I started casually running back around 2005. Back then, I didn’t know anything about wicking clothes, Road ID’s, or compression socks. I would just run at the track once a week, and then head to my favorite trail on the weekends. Nothing over 6-miles.

Fast forward a couple of years later, in 2007, and my friend Vicki and I used to run a few miles around our office after work. One day she sent me a link on the Garmin 305. I had no idea what it was, and she explained that it would track our pace, distance, calories, and had GPS. I thought it was rather pricey, but she bought one so I did too.

I remember the first time we ran with it. We were changing in the locker room at work and I had no idea how to put the heart monitor on. But once we ran with it, I was hooked. I would say I have used it 90% of the time ever since then.

{Another memory from that time: Vicki signed up to run the San Jose Rock ‘n Roll Half-Marathon and tried to get me to sign up too. I laughed and told her there was no way I’d ever run anything over 6-miles…LOL}

{Me and Vicki}

Fast forward to February 2011, I am running with the Garmin 310XT and now have a running coach who schedules my workouts for me with specific instructions on what paces to run for each workout. Problem is I have zero ability to pace myself. Seriously.

So today he suggested I set my Garmin to a certain pace so that it will alert me if I fall off pace. Problem #2 is, I don’t know how to work the Garmin. I only know how to turn it on and off. Up until 2 months ago, I didn’t even know you could program stuff like alerts and workouts into it.

Flashback to December. After the LA Holiday Half-Marathon, Sandra and I were sitting at LAX waiting for our delayed flight. Of course, we were chatting about running and she told me about all these neat things at the Garmin could do. I was shocked – honestly, I had no idea. I distinctly remember her saying, “That’s the beauty of the Garmin!”

Since then, I have tried to program these so called alerts and workouts into it. Didn’t work. (I guess I should also mention I have never read the User’s Guide). I even met up with Sandra after the Coyote Hills Half-Marathon just so she could show me how to do it. But I ended up forgetting it at home and instead, gave her a tour of the Lululemon store (…and a new addict was born).

So back to this afternoon. I was determined to figure out how to program this darn thing. After a ton of beeps (by the Garmin) and a lot of cursing (by me), I did it. At least I hoped I did. It only took me all afternoon.

Since I had to work in San Jose today, I had planned to run at the Stanford Track after work, but when I got there it was closed for Track practice. The high schools local to me had soccer games going on so I ended up coming home, and running around my neighborhood.

I was anxious to see if my programming worked – and it did! I must say, it was rather exciting! It normally drives me crazy to keep looking at my Garmin while running, but today I it was so much fun!

Not only did it beep every time I finished a programmed step, but it also counted down the mileage instead of counting it up. For some reason, that little change was huge for me. And, instead of seeing how much time has passed, all I could see was the distance countdown and what my current pace was. If I went too fast it would beep, “Slow Down!” and if I went too slowly it would say, “Pick it up!” (or something like it).

I can’t believe I’ve been running with a Garmin for so long and never knew about all these bells and whistles…I feel like a whole new world has been opened up to me!

PS It was 70 degrees with plenty of sunshine during my run. Don’t you love California?!? ☺

I just woke up from a 2-hour nap, and my evening plans don’t commence for another 2 hours so I thought I’d write a post recapping today’s long run.

I have a process, a ritual if you will, for long runs. I’m sure each runner has one. Here’s mine.

I’m finishing Week 4 of marathon training for the Marin County Marathon. Today’s schedule called for an 8-miler.

The Night Before
I make sure to have a good dinner. I don’t go overboard on the carbs, but I make sure I have a balanced meal. Last night I had leftovers of the Lemony Shrimp dish I made on Wednesday, a green salad and fresh strawberries for dessert. Then I had a bowl of Erin Baker’s Dark Chocolate Chunk granola. What can I say – its my weakness. And if there’s ever a right time to indulge, its the night before a long run.

I also make sure I get a good night’s sleep – or at least try to. Ironically, I have been going to bed the earliest on Friday nights, compared to the rest of the week. Last night I was in bed by 9 pm and must’ve fallen asleep right away because I woke up at 1 am with the lights still on. Thankfully, I was able to fall back asleep right away and didn’t get up until 6 am, feeling refreshed for the day.

The Morning Of

* Breakfast:
My intent was to give oatmeal another try. I have always wanted to like oatmeal. I have read how healthy and beneficial it is, but 1. I can never make it right (instant or original) and 2. I can’t get over the texture. I don’t like it. But I decided, it wasn’t a good idea to try a new thing before a long run so I stuck with my favorite again – Erin Baker’s Dark Chocolate Chunk granola. Usually I have 1 serving (1/2 cup), but today I had 2 servings.

* Route:
I usually have my route planned the night before, but with the unpredictable rain, I left it to be a “game day decision.” The original plan was to run along the Embarcadero again (in downtown San Francisco), then meet my friend Medha at the Ferry Building for lunch. While the weather looked like it was going to be a nice sunny day, I just wasn’t feeling it. There was also a motor cross event scheduled at AT&T Park and I wasn’t in the mood to be dodging through people.

I also wasn’t all that jazzed to head out to my normal trail – Sawyers Camp. It would have been perfect terrain, what with all the rain we’ve had, but I am bored with that place. I’ve run it so many times that I know every nook and cranny of it.

So I decided to stay local and started out right from my front door. I wasn’t sure where I was going, but I would just run until I hit 8 miles.

* Tunes:
I added some new tunes to my running play list. Have I also mentioned that I renamed it? I use to call it “Burn”, but now I call it, “Run This Town.” Anyway, I got some new tunes from Chic Runner’s recent post. She always seems to know when I am in need of new material. I also added the following songs to my list:

- “Whataya Want From Me” by Adam Lambert (thanks for the tip V!)
- “Put It in A Love Song” by Alicia Keys
- Re-added “Crazy In Love” by Beyonce
- “Hey Ma” by Cam’ron > got reacquainted with this song via Shoop Radio on Pandora, thanks to Alli
- Re-added “Love Sex Magic” by Ciara
- “On to the Next One” by Jay-Z
- “Paper Planes” by MIA
- “Feel Me Flow” by Naughty by Nature (again, a Shoop Radio find)

* Accessories:
After running in the rain last weekend, I decided I needed a hat with a visor. I don’t mind the rain (if its not pouring), but I don’t like it in my eyes. After seeing a posting about a hat on the Lulu Addict blog, I ventured to my Lulu store and found just the hat I was looking for!

I am not a hat person – at all – but this one fit great! It is seriously awesome. Even though it didn’t rain, it kept the sun out of my eyes (because I also don’t like to run with sunglasses) and didn’t bug me once. Its definitely a keeper.

While at Lulu, I was talked into trying their new running socks.

Actually, I don’t know if they’re new, but they’re new to me. What’s unique about them is that they specify which one isfor the left foot and which one is for the right. Its a good thing the sales girl pointed that out to me or else I honestly don’t think I would have noticed. The socks were great! They were high enough to protect the back of my ankles from rubbing against my shoes, and no blisters at all. I think I need to head back to the store and stock up on more.

* Gear:
Any time I run longer than 7 miles I bring my fuel belt with me. I filled the bottles up with my usual Grape Propel, but today I tried the powder mix. Not my first choice, but Target was out of the bottles at the time. It worked fine and I hydrated every 2 miles, as normal.

Since I was only planning on running 8 miles, I wasn’t sure if I should bring a GU. I didn’t think I’d need one, but just in case, I brought one anyway. Better to have one and don’t need it than not to have one and do need it.

* The Run
I started out with a 1/2 mile walk to warm-up. It was in the mid-40s. Although the sun was shining, it was the type of morning where it was cold in the shade, but warm in the sun. I decided to start out with my Marina Loop route and then see where my feet took me from there.

This was the first time I’ve ran longer than 5 miles through my town. One thing I learned is that there’s a lot of opportunities to rest because of all the darn stop lights (which aren’t timed very well, I might add).

As I ran, I did a mental calculation of my total miles for the month. If I added correctly (which is always questionable with or without a calculator), 8 miles would put me at 49 miles for the month. 50 just sounds so much better, so at about 3 miles in I decided today would be a 9-miler, not 8.

As I previously mentioned, Foster City ain’t that big so getting 9 miles in was tough. I stuck to the major streets just because there’s tons of tiny roads and cul-de-sacs and its very easy to get lost in Foster City…and I don’t have the best sense of direction.

Here’s a photo looking over Highway 92, looking towards the San Mateo Bridge.

Here’s a photo of my favorite spot on the run. I don’t remember the street name, but its the one just before Edgewater, and looks out to the many lagoons in FC.

Because of all the stoplight breaks, I didn’t feel tired at all (although my legs did start to get heavy at 7 miles). But my annoying Garmin kept beeping the entire time to tell me my heart rate was too high. I don’t get it. I wasn’t huffing and puffing, my heart wasn’t racing (at least it didn’t feel like it), I was running at cruising speed and yet I was in the max zone. My plan tells me to stay in Zone 3 or 4 for long runs. I think I’d almost have to be walking to stay in Zone 3 at this point. I just don’t get it.

And can someone please tell me how to turn off those HR alerts? I swear that thing must have buzzed a thousand times…

I finished 9 miles in 1:43:40, for an 11:31 min/mile pace. I wasn’t trying for any time at all, and in fact, didn’t pay attention to my pace during the entire run, so this was fine for me. The point was to keep things slow and easy.

Post-Run
When I hit 9 miles I turned off the Garmin and walked the rest of the way home. The nice thing about running from your front door is:

1. You can stretch in your living room, which is what I did for about 20 minutes.
2. You can eat right away – I made myself a strawberry – banana – peanut butter – chocolate milk smoothie.

3. Change your clothes right away – no driving back in the car in sweaty clothes.
4. Take an ice bath right away. I threw in epsom salt too.
5. Shower right away
6. Eat lunch right away. Thankfully I had food in the fridge and didn’t have to get in the car and drive somewhere to get takeout. I was famished!

I spent the rest of the day RICE-ing (rest, ice, compress, elevate), and took a great 2-hour nap!

Tomorrow I’ll hit the pool for some cross-training and to workout any kinks in my legs.

This is pretty much my typical weekend when on a training program. Keeps me from hitting the shops on weekends.

My staycation is over, but it was fun while it lasted. Coming off of last weekend’s race, I was feeling good about the effort and mileage I was building…

(Race photo from last week)

…but was supposed to go out of town this past weekend and wasn’t quite sure how I was going to keep up the momentum. But plans changed at the last minute and I ended up having a 4-day weekend at home! I was so excited; me, unscheduled, with nothing to do! The best part of the whole break was being able to get some quality workouts in, without any time restraints. And my new toy made the workouts even more fun.

After last week’s race I thought my Garmin 305 died on me. I panicked because I HAVE to run with my Garmin. So, I went out to get a new one and ended up with the Garmin 310XT, which is even better than the 305. Its waterproof, so I can swim with it, syncs wirelessly, and the new web-based software is very, very cool — nice upgrade from the desktop client I was using.

Thursday – Swim
This was the first time I’d actually used any type of tracking device during swimming. Before Friday, I’d been swimming blind, not knowing anything about my performance. Now that I have a benchmark to measure how I’m doing, I can get more out of my swim workouts.

Distance: 1.02 miles
Time: 22:19
Calories: 219
Temp: 52 degrees

I have no point-of-reference, so I have no idea if this is good or not.

I also was able to get out to Danville to see my massage therapist, Heather Hindmarsh. Its a far drive to see her, but she’s well worth it. She specializes in working with athletes, lately a lot of runners and triathletes, so she knows just where the troublesome areas are. She does a trigger-point massage on me and its painful. VERY PAINFUL. But very worth it. You can read my Yelp review on Heather here.

Friday – Run
Friday’s are usually reserved for easy runs at a conversational pace (in prep for long runs on Saturdays). It was the first run after my painful massage. The pain in my foot was considerably less and my legs felt a lot looser, but I started to feel a little tingling in my hammy. I ran 3 hours later than usual but luckily it was overcast so still cool.

Distance: 5 miles
Time: 48 minutes
Pace: 10:04 min/mi
Calories: 433
Temp: 55 degrees

I spent the rest of Friday, with Wendy, one of my BFF’s. We did a little shopping and stopped in at Lululemon where I discovered a whole bunch of items that were just marked down. Of course I had to get a few new running tops!

But by the late afternoon/evening, I hurt all over — foot, hip, hamstring, but my IT band was the worst. This was a new one. I swear, I am so injury-prone. I was planning to run 10-miles the next day and seriously wondered if I could/should. So before going to bed, I rolled for an hour on the foam roller, with a rolling pin and the theracane. If I didn’t feel better in the morning, I’d cancel the run.

Saturday – The Long Run
I woke up a little stiff, but felt better than the night before, so I lathered myself with Biofreeze and put my new “Run Swiftly Tech” Lulu top. It made me feel swiftly – lol. I prefer to run in tank tops, but I have chafing issues so I normally run using long-sleeved shirts. But I’m getting tired of it so I hoped this t-shirt style top would be a good compromise. (BTW – loved the shirt but I still chafed).

I headed out to Sawyers Camp. Its one of my favorite places for long runs. Its marked every half mile and is shaded from direct sunlight.

I walked for a 1/2 mile to warm-up before actually starting to run. I knew I needed a slow start so I stayed at a 10:45-11:00 min/mile for the first 3-miles. Pacing has always been a challenge for me and I knew if I listened to my regular Burn play list, I wouldn’t stay at a slow pace, so for the first time, I ran to Hawaiian music – Kapena, Willie K, C&K, Hawaiian Style Band. It worked. The rhythm was even enough to keep me energized but slow enough to keep me on a slow-pace.

After three miles I felt better (and listened to my entire Hawaiian play list), I switched over to my Burn play list and increased my speed a little. I hydrated every 2 miles and had a GU at the halfway point. The longer I ran, the better and better I felt. To give you some background, for the two half-marathons I’ve done, the longest run I’d done before the race was 10-miles. This was the best 10-miler I’ve ever done. I did started to feel my feet at 8.5 miles but other than that, I didn’t feel any other fatigue. Usually by the end of a long run, I’m dying to reach the finish, but this time, I felt strong, like I could have gone longer.

I walked a half mile to cool down, then stretched for about 30 minutes; it felt so good to just lie on the bench and let the sun wash over me. I spent the rest of the afternoon rolling and stretching. I am still a little sore but definitely not like how I was on Friday. Here’s screenshots from the cool new GarminConnect app.

Distance: 10.03 miles
Time: 1:44:27
Avg Pace: 10:24 min/mi
Best Pace: 7:22 min/mi
Calories: 898
Temp: 53 degrees

Sunday – Swim and Yoga
With Sunday being a rest day, I just swam for 30-minutes and then went to Lululemon for a vinyasa yoga class. I was so proud of myself – I was able to escape the store without having done any more damage to the wallet.

Usually after a trip I’m left feeling like I need a vacation from my vacation. I’m so happy I canceled the Salt Lake/Park City thing; besides the great workouts, I got to clean my house, sleep-in and have long overdue quality time with friends. I mean, if I hadn’t, I would have missed out on special moments, like my little buddy Brody REALLY wanting some birthday cake. I swear, his facial expression is the best ever; he knows how to work the camera. — video here