A Case of the Runs

EVENT: Spirit Run 10K DATE: Sunday, March 30, 2008 LOCATION: Newport Beach, CA RACE BEGAN: 7:00 am FINISH TIME: 54:33 After 7 half-marathons and 2 fulls, this was my first 10k. My sister looked at me as if I was dorky when I raised my hand when they asked who was running their first one. I remember taking off very quickly because my third Nike+ Sport Kit chip died on me, and I had nothing to track my pace. At one point, I was able to see the front of the pack, but that did not last long. I slowed down after the first mile and probably some of the other subsequent ones. It drizzled the whole time as we were running the two large loops around a business area of Newport Beach. At around mile 3, I even saw a sizable rainbow. Because we went around more than once, there were four chances for photographers to capture a pained me. My left calf was extremely tight and never really loosened up. Both quads gradually became stiff, especially on those weeny inclines that seemed like mountains. By...

This year's LA Marathon featured a new chip timing system. This one is a computerized strip attached to your bib, and you peel it off to thread it onto your shoelaces. It ends up looking like a "D" shape, hence the name. Genius me didn't stick it on correctly the first time, but the adhesive was good enough to hold on for the race even after I unpeeled it for adjustment (backed up by a piece of tape, which I don't think was necessary). I like this system because results were SO instant, since they didn't have to collect the chips at the end. Results were instantaneously available, so they were able to text-message your splits to whomever subscribed. Best of all, no lifting my dead legs after the race for chip removal (and I'm sure the volunteers were happy about that). It made the finish line much less crowded, so firefighters were able to high-five us instead! These are definitely more secure than the chips . I have to use two of those ties to get those ...

The above is a screenshot from my old online journal. It's funny how far I've come. March 20, 2008 (next Thursday) is my two-year "anniversary" of formal distance training. I'm hoping my total (estimated) mileage will hit 1500 by then, which would average to 750 a year. That's not high, but at the same time, I took quite a few lengthy breaks/slow periods during these past few years.

On the evening before LA Marathon , my sister asked me for possible songs to download. So I went onto my iPod Nano 2G and went to the section that contains the song titles. Upon scrolling a bit, I noticed a pattern, or should I say, progression... (click the picture for a closer look)

EVENT : BBR - Bench, Bike, Run DATE : Friday, March 7, 2008 LOCATION : Irvine, CA START TIME : 12:30 pm FINISH TIME : ? I think Nobel4Lit covers almost all the races that we do together so this will be my first race post since she is not doing this race. Mainly because this is a work place event and we work at different places. Well, this event is not really an official race but something that people at my company put together each year for fun. It is not company sponsor, just a friendly little race among coworkers. This is the third year this event has been going on at my work. Normally held during the month of March. The rules are that all male competitors can bench their body weight, 30 secs head start time for each rep. completed for the bike and run portion. No limit on how many reps you can bench for the men. For the first time, this event has a female category. In the past, all females had an automatic head start. I can't remember how much. This year all female competitors m...

At every race expo, these Power Crunch guys come out with their wafer-like energy bars cut up in small pieces for sampling. They even give you two full-sized bars to take home. I am not a big fan of these bars, but Tea Time is, and maybe she can write a review of them. However, these folks also have a "choklat" bar that is pretty darn good. They were giving them out after the LA Marathon , and although I would have eaten anything at the finish line, this even tasted good the next day. It's like eating a huge, thick Crunch Bar, except it has 10 grams of whey protein per serving. I believe the bar has 2 servings, making it about a 440 calorie bar. It even rips off in pieces the way other chocolate bars do. Choklat Crunch comes in Milk Chocolate and Dark Chocolate flavors.

I have noticed that ever since I took the plunge and became a "runner," I've been popping so many more pills than before. One of these pills is L-glutamine, which is a naturally-occuring amino acid in the body that is sapped after something grueling like extended periods of heavy weight-lifting or... running. Tea Time convinced us to take two of these after some of the longer long runs during my marathon training. The first time was after an 18-miler . The next day, I walked around Downtown LA during lunchtime without the normal amount of stiffness and soreness. I was convinced. So my pill-popping routine after the marathon was 2 after the race, 2 before bed, 2 the next morning, and 2 the next evening. By the day after "the day after," my body had almost forgotten that it had just endured a marathon! I am so impressed by the recovery so far. Even the huge chafing that I got has basically scabbed and fallen off by now, though I don't think the pills are to cr...

What I Say Now: Okay, so I have relied on these as a substitute for gel for this past training season (on runs more than 15 miles). I simply get very hungry and need some sustenance after running for more than two hours, and hydration can only get you so far. I have grown to love the Strawberry and CranRazz flavors of these bloks. They also come in Margarita, Orange, and a few others that I haven't tried. Like gels, you definitely need water to wash them down, though. What I Said Then (10/16/06): I had a sample of this lying around for probably longer than acceptable and ate it about an hour before a long run. I don't know if it did anything, but I think I received a nice spurt of early energy. They have a strange texture sort of like a huge gummy bear but are otherwise good eaten over an extended period of time with lots of water. I personally would not eat them while running, at least not before lots of practice.

Hitting the wall. We've all been there. In the simplest terms it is about "running out of energy". In complicated terms, there are lots of mental and physical aspects to it. I was talking to Nobel4Lit the other day on our car ride home after running the LA Marathon and the topic of hitting the wall came up. I guess this topic is very popular post-marathon running. Nobel4Lit commented that despite doing everything she knew to prevent hitting this imaginery wall, somehow she ended up doing just that. I was lucky this year that this did not hit me as hard. So I decided to look more into this. Have you ever found yourself feeling like this at the start of a marathon and then suddenly you find yourself feeling like this , and then slowly but surely you . So what can be done to lessen the chance of hitting the wall? There are so many articles out there saying so many different things about wall-hitting prevention. But there are a couple of main ideas that stand out. These are ...

EVENT : Los Angeles Marathon XXIII DATE : Sunday, March 2, 2008 LOCATION : Hollywood / Los Angeles, CA RACE BEGAN : 8:15 am FINISH TIME : 04:50:24 Let me start off by saying that although I've done this race before , I was still very excited about it. I don't think there is anything else quite like training for and running a marathon. Three of my sisters and I did this race this year, the older three having done it at least once before and the younger one's first time. After we returned from the Expo on Saturday, we decided to buy these $1 bunny ears and wear them to the race. (4 for us and 1 for my 10-year-old sister who we decided is too young to do this yet... hi, Kwi!!). Getting to the race took a while because we needed to cross the street to get to the subway, and the bike tour was cutting through our path. We had to dash across when we finally saw a gap in the riders. Whew! We got to the start at about 7:45 am. I spotted a fellow volunteer from our group who was runn...