Thanksgiving 2008

Today I ran the Thanksgiving Day Race 10k. I think this is my 6th year running it. This is where it all started for me actually. I was hooked after the 1st one.


My times for previous years (the website only went back to 04):

2004 1:04 10:25 pace
2005 1:02 10:06 pace
2006 1:05 10:36 pace (ran Ari with me that year)
2007 59:18 9:33 pace (fucked up ITB)


Dominic rode his newly painted Fuji track bike, while I ran



The race drew almost 12,000 people. It was a crazy start! I got there about 8 minutes before the start, so the only warm up I had was my 20 minute walk with the dogs before I left, and a slow jog from the car to the start.

These mass starting lines just suck! People NEVER line up where they're supposed to. I couldn't get to the 9 minute milers if I wanted to! Once the gun went off it took me more than 8 minutes to cross the starting line.

I started running and dodging people, passing speed walkers, and people running with strollers. I felt like yelling at them! 'Didn't you see the sign in the back that said STROLLERS! Get the fuck outta my way!' But I didn't.

The first mile I hit at 8:30. I felt fine and I thought this was a good pace for me. I continued to run around people and run on the sidewalks, anywhere there was a clear place for me to run, I ran. It stayed crowded the entire time.

I hit the 2nd mile at 8:30 too. WHOOOT! But I knew I wouldn't keep that pace. I am just not there yet. The miles started to fly by. By the time I hit mile 5, I checked my watch and was off my goal by about a minute. I knew I wasn't going to finish under 54. That's ok. I still did ok.

55:38 8:58 pace


We met up with Ryan after the race



INTERUPTION - We have to go to Turkey day dinner now. The plans changed and we're having it at my Mom's house with my Dad and Dominic's Mom. It's a long story....





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Ok, so it's Friday now and Thanksgiving is over. This post is getting long.


Dinner ended up being really fun last night. I was nervous, and I just wanted to get it over with. We had a change of plans at the last minute.


Dominic has been remodeling his Mom's kitchen for the last 3 weeks and on Monday he decided he didn't have enough time to finish it for Thanksgiving. So his Dad and Stepmom went somewhere else, his brother and his kids went to the other Grandparents house, and my Mom cooked up a traditional kosher Thanksgiving dinner at the last minute for me, Dominic, my Dad, and Dominic's Mom.




Our Moms got drunk. They drank a whole bottle of wine. Me and Dominic did the dishes. The food was soooo good and I ate way too much.






I came home and crashed out by 9:30. I slept 10 hours.

Whew. Made it through that holiday. I am ready to get back to training.


Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!

Off work

I have been off work since Sunday. I am actually off all week except for working from home Friday and one day in the office on Saturday - 10a-10p. The off days are nice, except for the not-so-nice stuff, like cleaning, grocery shopping, etc.

Sunday I took the dogs for a off leash walk on the golf course, and then went running alone. I ran for 7 miles. I didn't have time for anything else because we had a birthday lunch with Dominic's brother and the whole family. I chowed on fried chicken and cheesecake. That's why I had to burn some calories Sunday night with my new Spinerval tape.

It rained that night and my house was a muddy mess. I cleaned for two hours on Monday and did the grocery shopping. That took up the better part of my day. I managed to squeeze in a leg workout at the Y - squats, quad press, ham press, abs, done. All 15 rep sets.

At 3pm, I met the coach at UC for some swimming. He has me do the funkiest drills. But they are helping my technique so much, it's amazing. Yesterday we worked with fins. I haven't worn them before and it felt like I was just zipping through the water, so freaking fast! I loved it! We did several sets of drills, zipper, finger tip, one arm, and they were hard!

He had me swim a 100 with the fins (1:08) and I was pissed, it should have been under a minute with those fins. My best w/o fins is still 1:23.

We did drills for almost an hour and then he left me with a workout to do, without fins.

4x25 kick

1x300 easy

4x25 kick

1x200 moderate

4x25 kick

1x100 fast

I was tired when I finished.

Today I ran Nancy's dogs. I took one of the dogs 3 miles which was nice. I usually run them 2 at a time, so when I only have 1, it's easy. Gracie's a good dog too, she runs really well. A couple of her dogs are spooked by stuff so they are hard to run. Two of them are so buck wild, I can hardly call what I am doing, running. Today I fell with two of them, but I didn't let go of those leashes! I didn't hurt myself, and I just got right back up and kept going. I ended up going about 6 miles.

Right now I am waiting on Dominic to finish work and then we are going to lift at the Y.

I am RACING Thursday! A 10k! I have some goals. We'll see what happens.

I hope you all have a good Thanksgiving.

Muddy sheets!

Ari and Bruno and Lucy

Spinervals

Claire and I were chatting via gmail one day and she told me about Spinervals. So I found this tape on Ebay for about 5 bucks (it's a VHS, don't laugh), and I bought it. I tried it tonight and I loved it! It was such a good workout!

The tape was kind of old I think. The athletes in the video were all triathletes, some old, some young, some fat and some lean as hell. One girl was a pro. Some of their bikes were old school tri bikes (Soft Ride). The workout totally kicked my ass.

I never do intervals. I realize I can do them on my own, but never really thought about. I just get on and ride. Tonight my legs are pretty trashed and I was drenched after just 45 minutes.

With that, I leave you a picture of my boy Ari, who crosses his paws.

Random Friday Whatevers

- SHOUT OUT! To Sandi racing in Ironman AZ on Sunday! With a torn glute! Good luck girlie. I know you will rock that course! We'll run at the track after you recover!

- I am a Facebook whore. FB is way way way more fun than My Space. If you are on FB, add me. I seem to be on FB once an hour these days. I even update my status via text. Yes, I am a BIG DORK. I have a bunch of HS friends on there too. The sad thing is, I was in a bad place in HS and I hated EVERYONE. I have no idea why they want to contact me. I don't remember half of them and I just accept their friend request and pretend I do. I guess that's ok. Right?

On a side note, this boy I was totally in love with in HS, he's an accomplished musician, and he has a cool Christmas CD coming out called A Christmas Chill (it's being featured in USA Today as one of their pick albums of 2008). If you want something cool to listen to this xmas, and you like xmas music, go buy it. Or download from Itunes next week.

1987 - high school sucks at 17

- I swam this morning but this cold ass weather is not making it easy. It sucks after I am done and my hair is soaked and I have to drive home, change, grab the dogs, and take them somewhere to run. I am frozen by the time I get home. Not to mention my hair.

- This Thanksgiving is going to be nuts and will require some xanex, I am sure. I will be spending it with both my Mom and Dad, Dominic and his Mom, his Dad and StepMom, and his brother and kids (teenagers, twin 15 year olds and a 17 year old). My Mom and Dad have been divorced for 37 years. I have only spent one other Thanksgiving with my Dad. I can only imagine how insane this will be. I guess my 10k race in the AM will help my nerves.

Have a good weekend everyone!

The track and the pool

I was dreading my track workout and I never dread my work outs. Track work really does hurt. The only thing I can think of is that's positive, is that they are short, and over fast. And once it's over, it feels good to have done them. Uck.

Today's workout was a half mile warm up, 7x800, and a half mile cooldown. The 800's averaged about 3:48.

3:50
3:47
3:51
3:45
3:48
3:47
3:51

I had debated whether I should be a pussy and use a treadmill, or should I run outside. It was cold out! I decided to HTFU and just do it outside. It was 30 degrees and there was a headwind that was really hard to run through. I was ready to crap after the 1st 800. That's how this shit affects me! I didn't think there was anyway I could do 6 more. Each one hurt more than the last. My chest and legs hurt so bad, I can't describe it. I just know this is a workout I hate and will continue to dread. But I know it has to be done if I want to speed up.

And I don't think it's smart to try and swim 100's after the track workout. At least, that's what I learned today.

I couldn't get warm after the 800's so I went to the Y to soak in the sauna and then swim. I was so cold. I soooo did not want to get in the pool either. But I did.

1x300 warm up
1x100 kick
1x100 pull
10x50 (averaged 43)
1x100 breast
1x300 pull
1x100 easy free
5x100 (averaged 1:36)
1x300 easy free
1x100 breast
1x100 back
1x500 cooldown

total 3000y

It was hard to swim and I am sure it's cuz my energy was zapped after the track. Double DUH!

Tuesday rant

Dominic's making chicken soup. It smells so good.

So today was supposed to be a chill kind of day. Met Sandi at HOT Yoga, the same class I took a couple weeks ago, after my 50k trail run. That week I had a great class. Today's class totally sucked ass. The teacher never got me sweating! My muscles stayed cold too. She talked and talked about basically nothing. She has us practice breathing a bunch. The entire class all I kept thinking was are you for real? I kept thinking that she'd get to the poses, but she never did. Finally when I realized the class was never going to get any better, I quit trying. At the end of the class, for chavasana (corpse pose), she actually started singing. In my head I am thinking is this really happening? She cannot be for real. But she was. And the class went over 15 minutes because she started late. That made me late for my other appts after class.

'

Yea, so I won't be going back to that class again. No way.

After my waste of time at this yoga class, I went to Nancy's to run her dogs. She gave me a huge amount of meat for the dogs, including chicken heads. I haven't fed those yet but it's going to gross me out when I do. She also gave me some ground whole lamb which is very expensive. My dogs are going to be eating well!

Tonight I was walking my dogs around my 'hood and we saw some loose dogs. This happens all the time. The 1st dog finally got shoo'ed off by a nice person in a car, who honked at him. His owner came outside and got him. The 2nd dog was a pit. He looked young, and when the owner saw my dogs going fucking crazy, he kind of instigated the pit to fight. I was screaming, and I yanked out my stun gun that I carry , told him I was gonna call 911, and he finally got the dog and yelled at me to call the SCPA. I told him I was gonna call the cops. What a fucking asshole! I hate these MF's who breed pits and make them fight. My two become these aggressive, teeth baring, mean looking Dobermans, ready to fight too, and I can hardly contain them. But the reality is that I can't call the cops. I have a pit at my house and I don't want to draw attention to that. Pits are supposedly illegal here in Cincinnati. BSL sucks. I just wish people were responsible with their dogs. I hate these guys around here who have them. Complete dog fighting MF's.

Some running news. Yesterday I surprised myself at Lunkin - I ran 10 miles in 91 minutes. That's 9:12 a mile or something? Ryan started out the run with me. The 1st mile we hit in 8:10 so I had to tell him to slow down. At mile 3.5 I stepped in dog shit and Ryan said his knee was hurting. He had to stop right then and there and walk the rest of the 1.5 mile back to his car. I continued on and finished the run feeling good, despite the dog shit.

I have decided that 10 miles is my favorite distance run.

Tomorrow is track work, 800's, and swimming, 100's. After today's lazy day, I am ready to hurt a little.

Some bad news, my company has cut our hours 10%. By cutting hours and manager's salary by 10%, they are hoping not to have to lay anyone off. I am worried about the future. My Mom keeps saying it's only going to get worse before it gets better. We haven't yet felt that domino affect, but it's coming.

Rollers / trainers

I tried rollers tonight, and let's just say that I didn't have the patience to learn. How many of you guys ride rollers? I am curious, cuz I know they are better than a trainer, but it's a hell of a lot harder than I thought it would be.

I am not really excited about the Time's yet. I need to ride outside to get used to them and that wasn't happening today. It was snowing a tiny amount of flurries, and the temps were dropping, and I didn't want to ride in the cold. I know. Call me a pussy. Cuz I am. I hate riding in cold weather, even though I just bought a new jacket. I don't want to HTFU either.

So Dominic and I lifted today, I did light weights, heavy reps. My triceps are already sore. We played around in the pool and I swam a 50 in 34 seconds.

When I got home, I rode the trainer for an hour.

Look at those socks!

New pedals!!

I am sick to death of my Speedplays so I ordered what Dominic rides. Going to test them tomorrow, riding fixed.

Body image and a sucky swim

Swimming sucked this morning, kinna.

1x200 warm up
1x100 kick
1x200 pull
10x100 best time 1:34 (most were 1:35 and a couple at 1:36)
1x100 breast stroke
1x100 back stroke
1x300 cool down

total 2000y

In the middle of my 100's, on #7, my goggles got water in them cuz I pushed off the wall too hard, so I had to stop and start over. Then my swim cap came halfway off and I had to stop for that. I was cranky in the water this morning.

More on my mind than having a sucky swim, is the stupid scale. I don't even know why I get on the mother fucker. In Sept, at the DR, I weighed 145. This morning, I weighed myself at the Y before getting in the pool, and the scale says 151! I also got on the work scale (they have a Biggest Loser competition going on so they bought a scale to weigh everyone on) and it confirms my weight gain. BOO!!!

This is why I don't let myself recover. I feel like I have to be constantly burning calories because I like to eat! I don't eat whatever I want though. I watch my food intake about 65% of the time, chips are my downfall, but I hardly ever eat real sugar. I am just sick of it. I don't know what else to do to lean out.

Trackwork hurts and other random thoughts

I have not stopped going all day, until now. It's 4:42pm and I am about to start my shift from home, working 5p-10p. I got so much accomplished but it's been busy!

I slept in, got up at 8:30am. That is so late for me! When I have to work I am up by 7 usually, and one of those days I get up at 5:30am for laps at the Y. I felt good when I got up except my legs are still trashed from the leg workout the other day.

I took the dogs to the woods for a couple miles, they ran off leash and had fun. When I got home I fed them and had some eggs with Dominic before he went to work. Then I went to the Y and did upper body weights for 40 minutes. After the Y, I headed to the track!

I warmed up for a mile, then did 6x800, with one recovery lap in between, and a mile cool down.

Can I tell you how much I hate running fast? I hate hate hate it cuz it hurts so fucking bad. Those 800's about killed me today. And for the record, today I ran so hard I wanted to crap. And puke. Possibly at the same time. You reading this Claire? My legs and my chest hurt and I really wanted to stop but I had to HTFU and just do it. My times were ok, right on schedule from last week.

3:43
3:51
3:42
3:57 (?? my watch fucked this one up)
3:45
3:47 (?? my watch fucked this one up too)

I was so so so glad when it was over.

Got home, had a Muscle Milk, and worked in the yard for two hours. Mowed the leaves. Raked them up, bagged them, swept. I hate yard work. I especially hate leaves.

Now I am exhausted. To say the least. But working.

Yesterday was a good day too. I swam laps. I decided to just have a long swim and time out some 1500's. My intention was to do just 2, but then I decided to do a 3rd.

3x1500y

28:40
28:58
28:59

Total 4500y. I think that is around 2.5 miles?

I came home and rode the trainer for an hour too. I think I added that in because we were having dinner with some friends and I knew I was going to eat a lot.

Dominic cooked manicotti at Emily and Gino's house.


Emily and Gino



Me and Dominic are full

What am I doing?

I have been into this endurance training for just 21 months. Prior to that, I had only run about 10 miles.

Races in those 21 months:
2 full marathons
5 olympic distance triathlons
1 half iron distance triathlon
1 50k trail race

2 seasons. That's it. And I have no fucking clue what I am doing.

I work out 6 days a week, sometimes 2-3 times in one day. I have no idea if I am making progress or what. I don't have any idea what I am, or should be doing. I can't afford a coach right now so I am just kinna going with it. There's no schedule, no excel spreadsheets, I just do it.

IMKY training starts in 2 months. For now, I'll chill out on distance. Focus on speedwork. Maintain fitness.

Tonight I went to a masters swim class at UC. I liked the class, it was a good switch up, but do I really need butterfly stroke and dolphin kicks for triathlon? I don't think so. I like Alan, the coach. He's the same coach I have met with the last couple weeks. I'll still meet with him one on one, he has improved my stroke SO much.

Earlier today I worked out with Dominic at the Y - we did legs. He had me do 250lbs on the leg press and I got 7 reps. It about killed me. I made 8 reps at 230. We did back to back sets. Like Crossfit. Lactic Acid. I might go to a Crossfit class soon. If it wasn't so expensive, I'd join.

Sunday I ran the dogs 7 miles and then me, Dominic, and our Mom's, went to Ikea.


Lucy after her 7 mile run

Bad morning

It started out ok - I got up at 5:45am and got to the Y at 6am for laps:

1x200 warm up
1x100 kickboard
1x200 easy
1x50 fast
1x200 easy
1x50 fast
1x200 easy
1x50 fast
1x200 easy
1x50 fast
1x500 (intervals by Claire - 25e, 25f, 50e, 50f, 75e, 75f, 100e, 100f)
1x50 breast stroke
1x200 cool down

Total 2200y

I usually feel really good after my swim, but today I was tired. I walked the dogs at the golf course and let them run off leash. It was just a 2 mile walk but my legs felt fatigued. I forgot to eat when I got back from my swim which did not help. So when I got home, I fed the dogs and had a protein shake. Then I woke Dominic up to cook me a real breakfast (egg white sandwich with fat free cheese and fake butter).

I was rushing around to get ready to leave for work. I worked from home Wednesday night and all day Thursday so it was good to get the hell out of the house this morning. I left early and stopped and got gas ($1.82!!). It was drizzling. I was getting onto the highway, and was on the entrance ramp, when the guy in front of me started skidding all over the place. I started skidding too and then my car went BAM! right into the fucking guardrail. We called the cops even though his car didn't hit anything. The cops came and didn't cite anyone. My car was still running, the headlights worked, and his car was ok. Neither one of us were hurt, thank goodness, so we left. I was about 10 minutes late for work, and very shaken up. My heart rate is finally back down normal now.

What sucks is my car. It's 10 years old and we just keep putting money into it. I just got it back yesterday. It needed a new starter, which was put in 3 weeks ago, but the starters they keep putting in, are bad. This is the 3rd one in 3 weeks! And Dominic had to put in new brake pads yesterday and a new battery.....FUCK! Dominic wants me to drive his Scion and buy a work van for him. So whatever we do, it's going to cost us another fucking car payment.

Can you tell I am pissed?

Here are the finished pictures of the kitchen. The new tile on the counter will be done when we find some cool tile. Other than that, it's pretty much done. I wish you could have seen a "before" picture - the cabinets were purple and the floor was a black and white sticky tile and the walls were white. The fridge is where the table is now. Big difference.

A century on election day

Last week when I ran with Sandi, she was telling me she needed to get a couple centuries in for IMAZ in 3 weeks. So I told her I'd do one with her. We planned for yesterday and I asked Ryan to map us out something cool (he didn't disappoint).

We met Sandi, her friend Mike (who is also doing IMAZ) and Ryan at the bike shop at 9am (though we were late from me standing in line to vote).

It's been a month since I've even ridden my road bike. Yea. So it took me a good 20 miles to get my legs acclimated again. I was bitchy, to say the least.

It was cool out to start, but it warmed up to the 70's and we had gorgeous perfect fall weather. The ride was beautiful.

We had issues about every 10 miles it seemed. Someone's bike chain, or Ryan checking the map,

or someone had to pee....

Me and Sandi stop to eat

Good picture for Ryan's Match.com profile (single women in their 20's should apply!)

Sandy checking voicemail


We climbed about a total of 2200-2500 feet. We told Ryan to keep it relatively flat because Sandi had just done a century 6 days ago.

This climb was worth it though. I never knew Ohio could look so pretty. Or was this Indiana?

From the left, Ryan, Mike, Dominic and Sandi



We have both gained like 10 pounds

After about mile 25 my legs were back and I was feeling good. We rode and rode and rode all day and ended up out in Harrison on these country roads out by the bike trail. We even hopped on the bike trail for a few miles. By about mile 70 I was fatigued. Dominic's got a torn meniscus and he was having some pain too, though I did bring some Advil. We had about 25 miles to get home and I got a second wind at about mile 80. I was feeling stronger at mile 85 than I was at 60.

Ryan did a fantastic job on his 1st century and Sandi and Mike are definitely ready for IMAZ!

Once we got back to the shop, we had to leave pretty fast so Dominic and his Mom could go vote and I could get home to walk my dogs (yea I walked then 2 miles when we got home).

Last night we chowed on pizza and watched the election results.

I am thrilled, as you all know. ROCK THAT WHITE HOUSE PRESIDENT OBAMA!!

The need for speed

I promised myself, once a week, that I would run at the track until my running times got faster. I am testing it on Thanksgiving for a 10k race that I really will race. A PR won't be hard though because I never really ran them fast before. I bet my best is 57 or 58 minutes. I know. Sloooowwwwpooooooke. That's me.

For those that don't know, 800's are 2 laps around a track (that equals a half mile).

This morning, I warmed up for 8 laps (2 miles) and then started the 800's with a recovery lap after each one. I took my headphones off for the 800's so I could hear myself breathing. I just gave it everything I had, going all out. My chest hurt, and my legs were killing me, but it felt good! Ok, so this is what speed work feels like!

My times for each 800:

3:44
3:50
3:54
3:47
3:49

I cooled down for 2 laps so that gave me 6 miles total. I think as the 800's increase, I should just warm up for 4 laps and cool down for 4 laps. If anyone has any advice on track work, please leave me a comment. I need all the help I can get. I haven't run on a track since I taught myself to run 10 years ago. I love it though.

This afternoon I met up with Coach Alan at UC. He's great, I like him. So far he's shown me so many things I need to correct with my form, which is exactly what will help increase my speed. He had me do a lot of drills. I have some work to do. He wants me to breathe from each side, every 3rd stroke. Normally I breathe every 4th stroke and only to the left. It's a hard habit to break. And when I turn to the right to breathe, I usually look up and then right, which is not good. I did about 45 minutes of drills, some fast some easy.

At the end we do a timed 100:

1:23 HOLLA!!!!!

My best time prior to today was a 1:28.

So it looks like I may be getting somewhere. If I keep up doing speedwork. I think I can handle it. I certainly like the way it makes me feel. It hurts, but it's a good kind of hurt. You know what I mean. I never cared about speed before, but for whatever reason, I do now.

Ari and Bruno say GO VOTE!

Weekend

It's been a good weekend. I haven't had both a Saturday and a Sunday off in almost a year and a half. Yesterday I had a major clean up to do in the kitchen. The painting and flooring are done and now we're just finishing up a few details.

After the clean up, I went running. Dominic was at the bike shop helping out and it's 4 miles from my house, so I ran there. The temps went way up and it was hot out! I think it was close to 70 degrees. It was a good run, lots of hills. I hung out at the shop for a little bit and then ran home. 8 miles total.

We went to Fear Fest at King's Island last night. We took 4 teenagers with us - his twin niece and nephew who are 15, her friend who was 15, and the other nephew who is 17. Do you know those girls did not stop texting the entire time? On the rides too! Teenagers are a fucking trip! Good luck to all of you who have them. It was so fun though. We rode rollercoasters and ate junk food and had a blast. The kids had fun too.

This morning we took his nephew (the 15 year old) out to the bike trail, on his bike that Dominic built for him. I wish I had brought the camera with me - it is a cool old lugged steal frame and Dominic restored it for him last summer. Me and Dominic rode fixed - so we all were riding bikes Dominic had built. The bikes got major compliments, from some guy at the coffee shop, who called them elegant.

Ok, so anyways, Zak, the nephew, is not in shape at all. It was a slow ride of about 22 miles, and I don't count this as any kind of training what-so-ever. It was just a day to take the kid out on his bike. (I have some major mileage coming up though, and I am excited!)

After we took Zak home, we headed out to Ikea. Such a cool place. We got so much stuff for so cheap. The kitchen is almost done now.

Here is a sneak peak of the colors.



And my pretty boy Ari.