Sometimes it's not all puppies and rainbows

There were a few times over the last few weeks that I should have updated... not that I have been training much, and I'll get to that later, but I did have a few good work outs to update about... like doing push ups in Texas over Thanksgiving Break with my mom's poodle confused by them. Or the swimming at the Off Season Triathlon where I was in a lane with other girls all doing the same, which helped push me to go harder. Oh, and I also did more push ups that day, in the pool, after the pool, and at brunch, so I am at least keeping up with the preparation for the 100 push up challenge.

But instead of telling you about those good work outs, I am updating today, and I wish I had better news to share about my results at the Jingle All the Way 10k this morning. Instead it goes to show that I can't reach my goals if I don't prepare. After my 29:07 5k in October, I wanted to strive for under an hour for a 10k. But I made many mistakes. First of all, I only ran a hand full of times since the 5k, and most weren't very good runs. Then, yesterday while I was out for a swim, I figured I'd incorporate some push ups and ended up doing a total of 100 push ups during the swim workout on the deck of the pool, which would have been a fun workout to tell you about if I didn't have a race today... but I did, so it actually counts a mistake for this race.

So before the race even started, I wasn't running prepared and I was already physically tired from the day before... and I couldn't find my garmin watch. To add insult to injury, they were OUT OF BELLS when I did my packet pick up!!!! I did not get to jingle all the way or even part of the way! There was no jingling for me during the 10k, only jiggling (explanatory note: the race is suppose to give out bells prior to the race so you jingle while running).


I felt OK (not great) the first 5k. Then the second 5k hurt. My knees hurt. My back hurt. My IT band was tight.  I was tired. It wasn't cute. The rainy weather wasn't even an issue - it was all due to my lack of preparation. So I was no way near my goal. End time was 66:09 minutes. UGH!  Average 10:39 minute miles. UGH. Ugly. Only 1 minute 23 seconds better than the 10k I did last year. 

And now post race, I still hurt. My back really hurts. My knees kind of hurt, even after icing them. But as always, I need to focus on what I learned:

1. If I don't prepare or train, I won't get better or faster. 
2. Doing lots of push ups won't make me a faster runner.
3. I need to stop being a wuss about running in the cold. I ran in shorts, a long sleeve dry tech shirt, gloves, and a head band thingy that covers my ears today despite the cold weather and drizzly rain, and that was plenty. I need to just suck it up and get out there. 

So yeah, that is my whiny post about things not always being happy - that sometimes it's not all rainbows and puppies... BUT I can't end this blog post sounding so mopey and pitiful, especially when there are still puppies involved. 

Last week, my parents got me an adorable shih tzu puppy. A little girl that I have named Ninja because she's mostly black and hard to see. They'll keep her in Texas for the next couple of months while I figure out my living situation so I can be in a place that allows dogs and while they start to train her, but I am getting almost daily puppy updates from my mom. Enjoy puppy pictures. 

Repetition: is it monotony or rhythm?

Last night I attended my first real track workout. A few weeks back I attended a fake-ish track workout as the school was having some sort of sporting event so the track workout was actually on a trail instead. Although mentally I knew I've been needing to incorporate track workouts if I want to get faster, I was intimidated about trying it. If you throw me in a pool, I can come up with a workout. I know what workouts should include in the pool, I know pool etiquette, and I fee like I am in my domain, but I was afraid tracks would be full of people that were extremely fast, doing workouts I didn't understand and that I would just be fumbling around getting in people's way. Fortunately my running friends, especially Andy and Adam, have been encouraging me to go, one with advice on what to do as a workout and the other in the form of literally dragging me out to these weekly workouts with DC Road Runners (including rides to and from so I can't wuss out).

And to my surprise, it turns out I really enjoyed working out on the track. Although it's a different arena than the pool, the repetitive nature and fixed distances to track speed/distance/relative effort was familiar to me from swimming. I know a lot of people complain that swimming laps in a pool is boring and monotonous because you are just going back and forth in the same line and nothing really changes, but I find it soothing, rhythmic, and a way to relax my mind, and that is how I felt on the track too. I felt in control, calm, and focused like I do when I swim. There is something very comforting in knowing exactly where you are going, how far you have to go for each set, and being able to break down these goals into smaller units (laps in a pool or around a track). Silly me having been such a wuss all these months and not starting sooner!

For people unfamiliar with a track, the loop around is 400 meters and 4 laps equals a mile. Although I met up with people from a group, I decided to do my own workout as suggested by the Chicken Tender Runner himself. I started with a 400 warm up and was running with a couple of guys. We started kind of fast and I knew it was too fast for me if I didn't want to crash and burn, so I told them I had to slow down if this was just a warm up. I didn't want to make the same mistake I made over the weekend, and I am glad I did.

Then I did 3x1 Mile repeats at my goal 10k race pace with 400 recovery in between each mile. One of the guys stuck with me for the work out. I could feel at first that he seemed a bit restless because he maybe wanted to go a bit faster, but I knew if I did that, I would ruin things for the later miles. I am glad I stuck to my guns because I started off a bit slower but went faster with each mile and felt stronger in each one too.

Here is my average pace for each mile: 9:38; 9:34, 9:26. 

Not an actual 'Action Shot'

Pretty good descending set, and then followed by an 800 cooldown, for a grand total of 4.25 miles that really felt like the flew by. If it hadn't been for people waiting for me to go eat afterward, I would have done another mile repeat. But as you are aware, I am also a social being, so I had to finish up so I could then hang out, eat wings and share a pitcher. 

Now I have signed up for Jingle All the Way 10k in December, so I need to make sure I can keep those paces up for 6.2 miles and break and hour. I might also do a 10k before that while visiting my family this coming week, but I wouldn't particularly "race" that one since I want to do it with my brother and sister-in-law, so it would be more of a fun, group run. This kind of fits into my new grand plan of trying to convince my brother to sign up for a triathlon. He was quite the high school athlete and in addition to his soccer skills would run track and cross country in the off seasons to maintain fitness for soccer and ran the LA Marathon way back in the day. My mom told me his good friend and boss is into triathlons and that a new pool opened up, so it seems like all the puzzle pieces are falling into place. The only tough part is he is also the father of 3 very adorable but very active sons, so a lot of his weekends and evenings are devoted to shepherding them to various sports practices and games of their own, but maybe I can get him to drink the kool-aid... at least for a Sprint to Olympic Distance race.

And the award goes to....

Well, this blog is working, kind of - I haven't been guilt tripped into working out by others so much as feeling a bit guilty myself and then not blogging about it, but I was guilt tripped for not updating... so this is for you, SWC! 

Since my last update, I have worked out a bit: 
-I've swam a couple of times, one early in the morning and the other tonight. I am hoping to make Monday nights regular swim nights, so hopefully some of my local friends will  keep on joining me for extra motivation.
-I've ran a bit, but not enough. I went out this weekend and used new gear I bought at the MCM (such as these really bright, reflective sleeves pictured on the right), but it was really cold when I started, so I went out way too fast the first mile and then felt really tired for the next mile and half, then settled for the next 1.7 miles, but then cut it short to stop a the farmer's market. I averaged 11:09 min/miles, which is not impressive and I was pretty sore after... sooooo yeah... I need to run more consistently.
-I haven't ridden my bike, but I did clean it really well yesterday and am waiting for a new bike pump (since someone who borrowed mine broke it) so I can inflate my tires and at least set it up on the trainer for week day training. I would appreciate any trainer work out suggestions if anyone has any. And no need to send me a lmgtfy link - I can do that myself, but figured I'd ask my friends too. I also need to do a bike fit too now that I have aero bars, so maybe I'll get that done as an early Christmas gift to myself. 
-I have been pretty good at keeping up with my push ups and sit ups that are part of the "Tri Chicks 100 Pushups Challenge". Week One I did a total of 68 push ups and 165 sit ups, and Week Two I did 94 push ups and 194 sit ups. 
-I didn't work out the weekend before last, but I did attend a wedding, so I danced a lot and consider it cross training...
-And that same weekend I also attended a party with triathletes, an awesome off season paella party hosted by the awesome (and Colombian) Alejandro, so that's also almost like working out, right? Well, maybe not, but it was a lot of fun, and explains the title of this post. My contribution to the party was funny/silly awards that I drew and decorated myself... such as the one here, Best Organizer of Off Season PAIN awarded to Karen aka 100 push up Tri Chick Challenge organizer.  

Where in the World is Carolina Sandiego...

In just this year I have traveled out of the country four times: Trinidad and Tobago, Colombia, Peru, and most recently, El Salvador. So I apologize for not having had a second to update the blog since I was working out of the country. My flight to El Salvador left Sunday at 5 am (meaning I arrived at Dulles at around 3 am) and returned Saturday morning at around 2 am, and the time in between, I was working... a lot.

But before I left, I did my first stand-alone 5k race, the Sister Cities International Race for Peace in Foggy Bottom. So here is my race report... 


Prep: I received a lot of helpful advice from Andy since he has been key in encouraging me to try to get faster and comes from a running background. He gave me some good advice for my pacing, for setting up different data fields on my garmin watch (using average pace per 1mile lap instead of speed), what to eat, how to warm up, etc. I have only done 5ks at part of the end of Sprint Triathlon... or well the Warrior Dash too... but that doesn't really count, so I didn't know what my speed could be if I were just running. I decided to be a bit conservative and shoot for a goal of sub-30 minutes. 


Pre-Race: Took the metro over to Foggy Bottom and enjoyed how much less stressful pre race for running races are than triathlons. Less gear, less set up, no waves, no transition area - and if I didn't have brunch plans afterwards, then I wouldn't have even needed the big backpack I took so I could have a change of clothes. I did about a mile warm up trying to make sure I went slow. I am trying to make a very conscious effort to better pace myself and go slow when I need to go slow so I don't burn out once I need to go fast. 


Race: Just after 9 am, the race took off. I positioned myself mid way back since I know I am slow, and again, I was making a concerted effort to watch my pace. The course was a weird one as you can see from the map. Several twists and turns and pretty much running around a fork for part of it - down a block, turn, back up the block, down the next block, back up that block, then down the next block and back up. The first mile was overall downhill, but I was trying to keep a bit slow despite the adrenaline from starting the race and the downhills. Around the end of that mile I had synced up with a girl going about the same pace, and she said something about how she was glad I did and how I was suppose to help make sure she didn't stop running. But I felt bad because I knew I was trying to run my own race and had my own goals in mind, so if I had to, I was gonna drop her... which I did about a quarter miler into mile two in the midst of the forking section the race. Andy's advice was very helpful here as average pace turned out to be a much better tool to keep track of my speed. I kept checking to make sure I was at the very least going faster than 9:40 miles, even though the first one was in 9:20. The third mile had some uphills (had to go back up from the downhills from the first mile), so I felt my heart rate creeping up and my average pace falling a bit. That last mile felt a bit long because of the uphill, meaning I definitely need to incorporate hill repeats in my workouts now too. Once I could see the finish line, I took off sprinting. That last "lap" (which wasn't a mile lap but just the .1 or whatever left) had an average pace of like 7:02! At the overall clock, I knew I was under 30 minutes, and my garmin had me around 29:19.

Official Results: My actual official time was actually 29:07! Ohhh, the fury, if I had known more precisely that I was 8 seconds off of sub 29, I would have started sprinting sooner! But I was almost in the top third for my gender and division, not too shabby.

Name	State	Div	ChipTime	ClockTime	Average Pace	Overall	SexPl	DivPl
CM	VA	F2529	29:07	29:33	9:23	232/465	111/302	34/95

Lessons Learned: Holy crap my hands were numb! It was a bit chilly that morning, especially in the shade, and even though I felt comfortable running in shorts and a T-shirt I also learned I need to buy some gloves for running because I could barely type out a text message after the race. Need to continue to work on pacing myself and need to incorporate hill repeats. 


Next goal is going to be sub hour 10k in December. 


Unfortunately I have to catch up a bit after the race training-wise. While away, I swam a bit, mostly to loosen up, at the hotel pool while in El Salvador, and ran 3 miles on a treadmill doing intervals again, in a bit over 30 minutes. This weekend was a bit of madness between the rally and halloween (and I LOOOVE halloween) so I didn't get any good workouts done. 


But yesterday, I started the the 100 push up challenge and the 200 sit up challenge because, as Amanda so eloquently stated, "for some reason, a boat load of us tend to do what Karen tells us". So those updates will now be included in my blog in addition to the overall training. 

Balancing Act

This week has been a clear demonstration of the difficult part of balancing training when things like work commitments and social commitments get in the way. On Monday I had planned to swim in the evening after work. I had my sights set on it and even convinced a friend to go with me. Then as the day progressed, I got pulled into working on a mini proposal with a deadline of that evening. The coworker that got me involved thought everyone was pretty much done and it would just a matter of finalizing and compiling things, but proposals work by their own set of laws of physics and time, and things that should be done quickly will take hours longer. Long story short, I didn't leave the office until 10pm, so I did not swim. I then had the bright idea that I would try to wake up early the next day to swim, but who am I fooling here, I suck at waking up early. So after a battle between me and the snooze button, I did not make it to the pool. 

And then Tuesday after work, I had a social commitment instead of a work out. A friend from college was in town and thus I had to fulfill my duties as a gracious host to our nation's capitol. I took him to eat tapas and then enjoy some mint juleps from a very DC establishment filled with people in power suits possibly engaged in bar-based behind the scenes deal making. 

So although I am losing this battle verses training so far this week, I shall not be deterred! This evening, I did my first track work out... well, kind of. Since it is a high school track, they had some sort of sporting event, so we couldn't actually use the track, but used a trail near by to do a track-like workout. Adam finally succeeded in convincing me to join him and his friends from DC Road Runners on their weekly track work. The plan was 3 minutes on, 2 minutes off... 3 minutes trying to go fast/race pace-ish and 2 minutes slowly recovering. The group was small, but one guy had just recently done a marathon and was in recovery mode, so he was nice enough to keep me company since my general pace is pretty slow for a group of runners. In total I ran 5 miles including the warm up and cool down in total of 52 minutes. I need to get more savvy about using my garmin watch more effectively for these sorts of workouts, but from what I could tell, the first couple of "ons" were around high 8 or low 9 minute/miles. I think we did about 5 of the on-off combos. I need to learn to keep a more consistent pace and not fade out during a workout. But I was really happy I did the workout and was amazed at how quickly the time and distance flew by. Tonight helped me gain some confidence to make track workouts a more regular occurrence, and as I learn the workouts, my paces, and how to use my garmin to get better data, I'll also be able to describe them more eloquently.

All the leaves are brown...

After a horrendous winter with apocalyptic snow fall that was followed by record breaking heat waves this summer, DC has been punished with awful weather. However, somehow all of that seems like a distant memory with the beautiful autumn weekend we just had. This weekend was sunny, bright, a bit crisp and made more beautiful with the background of the leaves starting to change.

Crossing Rock Creek

Saturday morning, I was able to invite myself (thanks Alejandro and Rob) to my first ever trail run in Rock Creek Park (RCP). I was a real genius by leaving my Garmin GPS watch in the car searching for  signal instead of wearing it on my wrist for the run, so I don't know my distance, speed or heart rate. I do know I went out too fast as I tried to keep up with Rob and Alejandro for the first bit. Once I let them go and put  on my ipod, I was able to settle to a speed to keep my heart rate more normal and just enjoy being in this urban oasis - for non locals, RCP is giant park that intersects all of DC yet makes you feel like you're miles away in a beautiful forest. Once I decided to turn around, Rob tried to make sure I knew where I was going, and I thought I did... up until I started running over fallen trees I didn't remember before, and then had to cross the actual creek, and then hit a road. So, whoops, I got lost, but I had my phone on me, so google maps came in FTW. In total I was out at least 45 minutes, so I figure at the very least 4 miles. The other guys had gone longer, so once I found the parking lot, I used the extra time for some core work such as push ups, sit ups, lunges, etc. Rob very graciously let me invite myself to brunch at his house as well with a nice spread of bagels, fruit, and vanilla ice cream (although I was the only one that partook in ice cream). But in all, I think I am hooked; I really enjoy trail running. It made different parts of my legs sore - like right above my achilles, which is probably a good thing to strengthen (as Rob explained) more of the stabilizing and lateral muscles that don't get used when going in a straight line on the road.

On Sunday, Ty and Julia planned a great off-season activity of going for a hike in Old Rag, which is located a couple of hours outside of DC. According to Alejandro's garmin gps watch, it was a climb of over 2,500 ft for a distance of over 9.6 miles (probably closer to 10 if you include the walk from the parking lot to the start of the trail) which we did in around 4 hours of hiking (not including breaks). It was a great group that went out there so it combined two things I enjoy perfectly: training AND being social! I felt the burn again in my lower calves/upper achilles, and also my glutes and quads. The climb up had some surprisingly tough rock scramble climbing, so there was some good team work, including some key butt boosting. And in some sort of unspoken understanding, we all dressed up like Skittles - a taste the rainbow hike!

A Warrior Weekend to get my @$$ into gear

My goal race this year was the Eagleman Half Ironman Distance (1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike ride, 13.1 run) which was back in June. During much of the training for that, I was trying to balance social time with non tri-friends along with getting in long distance training. That often meant being out late at night, and then meeting up with tri friends after a couple of hours sleep to do some hung over training. I don't regret any of it since I enjoy being a night owl as well as training... but once the race was done, my focus became enjoying the off season.

And enjoy I did! I had a 2+ week vacation to Colombia, made new friends, went out dancing a lot, etc etc. Work also picked up the pace and I got to travel to Peru as well. All of this meant that I stopped working out. With the exception of a hand full of runs, swims, and biking in Deep Creek Lake on 4th of July, I didn't do much. I kept making grand plans to start tomorrow, but like a bad dieter or a smoker trying to quit, tomorrow never came. 

Medellin                              Cuzco                         Going out 

But this past weekend was my deadline - I was going to start working out again! And it was the perfect excuse because it was a weekend trip with tri friends. On Saturday, I woke up in Dewey Beach and joined Sandy for the first part of her run (since she is training for MCM). As we had done in the Spring for our Awesome Cherry Blossom Adventure, I decided to take my camera along to take fun pictures along the way. We started with our jumping pictures. Then went on our way and I went out about 2.5 miles with Sandy with a few picture stops. For having barely run, I felt strong, but have no data since my garmin watch was left behind. I turned back and did about 1-1.5 miles and was starting to feel out of breath, so I went to the beach and tried to run there, but mostly did sprints and then walked. But it was a beautiful day and I enjoyed being out and at least getting my body moving again (beyond the booty shaking I've been doing while dancing). 

Then Sunday we drove to Quarryville, PA for the Warrior Dash, a 5k race with about a dozen obstacles and tons of mud and some fire. Amanda, Sandy, Lindsey and I said the goal was to finish it together, so that's what we did. It wasn't as tough as I expected and the obstacles were fun and none were too hard or impossible. But we did get muddy. Very, very muddy.

The adrenaline from the fun race and endorphins from working out again kept me going through the week. Monday, I met up with Andy for a swim... but gah, even though swimming is suppose to be my strong suit, Andy was kicking my butt in the water and I was really feeling exhausted with a side of bruised ego since he's gotten faster since the last time we swam. Oh well, that tells me I need to swim more. But at least I can kick faster than him!

Tuesday, I ran 3.3 miles. I did the first 2 in under 20 minutes and felt very strong. I was focusing on improving my form and felt good. Then reality set in that I am out of shape, and the next 1.3 were mixed in with some walking, but still did that in 14 minutes. Then I went to the gym and did some strength training.

Wednesday, I went to a spin class at WSC, and my heart was pumping hard, but I focused on keeping a high cadence on all the "hill climbs". 

So the long weekend really did help get my @$$ in gear again. I took Thursday as a rest day and have to see if I swim or not on Friday. If not, then this weekend I am up for a swim and probably a run, and I think a long hike on Sunday.

Social Butterfly on Social Media

I am a social butterfly... sometimes too social for my own good. I often joke that I am more dedicated to attending happy hours than I am about training. But I also call myself a triathlete. I have been involved in the sport a couple of years and really enjoy it, often times because of the friends I have made and the challenges I have accomplished with them. But many of these friends are going to move up to Ironman Distance races, and I'm not interested in this point of my life in taking on that endeavor. Instead my goal is to get faster at shorter distances, but this requires me to be more consistent in training, setting goals beyond just finishing, and focusing on speed work. 

And since I'm such a sucker for peer pressure, I've already signed up for my first race next year (Columbia Tri), and peer pressure also made me start this blog. Hopefully by having an audience, as small as it may be, will create the sort of social pressure for me to stay accountable to training and working out more consistently. So I hope you enjoy reading and if I start to flake out, I get guilt tripped into recording my progress which means doing things to create progress!