First 5K Forks, Washington

So I made it! Here's my results: http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/108323699
I ran my first 5K today in the rain in Forks, Washington. I got soaked, but it counteracted the heat I was generating, so it was okay. The run was a fundraiser for Relay for Life and it looks like an idea we might want to do at home for our own Relay for Life team. The nice lady coordinating everything shared her sources with us, and it might be something we could do with lots of help. Looks like it made lots of money for minimal output, and that's what you want in charity fundraisers, right?

There were about 100 or so entrants total for the three events (1 mile, 5K, and 10K). They all started at the same time, following the same path, and turn-back signs were posted to tell each event when to loop back to the starting point. There was a drawing before starting. I won one of those things you put chunks of good smelling stuff into and plug it in to scent a room. Felt nice to win something. =)

We didn't get in until after midnight last night, and the rain on the camper roof kept us from sleeping deeply. The night before that had been taken up with taking My Beloved's mom to the redeye at the airport in Tacoma and The Short One having screaming growing pains, so we were all pretty tired. My Beloved brought The Short One and Hipster Girl over in the camper and they parked along the route a few places to take pictures and cheer me on. I gave them all kisses at the turnaround point. Lost a few seconds there because Hipster Girl made me go back across the street and pose at the turnaround sign...I guess 15 year olds are perfectionists, lol. It was really great to have them there.
There was a tiny girl, maybe 3 years old, along the route trying to give away water bottles, but it was pretty wet already with no bathrooms in sight, so I didn't see any takers. There should DEFINITELY be bathrooms along running routes, because once you get going, you pretty much always have to go. The wee munchkin had a bell to ring as we came by on the return route. She was adorable, and I appreciated the encouragement.
I had the usual storm of voices in my head telling me to give up running and walk, this is too hard, I'm dying, yadda yadda, but Mama just kept going. At one point toward the end, I desperately beseeched my three-years-departed father-in-law, who was a great lover of Relay for Life, to help me along because I was about to give up. I credit his influence with my energy spurt at the very last segment.

A few cool things I've discovered lately that might help other folks working on 5K training:

I discovered mapmyride.com, where you can choose what activity you're doing (biking, walk/job, etc), and map a route ahead of time (it uses a Google maps sort of interface) or, as it took me a week to figure out, download it on your phone and have it track you with GPS so you know how far you've run and how fast you're going.
At first I ran the free Breast Cancer C25K app on my phone at the same time as mapmyride GPS tracker so I could hear the prompts, ignore them, and get an idea how much more I needed to run to actually do a 5K. After a while I turned off the C25K app and just ran the mapmyride while playing a running playlist on my music file thingy.
I carry the phone in my hand most of the time, just because it's nice to be able to look down and see how far I've run now & then, and if a song on the playlist isn't motivating me enough I can click to the next one. I got an mp3 ringtone generator to download the music to my music file thingy, where I could set up playlists. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to have a way to change the order of songs once they're in a playlist, and I'd like the playlist to tally up minutes so when I add or delete a song I know how long the full list is without having to add it up myself. Anyone got a free app that can do these things? Send me some ideas in the comments, please.
Also, Bon Jovi's "Have a Nice Day" and Steppenwolf's "Born to be Wild" are great for keeping the running motivation going. I also discovered a hiphop version of Queen's "We Will Rock You" by Five that's REALLY good when the energy lags.

So, going to keep up with training every other day for the next two weeks, and I'll check back in July 15th when I'm running another 5K in Ocean Shores, Washington. It sounds like the 5K will be the wimpy event there, they've got some hard core triathlons going on. We'll see how that goes...

C25K Week 7 Day 1

Since the day 3 week 6 narration on Robert Ullrey's podcast had said that today's workout would be easier, I thought it meant that it would be like week 5 day 3 was a long run, then week 6 day 1 was shorter runs. Nope. It was a 25-minute continuous run today and will be the same all week.
He was right, though, it was easier. It felt good. It helped that I had a pretty good idea of the distance I could count on. When I hit where I thought the mid-point should be and my ipod announced half way, I could tell my estimate was correct and I knew I had this. About a minute before the "one more minute" announcement came up, I got a wonderful rush and started doing more of a run instead of my usual just-barely-faster-than-walking Mardi Gras shuffle. When the time was over, I actually felt like I could run more. How weird is that?
It is a lot more pleasant temperature-wise running at night, but a bit earlier than tonight would be good.  Many of the streetlights don't work around here, and it's hard to tell where the cracks in the sidewalk are.
Thanks so much to all you wonderful folks who have been helping me along with your kind words of encouragement. I can't believe how far I'm come. I'm still bemused that I haven't seen any weight loss, but I'm definitely in better shape, which is what really matters.

Week 6 Day 2 C25K

So that's what I look like tired, sweaty, and relieved. 
Last night's when I was supposed to run, but after a few nights of not sleeping well, and one all-nighter to finish grading my students' notebooks, I gave myself a break and had a glass of wine instead, promising to run in the morning. 
Of course, in the morning, it was Saturday! Not to mention My Beloved's first weekend of summer vacation, and I slept in. I was getting my excuses lined up to get another day off when my friend Julie in New York posted about her day's run on facebook. Aw heck, how can I have excuses, here in the dry California heat, when there she is going twice as hard in the New York humidity running up and down hills...so off I went. 
I came around one corner and the homeowner was working in his garden with his back to me. He didn't see his little black lab puppy run out into the street to visit me...cute little guy wagging his whole self, jumping all over my black tights with his muddy paws...I wanted to stay and play, but had to keep going, so I pet him a bit and and he ran back to his yard.
Today was two ten-minute runs with a walk in between. It felt like a really long time, and I almost gave up about a million times. Paused the podcast for about two minutes for a potty stop at the park, splashed my face and the top of my head with cool water and got a drink, felt some better after that. Since I started doing this, I hadn't had any nausea like I used to years ago running, but today I felt it just a little before I got to the final five-minute walk. Maybe it was the heat.
This was the first run I've done in the daytime, in the heat, but luckily there was a steady breeze. A warm one, but a breeze nonetheless. It was weird to have so many people around. Usually I run at twilight, and it's pretty solitary. 
I think the lesson here is that I should have run last night, or at least much earlier this morning. Running when it's cool is a LOT nicer.

Week 6 Day 1

I actually felt excited about doing my run this evening, and I expected it to be really easy both because I was excited and because after the big 20 minute run at the end of week 5, I only had to do a 5min, 8 min, 5 min run interval pattern today. Nope, it wasn't easy. For a little while I recounted what day it was, because I felt so weak I thought I must have miscounted and run on a rest day...
After the five minute walk, the running started and I headed for our main drag, but there was an ambulance, firetruck, and lots of shady-looking people about, so I decided to head the other direction down the irrigation canal bank. One can go for miles along the canals in this valley. It was wonderfully serene along the canal, there was no one else there but me, and it felt like I was running a long way. I kept thinking of that Ray Bradbury story "The Pedestrian" where no one is outside except the main character...everyone is inside watching tv. I'd never been along the canal before, even though we've lived here forever, and it was cool to see all the gateways to go off on other streets...potential running paths for future runs.
Towards the end of the 8 minute interval I started feeling strong...but still had the brain going back and forth between continuing to run and thinking I couldn't go farther. It felt best when I could just turn off my brain and wallow in the rhythm and senseless moving...like a meditative state.
If you're thinking you might like to try this yourself, take a look at coolrunning.com for more information.

Week 5 Day 3 C25K

Twenty minutes is a looooongg time...but I've had five babies, so I tried to think of it as labor and kept going. Hard to believe that 90 seconds seemed impossible and I was awake at night worrying about it just a few weeks ago. The first half of twenty minutes felt pretty awful, and I almost stopped about a million times, but the halfway mark announcement came sooner than I expected, and then some Mardi Gras style music came on, and I was just about dancing for a while there. The buzz passed, but gave way to a sort of Zen-like concentration that was like meditation and I kept going. I'm glad to see that week 6 works in a similar pattern of a much easier run on the first day, a bit harder on the second day, and the somewhat-less-intimidating-than-it-was-before 25 minute run on the third day.

Week 4/5

I've gotten behind on blogging with it being the end of the school year and all, but I've still been doing the runs. Week four day three was probably the hardest...I guess it was just an off day, because I kept waiting for the part where you get the adrenaline rush and feel good, but it just never came. I felt good that I was done, but the whole run just felt terrible. Most of the runs have had a moment when I felt better if I just stuck with it...
I've been really lucky on weather, it's been chilly enough to need a jacket most evenings, but warm enough that I take it off after the first interval or so. Since it's pretty often over 100 degrees here in the summer, that's a good thing.
I've done two of the week 5 runs so far. The Robert Ullrey podcasts I'm using put them all together even though each day has different intervals, which is kind of weird when you're in the midst of an 8 minute interval and the voice tells the invisible other runners who are still on day 1 that they can stop running now. Not so bad when I realized that the voice was also telling me I just had three minutes left. That used to feel like an impossibly long time, but now it's a relief..."just three minutes left? I got this..."
So today is supposed to be the first 20 minute run. Bleagh...how the heck am I gonna do this?
Stay tuned...

Week 4 Day 1 C25K

It's a video blog today, friends...right here
All about the messing that happens in your head, and the delight of unexpected encouragement...