of the run then downhill for the rest of the way in. It was a nice reward for all the uphill involved. I ran with Luis for the entire run and he pushed me to go faster than I expected to. We got faster as the miles added up. We finished with a strong sprint at the end to have an average pace of 6:52/mile over the 6 miles. It was my first training run at a sub 7 minute per mile pace. I was enthralled with that. It boosted my confidence and helped me break that mental barrier I was facing about my speed. I might have celebrated at the Brewery with the running group by having a few beers, but hey I earned those empty calories.     I ended up taking Thursday and Friday off to give my body a real chance to recover after pushing so hard for the past few weeks. I had every intention of running 14 miles on Saturday, but the idea of a romantic weekend get away with my wife won out. All I have to say is it was worth it and we had a great time. I still managed to find motivation to run Saturday morning in the hotels fitness center. So forgive me Father for I have sinned. I ran less than 14 miles and it was on a treadmill. I did however manage to throw on my running shoes and get a run in. I started out on the treadmill at a 7:15/mile pace and gradually bumped up to a 6:45/mile pace by the end. I finished the treadmill run in 1 hour and went 8.65 miles for an average pace of 6:58/mile if I did my math correctly. I then went back to the room showered and proceeded to explore Vancouver on foot with Haylee. I also rewarded myself with complimentary scotch from the hotel. The room we got came with a VIP club privileges and free booze was one of them. The booze probably negated the positive effects of my run, but hey I was on vacation.    The bad news now comes in. I managed to somehow aggravate my right knee on Saturday. By the end of the day I could not walk without a limp. With that occurring any chance of me running on Sunday was out the window. That brings us to today though. although my knee still hurt it was no where near the level it had been Saturday. So I went to the group run and I put in 2.3 miles before everyone else showed up. That was done at a 7:09/mile pace. It was a good warm-up and my knee didn't hurt much during the run which is a big plus. I took a quick 15 minute break while everyone showed up and I was off again. This time I was pushing myself from the beginning. It was a flat run with a smaller hill towards the end. I didn't reset my watch so the miles and average pace merged with my 2.3 mile warm-up. As the miles wore on I was getting faster. My fastest mile was done at mile 5 and was a 6:19/mile. That The hill during the last mile slowed me down to a 6:52/mile but I was still cruising with Luis right by my side. We sprinted it in as we always try and do and I finished with an average pace of 6:48/mile over 7.49 miles. Once again I ran fast and I wasn't ever really out of breath except for the end when we were sprinting. Overall it was a great run with great results.    Now its onto the stats for the previous week and the year to date. Last week I came in at 22.6 miles. It was less than I had hoped for, but I was focusing more on recovering from the 50 mile week. Since January 1st I have run 204.32 miles in a total time of 26:03:42. I am still well ahead of my average weekly mileage goal of 28 miles a week. This last week I focused less on my eating and weight loss to give my brain a break from restricting my diet so much. So I came in at 188 lbs again this week. That means I didn't lose any weight this last week, but the great news is I also didn't gain any. Overall I couldn't have asked for a better recovery week. I am going to keep the miles down again this week again to try and let my knee recover now. I also will be running the Sedro Woolley Trail Half Marathon this Saturday so I want to be rested going into it. My goal is to have 30 miles this week and after that I'll bump back up to 40. We are all caught up now and as always happy running!

[ogtuboflove-blog]

finishing up my 21 mile group run!

[ogtuboflove-blog]

Weekly Goal Update

   I have a lot to cover since I last wrote. I went on a short trail run to stay loose on Saturday. I had my long run on Sunday with Skagit Runners. I also ran on Monday with the running group again. I also want to update you on my stats for the year along with my weekly weigh in. It was a great weekend and Monday wasn't to bad either.

   Saturday Rachel and I decided we wanted to do a short 3 to 4 mile trail run to stay loose for the next days run. We also wanted to feel less guilty about sitting on our butts for the rest of the day. We decided to run on the Little Mountain trails. it was good weather, but the trails were rather muddy. It was slow going and we both don't know those trails to well. Overall it was a good casual run. It was my slowest of the year coming in at a 13:30 pace if I remember correctly. I know we went 3.45 miles which was perfect. I did manage to take us on the wrong trail which was super muddy and steep. It caused me to fall twice and scrape my knees up. Other than a little blood I was fine though. I learned my lesson. Invest in trail shoes for trail runs.

    Sunday was my longest attempted run since my failure at the Seattle Marathon. I though it was a 20 mile run, but it turned out to be 21 miles. I had Haylee drop me off at the trail-head off Fruitdale Road in Sedro Woolley so I could run to Annie's Pizza in Concrete. Rachel met me there to join me on the long run. It was nice because running for that distance can get lonely and boring sometimes. It is a win for her too because she gets some company and much needed training for her race she is training for. Rachel also brought her dog Willow. The nice part about this run was the fact that there was good company and pizza at the end.

    All three of us took off around 10:30 AM. It was tough going slower than we usually like to. We were trying to hold a 9:30/mile pace, bu that turned out to be a bit to slow for our liking and we ended up hovering around an 8:50/mile pace. Around mile four the trail was flooded and we had no choice but to run through it. Yay to squishy shoes for 18 miles! We stopped in Lyman to meet up with Chris and Craig. That gave us about a 5 minute break at 7.5 miles in. at that point I believe our average pace was 7:46/mile. now with a larger group we set off on our journey to Concrete. We all stuck together at about an 8:45/mile pace for about 4 to 6 miles. After that Chris and Craig fell into their target pace and Rachel and I kept our pace up. It was really smooth sailing for the rest of the run. I would say around mile 16 to 17 Rachel and I were both feeling the distance, but we held up really well. Willow made both of us look slow and lazy. Kevin met us at about mile 18. He had run a race the Orcas Island 25k the previous day so he was doing a 6 mile out and back as a recovery run. He naturally made Rachel and I pick up the pace and Rachel had to remind him every so often to slow it down. It was good entertainment. Around mile 20 we were averaging a 8:50/mile. Around there Steve and Analisa caught up to us from their 16 or 18 mile out and back. This caused me to pick up the pace for the last mile to push myself a bit. I kept up with them despite the pain from exhaustion and Rachel kept it consistent and finished strong not to far behind me. It was nice rounding the corner and seeing Haylee waiting for me taking pictures. It is nice having her support me with my hobby. My overall stats were 3:05:13 for 21.00 miles at a 7:48/mile average pace. That run made the pizza and company amazing. in an effort to keep it short though I will leave it at we had a great time hanging out with everyone afterward.

    Monday was a good run as well. I wasn't as sore as I predicted I would be, but I was definitely feeling the previous days run. I ran 5.45 miles with Luis and Kevin at a 7:38/mile pace. The course was pretty flat except for the little hill on Fir St. Needless to say I was extremely happy the run was over with when I finished. My legs were definitely telling me that I have done plenty of running by the time I finished.

   Overall the week as a great one despite the crazy hunger cravings. They have been in check a bit more so far this week, but the challenge is still there. Now to update you with my stats for the year. I have ran 179.88 miles in 23:30:43. I totaled 50.17 miles from the previous week. This week I should be dropping down to 35 to 40 miles for the week. Now the best news. I came in at a lean and mean 188 lbs! I am down another 2.1 lbs. Despite the horrible snack tooth i had another winning week! This week I am backing off a bit and am hoping to stay at 188, but I may also shoot for losing only a pound. I have been dieting hard for over a month and have lost 12 pounds. So I think I can use a recovery week to maybe try and reduce that snack tooth that has been jumping on my back. I am doing great and I look forward to updating you with this next week of running. Until then happy running!

[ogtuboflove-blog]

My Late Monday Evening Update

    Another week has come and gone. Last week was a good week. I met my goals I set out for myself and surprised myself a couple of times. I also decided I will talk a little bit about some of the gear I have for running. I have found some things that I won't run without as well as some things I need for certain types of runs. I also want to update you on my totals for the year so far.

    Today's run was a good one. we ran a route that had some minor hills and minor downhills. it was about a 50/50 split between the two. I am pretty sore form yesterdays 14 mile run still, but I managed to have an average pace of 7:20/mile over 5.69 miles. Part of it was thanks to the downhill and the other part is Lyosha making me sped up to keep up with him. The route was called the sandwich run. I found out that the name comes not from the shape of the route, but rather that a while ago when a fellow runner was running the route a car driving by threw a sandwich at them. Its a funny story that helps give insight on the weird names we have for certain routes we run. Overall the run went well and I went faster than I expected to.

    I have a variety of things I like to use for my runs. Some things are for the weather and other things are for the type of distance being run. I always try and run with my Garmin 310XT GPS watch. I honestly love the thing. It gives me the pertinent data I need to track my progress and to make adjustments mid run. I have it set up to tell me my average pace, distance run, and time spent running. It also came with a heart rate monitor I can wear around my chest. I don't often wear the heart rate monitor even though I really should. The only downside to the watch is it is a bit bulky, but since I am a bigger person it works out. I can't imagine doing the amount of running I am doing without it and because of that I would give it 1 on a scale of 1 to 5 in importance to me.

    The other item I always run with are my Hoka One One Clifton 2 running shoes. I have had a knee surgery in the past and prefer the heavy cushioning the shoe offers. The great part is they are still light. I think they come in at 9 ounces a shoe which isn't to bad for the amount of cushion they offer. I have tried running with more traditional shoes and it causes to much pain in my knee so I stick with the Hoka One One brand. There is almost no way I could put the miles I do in without these shoes. i give them a 1 on the scale of importance as well.

    For clothing I typically run in tradition gym shorts, and a shirt that is made of polyester. I do have a pair of running shorts for my races and longer training runs which can come in handy. The polyester shirts whisk moisture away really well as well as reduce chaffing. For colder weather I have a thicker long sleeve shirt and a pair of Reebok play warm compression pants. They are kinda like male yoga pants. Overall the clothes are important, but if I had to I could run in a regular cotton T-shirt and shorts so the clothing falls around a 2.5 on the importance scale.

    For my long runs I have two running belts to choose from, I have an Amphipod belt and a Nathan belt. The Nathan belt has a small pouch for running gels and electrolyte pills and two water bottles that can carry a total of 18 ounces of water. The Amphipod belt holds 4 bottles for a total of 32 ounces of water. It comes in handy for my really long training runs that are associated with marathon training. I tend to use the Nathan belt for shorter runs in hotter weather. for my runs that are over 16 miles I will start to carry gels and electrolyte pills. I have had success with the honey stinger gummy drops and the cliff gels for my mid run fuel needs. I prefer the gummy drops a bit more because they are more convenient to eat on the run. The electrolyte pill I current use is called  S!Caps. They are great for the long runs where I sweat a lot and need to worry about possible cramping.

    The last item I use for long runs is called body glide. Let me tell you something about this miracle item. I experienced some horrible chaffing on my first ever long run that left me unable to walk right for a week. I quickly discovered this item and have never had chaffing on any part of my body I apply it to on my long runs. If you have a chaffing problem when you work out I highly recommend this product. It is a 1 on my scale of importance.

    Since you stuck with me this far I am going to update you on my yearly totals and my weigh in. As of January 1st I have ran 130.04 miles in 16:53:16. I am doing well and am still on track to get over 1,400 miles this year. For this weeks weigh in i came in at a beautiful 190.1 lbs. I am losing weight a bit faster than I expected and I am starting to worry about losing to much too fast. I want to only lose a maximum of 2 lbs a week and I lost about 3.3 this last week. It can be a little hard to add my exercise to my calorie intake so I need to focus on bumping up my calorie intake to keep my weight loss at a max of 2 lbs a week. Overall I am still very happy with what I am achieving at this point in my training and plan to keep it up. As always thanks for reading and I hope you gained something from this. Happy running folks!

[ogtuboflove-blog]

Another week down

    It has been a while since my last update. This week had been busy and my long run got postponed until today. I have four runs I need to write about. Tuesdays run was a hilly distance run. Wednesday was a speed run with the running group. Thursday was slow medium distance. Today's run was long relatively fast and pretty flat. It was a good week of running so lets dive into the runs.

    Tuesday was an interesting run. I decided I wanted to do my weekday distance run on Tuesday instead of Thursday this week and the results were very nice. I did need to motivate myself to run in it since it was raining and a little chilly. I got myself out there and moving and it ended up going great. I averaged a 7:53/mile pace over 9.23 miles and I ran up several hills along the route with a nice rewarding downhill during the last mile. I felt great during the whole run and managed to control my breathing and heart rate during the hills. I have been working on controlling my heart rate and breathing and Tuesdays run was great training in getting better at that. I finished the run very wet and feeling very accomplished when I looked at my watch and saw I averaged under 8 minute miles.

    Wednesday was a good run with the Skagit Running club. We did the bridge route which is a pretty flat 5.16 mile route. The only hill comes around mile 4 and it is about a .25 mile long and not to steep. I ran with Jason for the first 3.5 miles before I kicked up the pace to keep up with Brennan (I think that's his name I could be wrong).  I averaged a 7:09/mile pace and was quite happy considering I ran over 9 miles the previous day. I met up with Haylee after the run went to the Skagit River Brewery with our friends from the running group. It was a great dinner and the beer was flowing generously. It was a good time and its a fun tradition to do with my friends in the running group.

    Thursdays run was tough even though it was an easy route. By Thursday I had run everyday since Saturday and my muscles were starting to loudly let me know they needed a break. I couldn't give in to the temptation to sit on the couch and forced myself to move for the needed miles. If anything I would call them garbage miles, but I did push myself and It will likely pay off down the road when I am sore and want to quit. The run ended up being 5.8 miles and I averaged 8:21/mile. It was my only run this week above the 8 minute mark. It didn't have any hills, but my legs loudly protested moving at any fast pace. It was a humble reminder that I need rest days still, but at the same time it teaches my body I can still push even if it is at a slower pace. All in all I was very glad when the run was over.

    I ended up taking the next two days off from running. Friday was a designated rest day, but Saturday was so rainy that I didn't want to run 14 miles in it. So my distance run got pushed to Sunday. Today was a beautiful day to run. It was partly cloudy with some nice sun breaks and it was about 45 degrees with no wind. It was a great decision to push my run to today. Haylee tagged along today as my support. She rode her bike and carried my water for me. She also kept me company and encouraged me when she saw I was hurting. I ran exactly 14 miles on the centennial trail today with an average pace of  of 7:28/mile. That is some great news to me. I was pushing myself because I had two rest days and I wanted to see what I could do. I only need to shave 28 seconds more off my average pace over the next 2 months to accomplish my goal. While it wont be easy it is doable. The other good news is I got fast as the run went on. I finished the first mile in 7:59 and my last mile was finished in 6:54. A lot of the middle miles hovered around the 7:30 mark which was nice. I personally like to push my speed up in the last 3 miles. I feel it trains my mind that I have more energy left and can push faster. Also I like to start slower to prevent bonking towards the end. I would rather have enough energy to pick the pace up than no energy left and have my pace slow down.

    This week was a great week for running and I made my 40 miles. I couldn't be happier with my progress I have made. As always I just need to keep up the training and pay attention to my body. I am thinking Monday I will go into detail on some of the gear and gadgets I run with. I realize I haven't done that and maybe you can find what I think about some of the common gear I run with useful for your future needs or purchases. Until next time though happy running.

[ogtuboflove-blog]

Progress Report

    It's Monday! It's the beginning of a new training week and it is a time to check on my weight and mileage progress. I have to tally the previous week as a victory in the books. I listened to Bill Burr's podcast and while he was doing his weight loss he looked at each week as training for the game and weigh in as the game. If you met your weeks goal weight you won and if not you lost. in the end what matters is having a winning percentage. I really liked his analogy there and I try to incorporate it into my mindset. With that being said onto my progress report.

    Since January 1st I have been tracking my numbers. My total year to date mileage is 90.16 miles in a total time of 11:48:53.  To put that into another perspective, if you take that on average you burn 100 calories per mile of running, I have burned an extra 9,016 calories. each pound of fat is equivalent to 3,500 calories. So if I had burned nothing but fat for those calories it would be equivalent to burning 2.576 lbs of fat. The miles I have put in have been perfect and i am well ahead of schedule for achieving 1,400 miles run this year. Also this morning I stepped onto my scale. Monday mornings are my weekly weigh in and I try to stay honest to only getting on the scale once a week. I was bad and checked a few times this week, but I am getting better at not constantly checking my weight. I came in at a solid 193.4 lbs this morning. I was really happy with that. By tracking my calories I have been able to maintain a deficit at a high enough level to lose around 2 pounds this week.  I don't think every week can be like that, but I have been eating around 2,000 calories a day so the added exercise is really helping the weight come off.

    I also had my Monday run with the Skagit Running Club. We did the up the hill and down the hill run tonight. It was a 5.83 mile run and I finished it with a 7:23/mile pace. The first mile was flat and I did it in around 7:35. We then hit the first hill which was of medium length and steep. It dropped my next mile to an 8:00 average. The next mile was an 8:21 pace up a medium grade hill that went on for around .75 miles. then it was downhill and flat the rest of the way. It made all that uphill feel worth it because of how easy the downhill felt. no to mention the wind was finally at our back. Kevin, Luis, and I all picked up our pace and I remember our 5th mile was at a 6:35 pace, but that can be attributed in part to running down the hills we had just ran up. The last .83 miles is what makes me really happy, I was able to run the last bit at a 6:31/mile pace! I was able to run faster on the flat part than the downhill.

    It was a great Monday. I am meeting all my target goals and even exceeding some of them. I was able to go out to dinner with my wife Haylee and her  mom, dad, and sister. It was nice spending one last evening with them before they head back to Utah tomorrow. Not to mention the running made me feel a little less guilty about ordering the delicious Kung Pao Tofu. Now its onto kicking this weeks ass. I got more weight to lose and miles to run along with speed to gain. Until next time thanks for reading and feel free to ask any questions on what I am doing or offer me some advice on how to do even better.