26 November 2005

My blog is all messed up.

For some reason my profile is all the way down at the bottom. I haven't touched the template at all so I don't know why this happened. But truthfully, today I don't really care. I'll mess with it tomorrow.

Last night I could not sleep at all. I really hate that because the one thing I do really, really well is sleep. Anytime, anywhere, for any length of time, I can sleeeeeep. So on the rare occasions when I have trouble sleeping it really bugs me. Anyway, it must have been about 1:00 a.m. when I finally drifted off and I had to get up at 4:45 a.m. to go to marathon training - yeah, that was fun. But it really is true what they say, the sleep you get the night before doesn't matter. I felt great during our run. I had energy and felt loose so it was a really good run. I was tired after I got home but I think that was from lack of sleep not exertion during the run.

The weather here has been really crappy lately. It's been overcast and rainy for like 4 days. There has also been little tradewinds so the humidity has been right around 100% - yeah, that sucks.

Not much else to say. It's been a quiet weekend. I think all weekends should be longer than the work weeks....

I'm starting to get excited about vacation; in 26 days I'll be gone - yeah!!! Do you realize my husband and I have not taken a 2 week vacation together in almost 20 years!!!!!! We've taken short trips, long weekends, 1 week trips, etc. but not a 2 full week vacation. The last time we did that was when we came to Hawaii for the first time in 1986. We were on Maui for Thanksgiving and ended up spending 12 hours on Oahu because we got bumped from our flight. Wow, unbelieveable!!!! My husband is from Hawaii and on that trip he said he would really like to move back here if it was possible. After seeing the place I thought I could live here and 4 years later we moved over. That was 15 years ago. Truly amazing how time flies. Of course, we may not make it though a full 2 week vacation; we may end up in divorce court, together 24/7 - ooohh, this could get ugly!!! No, it will be fine. As with all men, I will just have to make him believe that everything was his idea. Trust me, after 21 years I've got it down pat ;)

Enought rambling, I've got some quilts to make for Christmas gifts so I need to get cranking on them. I'm thinking of starting a business of making quilts out of old race shirts. I have a ton and I haven't been at this as long as some of you guys have. You must have thousands of shirts collected. I made my husband a 49er quilt out of all his old 49er t-shirts and it came out pretty cool; huge but cool. Since then I've become a quilting expert. Maybe I'll make one out of my shirts as an example. That would be a good little business. I could advertise on the internet and at all the local races. Hmmm, I may be on to something here, I'll have to give this a little more thought....

Okay, off to sew.....

24 November 2005

The Honolulu Marathon Turkey Trot

The Honolulu marathon was started by a guy named Dr. Jack Scraf. He was a cardiologist and a runner and decided Honolulu needed a marathon. He also wrote one of the first marathon training books because he was convinced anyone could run a marathon ( I have the book, it was written in the 70's and some of the info is laughable). Anyway, he also started the Honolulu Marathon Training clinic. Starting in March this clinic meets at 7:30 every Sunday morning for the long runs. It's free and it's quite good if you've never run a marathon and are motivated to train on your own during the week. Do not ask me why I'm going into all this, it just seemed appropriate.... Meanwhile, back at the ranch..... No so really, Dr Scraf realized in all this marathon stuff that people run into trouble the first 10 miles of a marathon. So awhile back he started the Thanksgiving Turkey Trot. This covers the first 10 miles of the marathon coure (not really) and gives you a chance to practice that crucial period. For this race no watches or iPods are allowed. You predict your time and if you are within 60 seconds you win a turkey (actually only the first 6 win turkeys, the rest get other stuff).

Pre Race:

I get up as usually at 4:45a.m. Now on race days and long run days I am never hungry when I get up and usually need to gag something down. This morning I roll out of bed starving!!! And, I have nothing really to eat. I make some peanut butter toast and pray for the best. I'm out of the house by 5:30 and at Kapiolani Park by 6:15. Just as I pull into my parking spot the radio starts playing Alice's Restaurant. Now I haven't heard this in at least 15 years and just had to listen. If you're old enought to remember this song you know, I HAD TO LISTEN. So, 18 minutes later I'm finally ready to get out of my car and head over to registration. Now our coach was there asking us what time's we were predicting. I said I didn't know and was going to talk to the rest of my group and see what they were thinking. So the coach says, "You should do it in 3 hours." I was like, WHAT!!! Dude, you are on drugs, big time drugs. So I wrote down 2:28:00 because I was planing on going slow.

The Race:

They used the cannon that starts the Honolulu Marathon to start this race. Now, it's one thing when there are 35,000 people. But when there are only 1,000 and you are standing near the cannon - not good. So after crawling back into our skins, we took off - slow..... We just cruised. Since we had no watches I had no idea what the splits were but we were cruising. Up over Diamond Head, around through Kahala to the gas station. Now, I was having some issues with my left IT band; something that has never bothered me before; but it passed around mile 6. There is this one stretch of road that's in every race (there really is only 1 course on Oahu, we are an island after all) that I hate, absolutely hate. There are no sidewalks only grassy strips and the road has a seriously large bump in the middle (what the hell is it called when the road bows in the middle and then slants down to the curbs????). By the time I was nearing this section of road I was feeling pretty good and decided today would be the day I conquer it. I would run the entire way and not let this damn road get the best of me anymore. So I did it!!! I ran all the way to the water stop at the base of Diamond Head. (Yeah!!! Wild cheering and yelling!!!!) Then it was back up over Diamond Head and I was there. I was stoked I felt good (though I would have felt better if I'd remembered to take my Advil before the race) and I came in (drum roll) 2:15:30. 12.5 minutes faster than I predicted!!! And I felt completely awesome!!!!

After Race:

I picked up the fully cooked turkey dinner on the way home and lazed around the rest of the day. I've now eaten and am stuffed and almost ready for bed. I have plans to train in the morning, if it's nice I'm off on my bike. Oh yeah, I finally got a chance to watch the Ironman Kona show - WOW!!!! That was truly amazing. It really makes me think that someday I too can do an Ironman.....

A few other people did Turkey Trots today, Bolder had fun dodging the slow pokes (like me:) and Nancy set a PR. Good job guys!!!!

Hope everyone had a great day!!!

23 November 2005

It's all in how you look at things.

For the past couple of weeks I've been trying to get back into the habit of working out in the morning. I go to bed with excellent intentions but usually fail to get up. I have managed to do it a couple of times and I generally try to tell myself how great it is and how good I feel, yada, yada, yada....... But far more times I don't get up and then end up beating myself up a little bit. This morning, again, I tried to get up but ended up hitting that snooze way too often. I then got up, had coffee, and headed out to walk the dogs. It was then it hit me - BANG!!! I do get some exercise every morning!!!! I walk the dogs every single morning!!! I actually take 2 walks because I can't walk all 3 at the same time. Okay, it's not a run or a bike ride, or aerobics, but it is a brisk 30-40 minute walk at sunrise. It's something. So from now on, I do exercise every morning I'm just going to try and add more. Somehow that sounds better.....



Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving. I'll be doing a turkey trot in the morning and picking up a fully prepared dinner on the way home. The rest of the day will be devoted to hanging around, watching some football, and drinking beer.

22 November 2005

UGH!!!! My head hurts....

I'm at work trying to run this chemistry test and it's just killing me. I can't figure out the method and it requires tons of thinking and it's the almost a long weekend and I just can't do it. I have to get this test done but I'm really struggling with it. I think I'll just go jump in with both feet and hope for the best.

Sorry for the whining......

In 20 days I'm doing a marathon!!!

And I finally feel like I'm ready.

After yesterday's awesome run I was feeling pretty proud of myself. Then tonight was my marathon group and we did 1 hour 20 minutes of running and I feel just awesome. I think I'm ready. Bring on 26.2 miles I can take it.

Anyway, I'm feeling awesome and plan on cruising the rest of the way to the marathon.

La, the marathon starts at 5:00 a.m. and no, the sun is not up at that time. Honolulu marathon prides itself on a number of unique things. It calls itself "The People's Marathon" since there is no time cutoff. They say anyone can do it. People have taken 12 hours to finish this thing and it's perfectly legal. It also claims to be the only marathon that starts in the dark. There's also something about it being the 2nd or 3rd largest marathon with the most Japanese runners or some crazy stuff like that. They have lots of claims to fame and as you stand at the start line they run down them all..

Okay, I'm starting to get really excited about this here marathon thing.....

20 November 2005

WOW! Things are not as bad as they looked...

So my last couple of long runs have not gone well and I was starting to get crazy over it. Earlier this week I totally melted down and was pretty much convinced that this marathon was going to be a big disaster. What? Me, doom and gloom?? NO way!!!

Anyway, Saturday was our marathon training group and it was supposed to be our final long run of 3 hours, then we will start tapering. So Friday night I got all my stuff together and was pouring over my old running journals to try and see if they offered any clues to what's going on. I didn't find too much info but I did develop a good solid nutrition/drinking plan. I also was going to try salt tablets for the first time. So I was pretty stoked about this run as it really would be the proving ground for the marathon. I was falling asleep in front of the tv by 8:00p.m. so I decided to go to bed early. I set the alarm for 4:30 a.m. and proceeded to fall dead asleep and not hear a thing until 9:00 a.m. Saturday. Now I never sleep this late but I must have shut the alarm off and rolled right over. I figured I needed the sleep so, oh well..

I immediately started making plans for Sunday morning and the more I thought about it the more excited I became. I have not done a long run by myself in a long time and during the marathon I may well find myself alone for a long stretch. Also, all our training starts at 6:00 a.m. and we are done by 9. Even though the marathon starts at 5:00a.m. I fully expect to be out there till 11 or noon. So I figured I'd start my run later in the morning to be out there in the heat of the day. So I planned out my route and set everything aside for the morning.

I got up this morning at 6 and walked the dogs. Once they were all fed and settled I got my stuff and headed out. I drove to Temple Valley, it's a central location around which there is lots of places to run. By the time I found a parking spot and got my shoes on,etc.... it was 7:45 - perfect, 3 hours will put me near 11:00..... I fired up the old iPod (Vince Flynn, Consent to Kill - excellent book) and I was off.

After running for 1/2 an hour I stopped to take my first Clif Blox and salt tablet. After that I stopped and walked every 1/2 hour to take a Cliff Blox, drink some, and every hour take a salt tablet. At the 1 hour mark I felt like I had hardly been running at all. At the 2 hour mark I could not believe how good I felt. When I reached the car at exactly 3 hours I felt like I could have run for another couple of hours. It's amazing how well it went. The route I chose wasn't the greatest as a 2 mile stretch had no sidewalk or shoulder so I had to walk a lot there in really overgrown weeds; that stretch took me almost 45 minutes - not good. But overall an awesome run.

It was really hot and humid with no tradewinds. I was glad of this because it could be like that on marathon day (it's been know to hit the low 90's on marathon day). So the salt tablets appeared to have worked their magic. Everytime I took something or drank water or gatorade, my stomach rebelled a little but it would pass quickly.

I can't say how good I feel. I have my confidence back and think I will be able to complete the marathon. Even now I only have a little soreness in my legs, usually it's much worse. I'm so happy!!! I can't tell you how worried I was but now I know things will be just fine......

Conversation with Hubby

 So yesterday morning I presented my idea of working out at home to the Hubby. Once I presented it to him, he said he was in. I told him I h...