a thought on running to run

Yesterday my friend and training partner Pati and I went on a 'long' run...7.5 miles. We planned this long run around Coronado Island and about half way into the run I turned to Pati and said something along the lines of, "I don't get running. Here we are running in a big circle and for what." We didn't stop anywhere, we didn't get anywhere we couldn't have gotten to by car, and yes although we DID get some exercise, actually let me preface that we got ALOT of exercise, we were also left sore and in the same place we started. Pati and I decided that we don't get the people that say they like to run to run (at least not long distances >5 miles by my definition). And although my current definition of long distance run is > 5 miles, when I started running anything over one or two miles was long distance, so if you think that I'm crazy to think 5 miles is alot or not alot, I can see how that personal definition is easily changeable.

Let me just make the point that I am running to train so I don't die when I run the half marathon, ok die may be a little drastic but more so I can semi "enjoy" the process of participating in the half marathon if that is possible. I do not see myself being coming a life long long distance runner or going further to participate in a full marathon or even another half marathon for that. After this process I can possibly see myself running occasionally for exercise but that's it. Pati really put things into perspective for me when she stated at the end of our 7.5 mile run, "If we ran that again, we would be closer to our half marathon distance," to which my response was, "Shut up!" One long run at a time I will get there.

nor pac

This post comes a little late, but better than never, right!? Mid-February I headed up to Washington state to visit my dear friends the McQuiddy's. My friend Kristin, from nursing school, whom I've mentioned before, was going to be flying solo with her 14 month old, Haley, while her husband Frank needed to travel to San Diego with the Navy, so I flew north to keep her company and help her out with the now walking little one! Frank ended up having his travel plans changed and was in Seattle for the first 2 days I was there. My first full day in the Seattle area we took a beautiful hike through a "forest" which opened up to rock lined beach...it was gorgeous!

This is where our hike started...don't let the shinning sun fool you, it was in the 30's!





Getting a little deeper into the forest.

Haley sacked out about 5 minutes in.



Mrs. and  Mr.



The trees just about to open up to the beach.



The Olympic Mountains standing tall over the Puget Sound.

Kristin and I



Mobile Haley...not too sure what to think about walking on rocks.



I enjoyed this day and all our other days together emensly! Thanks for having me up to visit, it was great to spend time with you all! I will greatly miss not having you on the West Coast for much longer : ( but I look forward to visiting Newport, Rhode Island!

10 K

On Sunday, March 13th (my sister's 25th birthday), my dad and I completed a 10 K (6.15 miles). This is the longest distance I have ever run at one time...I believe EVER! I finished the race in one hour and 21 minutes which was really exciting, especially since my dad and I roughly stated right before we started running that our goal was to finish in 90 minutes. It was slightly unfortunate that the race was really unorganized and  started late.

As for the mile by mile details, Dad, Mom (our cheerleader), and myself walked from my parents house to Vasona Park where most of the race was held. Once the race started Dad and I ran together for the first 2 1/2 miles before I encouraged him to go ahead as I had been battling a side cramp since about half a mile into the start of the race and needed to take some walking breaks. In the end he finished just 10 minutes before me. Mile 3-4 was hard for me mentally, at that point I felt like we had run so far and we were only at mile 3 ...and all I could think was we are only half way there ...instead of... we are half way there! At about mile 4 I finally started feeling in the groove and my side ache was gone and things were feeling good. Unfortunately that feeling didn't last long and soon the muscle and joint pain was the only thing on my mind. By mile 5 I was just trying to keep my legs moving as I knew I was almost there. The last couple hundred yards my dad came back to finish with me, he was such great inspiration and gave me the encouraging words that I need to push through to the finish line. After passing the finish line I felt such a sense of accomplishment, we hydrated, nourished our bodies and walked back home.

Reflecting on my training, I believe that I could have done a lot more running in preparation for the 10 K and will definitely need to do more training for the half-marathon! Despite lack of training in the past few weeks I was expecting to be a lot more sore the day after the race. I woke up with sore calves but overall felt pretty good (that was until I tried to run on Tuesday) but life in general wasn't too bad! As far as diet and pre-hydration goes pre-10 K I believe I did well with that. I drank probably 4 times the amount of water I usually drink (I historically don't drink enough)  the 2 days before and day of the race and increased my carbs. My energy and hydration levels throughout the run felt good. As my training runs and especially for the half-marathon I will be trying some Gu and gels for mid run energy boosts.

I am looking forward to a final 10 weeks of strong training before I will run the SD Rock and Roll Half-Marathon. The 10 K re-energized me (and slightly scared me) for the next few weeks of increased mileage and hard work! Here are some pictures from race day!



Pre-Race Hub-Bub



Dad and I pre-race

Get ready...Get Set...GO!

Dad and I cross the start line!

"HI Mom"

Dad finishes!

I finish...I look like my legs are about to buckle!

Dad and I post-race! (We both got finisher's medals!)

sister love

Over the Christmas holiday I asked my friend Libby to take some pictures of my sisters and I to give to my parents for their next birthday. I really like Libby's take on photography and since she has known us since childhood I thought she would be the perfect person to catch the natural relationship my sisters and I have, and luckily for me she happily abliged.

I asked my sisters to come with me one day while my parents were working and to take the pictures. They were not overly thrilled and to top it off, it ended up raining during the whole photo session. The photo session went well and I was so excited to view the pictures just a few days later!

So since December I have been keeping these pictures a secret from my parents and now it is finally March and both of them are having their birthdays within a week of eachother and I can finally reveal the pictures to them I can as well post them here. My mom had been upset that day we went to take the pictures cause we told her we went to lunch together and she wasn't buying it and was annoyed cause she thought we were keeping a secret from her....well Mom, we were but since it was for you I hope it makes up for it!

Despite my sisters not being thrilled about going out in the rain for the photo shoot, they both individually thanked me for arranging the day and stated that it was a good time (I agree!) Without further adu, here are the pictures from the day!

Thanks for capturing these pictures for us Libby!

85

This week my 'Papa' (Fiebiger) celebrated his 85th birthday, all I can say is what an accomplishment that is! I feel very fortunate to have had him in my life thus far to have many memories with him throughout the years. I have many memories with Papa but as a child some in particular that stick out in my mind are: spending time on Papa's boat; we would go to his boat and spend the night, go fishing, and just go for rides around the harbor. Also as a child when my family and I had moved to Northern California we would come south for a week to what we called "Camp Nana", during those weeks my cousins, sisters, grandparents and I would play card games, go searching for golf balls at night, learn how to hit a golf ball, go to Disneyland, and just spend time together as a family. Although my Papa's health has been deteriorating in recent years I will always have these special memories with him and my Nana to hold on to for years to come, as do I still enjoy going to visit them and listen to their stories of their lives well lived!


Nana & Papa on at my U of A graduation dinner- May 2006



Just after I graduated at U of A!

Papa and my dad on Papa's 80th Birthday!

training update

I have slightly fallen off the wagon with both my half-marathon training as well as my blogging about it (mostly since there isn't a whole lot of training to actually blog about). One of these 2 things I will be changing and unfortunately for my readers it is not the blogging part. I am running in a 10 K this Sunday, March 13th (also my sister's birthday). This is making me mainly really scared for my half-marathon which is over twice the distance of a 10K....ahhhhhh! I need to and will be working on my training again mostly so I don't die on June 5th and so that I can slightly enjoy the process of running in a half marathon! I will try to give occassional updates on how things are going but will not re-start my weekly updates (mainly cause they were making me bored and thus I'm sure you were even more bored!). Over the past few weeks I have been running 1-2 times a week and sometimes doing one other day of cross-training. My work schedule has severely taken a toll on my energy and training drive. Hopefully since the half-marathon is going to creep up here quickly I will be scared into getting my butt into gear!

happy march!