My Karmic Debt to Lance Armstrong

In 2005, Lance Armstrong announced that he would try for a 7th Tour de France.  He had won a 6th and implied that was his last.   And then came this announcement.

We took this picture of Lance on our trip

In the spring when the announcement was made, Husband and I were both working for tech companies, and Husband had decided to start grad school in the fall.  I had never been to France.  We were cycling then (because we didn't have kids) and loved watching le Tour at home on TV.

One thing you should know about me is that I'm not spontaneous.  I'm a certified project manager.  I like to budget for things and plan.  So, when I heard the news, my immediate thought was, "We are SO going!"  and this was not like me at all.

Husband at the Col du Solour

We weren't budgeting for a fancy trip to France!  I decided this was not a problem.  I was traveling a lot for my job, so I could get us plane tickets using miles. I had previously worked for a tech company that had gone public.  I had bought out all my vested shares 4 years earlier and as the company wasn't public at the time, I thought I would never see that money again.  And while it wasn't a lot, because I had joined the company so early, it was a 400% return on what I originally spent.  We could cash out and still have an emergency reserve while Husband was in graduate school.

We were about to go down to one income.  We owned a house.  Going to France was a ridiculous decision.

It was the best trip I ever had.

We flew into Paris, took a train to Lourdes, rented a car, and drove across France. We stayed in 5 cities and 6 hotels.  We saw a mountain stage, a start, a finish, the time trial, and the famous final loop at the Champs-Elysee.

I was so sad to come home.  France was wonderful.

Husband went to grad school and everything was fine.

And a few months after I sold all of my stock, the stock was delisted.

At the Champs-Elysee

So, thanks to Lance Armstrong, I had a wonderful trip and cashed out at the right time.  As a result, I feel I owe him a karmic debt, and try to raise money or participate in Livestrong events when I can.

So, I've decided to run the Austin Half Marathon in Feb 2011 as my next event and raise money for the Livestrong Foundation!  I'm obligated to raise $500, but I'm aiming for $1000!   The Livestrong foundation provides support to guide people to through the cancer experience, bring them together to fight cancer, and work for a world in which our fight is no longer necessary.  I hope that you'll support me while I train for my next event!

Running: So what's next?

So while I was still training for the Nike Half, my husband started talking to me about doing a winter half marathon.  Training in the summer was HORRIBLE, but now that I'm in shape to do a half, maintaining it hopefully won't be that hard through the nicer winter months.

Like most people, my life has been touched with friends and loved ones having cancer.  I've raised money for the American Cancer Society (which is a FANTASTIC organization), and had a wonderful time doing it.  There are two half marathons in the winter in Austin that people generally do -- 3M or 1/2 of the Austin Marathon.  The Austin Marathon is now the LIVESTRONG Marathon, and I have a karmic debt to Lance Armstong we'll talk about later, and so the decision was made!  I'm raising money for the Lance Armstrong Foundation and running the Austin Half Marathon!

I had a hard time finding a training plan to do one half marathon and then another a few months later, so I wanted to share what my plan is!

When I started training for the Nike race, I used the FIRST training plan and combined the training plan I found on the Runner's World website with the one I found in their book, which I read about in Runner's World some time back.   I was really intrigued by it as it preached only running 3 days a week (and cross training on the other days.)

I ran into two problems with the plan:

1)  I couldn't do a lot of the prescribed mid week work before actually leaving for work.  I'm so slow, and running 5 miles before I leave for work would take an hour, meaning I'd have to leave my house before 6 am, which just wasn't going to happen.  I ended up modifying the plan so I would just run 30-45 minutes (whatever actual time I had) as fast as I could one day and then did speedwork the other day, sort of following the plan in the book, but doing whatever I could in whatever time I actually had.

2)  There was a lot of long run hard weeks back to back which I found really tiring in the Texas heat as well.  I was getting really burned out mentally and having a hard time getting motivated to run so far so often.

I remembered reading about some other plan in Runner's World where you did long runs every other week (and I had done a similar plan years ago), so I found this Jeff Galloway plan, and did long run final weeks of that, basically doing a long run one week, 4 miles the next week, long run the week after, and so on.  It gave me a mental break every other week which I really needed.  (I didn't do the walking method Galloway prescribes, but I used it when I ran the whole marathon, and it is good.)  I continued to only run two other days a week doing speedwork and hard short runs.

So, what is my new plan?

I took weeks 11-17 of the Galloway plan and working backwards on a calendar, put those long runs as a ramp up to the race.  So, I'll use the same plan to run 14 miles or so two weeks before the half.  Until I get to that 7 week stretch (starting January 7), I'm going to run 8 miles long one weekend, 4 miles the next, 10 miles the weekend after that, and 4 miles the next; repeat!  Since 9 miles is my sticking point, I'll have a run to push past that point once a month.

We'll see how it goes!

Running: NWM 1/2 Marathon!

After several years of waiting, I finally hopped on a plane with my husband (kids stayed at our house with grandmas) and headed to San Francisco for the Nike Women's Half Marathon!

We landed on Friday and headed to the Expotique to get my race bib and goodies (bag, cowbell, samples, coupons).  Saturday we wandered around the city (Husband had never been there, I had been there once for work) and got to bed early for the big race on Sunday!

I slept terribly on Saturday night.  I had a nightmare that I had missed my alarm and couldn't find the start line.  I woke up (it was 3:30am Pacific -- 5:30am Central, and my usual wake up time) and set my alarm for even earlier (my husband had also set several alarms.)  I fell back asleep to only then dream that I had missed the finish time.

This was an actual real fear of mine.  If you run the marathon, there's a 6.5 hour time limit, or 14 min/mile pace you have to keep up.  Don't keep up and they'll throw you in a car and take you to the finish line.  The FAQ on the race website wasn't particularly clear about the half marathon, and I had inspired myself to run even faster than my normal training pace in my last long run (14 miles) by having the Nike + GPS lady tell me my pace every mile and thinking "TIFFANY NECKLACE" every time it was over 14 min/mile.  (Yes, I'm very slow.  Also, it's very hot in Texas.)

So, race morning.  I woke up early, ate my usual pre-run breakfast of granola bars, Diet Dr. Pepper (stop judging me), and Claritin, packed my race belt with Gu and water and took off to walk the block to the start line (thank you Priceline!)  Husband gave me a kiss and dashed to the spectator buses -- he could catch a bus to see me at miles 4, 9, and the finish.  We agreed in advance that I'd see him at 4, around 11 (since the 11 mile marker and finish line were actually near each other) and then at the finish.  

The start line energy was fantastic.  I may have actually cried a little bit during the national anthem.  Then they started Beyonce's "Run the World (Girls)" and 12 minutes later I crossed the start line along with 20,000 other women and 2,000 extremely smart men!

It wasn't too cold in San Fran and though I started off in a shirt, shorts, ear covers, and jacket, I took the jacket and ear covers off about .5 mile in.  I also took off fast!  The first two miles were all downhill and I was trucking away!  My realistic goal for the race was to run it in 3 hours flat, and my stretch goal was to run it in 2:45.  I needed to average a little under a 14 min mile to accomplish that, and my first three miles average pace was 12:45 -- way too fast for me.  I ran through downtown and to to the wharf area that Husband and I had explored the day before.

If you've never run a race like this, it's just so energizing.  People cheering, everyone around you running and encouraging you to run, being handed water and goodies along the way.  It's an uplifting experience and it's hard not to get caught up in the momentum!

My usual strategy for races like this is to walk up any steep uphill -- there's a point of diminishing returns when running uphill where walking is faster and expends less energy.  The first hill appeared around mile 3 and I walked it, as most everyone around me also did.

View of bridge at top of big hill

At the top of the hill, many people stopped and took pictures.  There were actually volunteers there to take your picture for you if you wished.  I thought this was ridiculous.  I was serious about my (very slow) time goal!  I'm not going to stop and take a picture!  Wait!  Check out that view!  I'm totally taking a picture!  And I'm going to upload it to Facebook too!  While I'm running!  (I also managed to accidentally end my workout on my Nike+ GPS app so I had to restart it and be sad about the fact that my Nike+ history would show TWO workouts and not correctly capture my half marathon PR.  Stupid technology!)

I ran past the four mile marker cheering station and did not see my husband.  So I called him.  He didn't answer.  I ran along and saw him a little while past that and handed him my jacket and ear covers.  And off I kept going!

Golden Gate Bridge

Around mile 6, there was another good view of the Golden Gate bridge, so I took a picture of that too.

When you run a marathon, mile 18 is called "the wall" because more people quit at mile 18 than any other point.  I don't know if the half has an equivalent, but for me it's mile 9.   At the 9 mile mark during my 14 mile run two weeks before the race, I was mentally done.  I wanted to quit.  Fortunately, I was three miles away from my car and the fastest way to get there was to run.  And if I'm going to run three miles, I might as well finish the run!  So, I took a little walk break, drank some water, and carried on!  

Ocean

During the half marathon, mile 9 was the start of another freaking hill.  I don't know if you are aware of this, but San Francisco is hilly.  Central Texas is not.  Texas is hot, and in my mind I was hoping that might equal out for me on race day.  Somewhere around mile 8 or 9, the aid station passed out orange slices which helped me think refreshing thoughts.  Kaiser Permanente sponsored a mile and had signs that listed reasons for running (1.  The Necklace.)  I powered through my hard points and carried on through.  I also got to see the ocean, and took its picture.

Husband caught up with me not long after.  I handed him my race belt so I would look cuter in the finisher pictures.  (Listen.  I trained REALLY HARD for this race and travelled REALLY FAR to run it.  I'm TOTALLY taking a cute picture at the finish line!)

Safeway sponsored a mile between 10 and 11 and had signs on the road that said things like, "Safeway knows you can do this. . . . we know how you didn't sleep in all those mornings," which made me a little teary because I really, really love sleeping in.  Around mile 11, before the start of a really big hill, they had another sign which said that Safeway know you could do this because you already went over the biggest hill.  Which wasn't as comforting, really.

Throughout the race, I saw many funny signs held by spectators or attached to runners:

• I love Sunday football, but I love running with 20,000 women more
• Run like you are late for a shoe sale!
• Worst.  Parade.  Ever.
• Less sign reading, more running!

When I got to mile 11, I got SO EXCITED!  I was only TWO POINT ONE miles away from the finish.  I began running faster!  And I couldn't believe people around me weren't running faster too!  Didn't they know we were almost there?!   Near mile 12, the full marathoners split off and I thanked Baby Jesus that I was only doing the half marathon.  Ghirardelli had a chocolate station at mile 12, so I slowed down to eat a piece, and then picked up the pace!

Trucking towards the finish line, I put on Lady Gaga's "Edge of Glory" and pushed myself to the finish!  With a tenth of a mile left, my freaking iPhone battery ran out!   Annoyed, I removed my earphones from my ears, turned the corner, saw the finish line and ran like a crazy woman pretending to  hear Lady Gaga in my ears!

I crossed over the finish line all smiley.  I received my Tiffany necklace presented to me by a fireman in a tuxedo, but sadly couldn't take any pictures of the moment due to my stupid dead iPhone 3GS.  I walked towards the herd of people and received a finisher's t-shirt, bag to carry my stuff in, water, bagel, and thermal blanket.

I then realized that I had no idea where my husband was and couldn't call him.  A random San Francisco woman lent me her phone and saved the day!

I got to sit down, which was amazing, and opened my new necklace!

All in all, this was an excellent race -- the scenery was gorgeous, water and aid stations were many and plentiful, and the spectators and runners were gleeful and fun to be with!  Also, did I mention there was a Tiffany necklace at the finish line?  I'm totally spoiled now!  My finish time was 3:02, but I figure that the extra two minutes over my goal to take pictures and eat chocolate was time well spent!

Do this: Get the Nike+ GPS App while it's free

The Nike+ GPS iPhone application that I have blogged about is free in the iTunes app store for a limited time.

Nike+ is celebrating its fifth anniversary.  The other day I had a problem with the GPS app -- it lost me.  (This is the first time that has happened to me.)  So, when it updated my Facebook feed for me (automatically) I was sure to add that even though it said I ran 5 miles, I really ran 6.

Which got me thinking about pre-Nike+ technology.  When I trained for the marathon in 1999, if I needed to run 6 miles, I'd drive 20 minutes to go to Lady Bird Lake and run probably a 4 mile loop, then to the 1 mile marker and back.  (At the time there wasn't a 3 mile loop.)   With this app, I just walk out my front door and run until it tells me to stop.  It's extremely freeing, and such a time saver now that I have even less time in my life.

So, go download it now while it's still free!

Running: Diva Dash

So quick announcement before I tell you about the Diva Dash:  I got selected for the Nike Women's Half Marathon!  I'll be in San Francisco on Oct 16 running 13.1!  Yay!!!!!

So, after my running posts you might think I'm athletic.  Ha.

In 1999, I saw a poster for USA Fit.  It said, "Run a marathon.  Change your life."  And I thought, "Okay."  So I signed up for the training, and 6 months later, ran a marathon.  It turns out that if you run a whole bunch really far, running a marathon is not that hard.  Just very time consuming.

Every Saturday after my long run, I would call my mom and introduce myself:  "This is your daughter, the athlete."  And then we would laugh.  I actually managed to graduate from high school having not taken any physical education classes due to the fact that I left high school early to go to college (we'll talk about that some other time.)  In college, I took a semester of step aerobics and that was it.  I always swam and in college, I ran and lifted weights to stay in shape, but athlete--that's not me.

So a marathon and probably 10 triathlons later, I still wouldn't classify myself as an athlete.  I'm a very very slow runner.  I can run forever, but very slowly.   My marathon group called ourselves the calendar group because we were so slow we should be timed by a calendar and not by a clock.  I like training for races and events because I work out harder when I have a goal that isn't just "lose weight", so I keep doing them to keep myself motivated.  I have actually been last in a race (it was a 12 mile race, but I was still last.)

So when I got an email about the Diva Dash, a 5K with 6 surprise obstacles, I was hesitant.  Then one of my friends posted on Facebook that she was going to do it.  Since the Dash was scheduled two weeks after the Capitol 10k, I knew I would be in shape for it, but can my klutzy self REALLY do a 5K with obstacles?

I signed up.  And in the days before the event, I really wondered what the hell I was thinking.  There was 0 information about what the obstacles would be.  It was also at the site of the majority of the triathlons I did, a course which I've puked on at least once, if not twice, so that was already a bad sign.

So, kids and Husband in tow, off I went on the appointed morning and started running.  My start time was 10am, which was already pretty hot.  Not sure what was expected on the race, and having watched many episodes of Wipeout, I took off without water, my iPhone, or even sunglasses.  Huge mistake, as it was freaking hot with no shade on the course--oh, and no water until the race was almost complete.  (It's Texas!  It was 80 degrees!  What were they thinking?!)

First obstacle:  a tight-rope bridge.  I managed to walk over it without falling off.  Yay me!

Second obstacle:  a maze.  A maze you had to duck under to go through that wasn't very hard, plus you could stand up and see where to go.  This obstacle was back near the spectator area, so I got to see Husband and the kids.  The little one was asleep and missed the whole race, including the finish.

Third obstacle:  Huh.  I honestly don't remember.  Clearly not very exciting.

Fourth obstacle:  This rope thing that I crawled through.  Later, watching a news video, I realized we were supposed to go over the obstacle and not through.

Fifth obstacle:  Tires to run through like they do in football drills, except they were giant inner tubes.  I walked from one to another, trying not to sprain an ankle.

Final obstacle:  7 water trampolines tied together to make a bridge on the lake.  I saw several women jump from one to another standing and almost fall into the lake.  Other women tried to crawl from one to another and the trampolines separated.  I opted to belly flop from one to another, which had the added benefit of keeping me cool as the water trampolines were surprisingly wet.  Wipeout would have been proud.

And off to the finish gate I went, completing all obstacles and not injuring myself!  My daughter decided to join me for the finish line, after she made me stop and pick a flower:

A Love Letter to Nike Women's Marathon

Dear Nike Women's Marathon (sometimes known as NWM),

I have desired you from afar for many years.  Many, many years.

In 2007, I didn't register for the random drawing for the registration because I heard of the cool experience of the marathon too late.  But, you decided to have a VIRTUAL half marathon and I could run anywhere I wanted (like around my neighborhood) and sync up my run and get a Tiffany keychain!  It wasn't a half marathon in San Francisco with a fireman giving me a Tiffany necklace at the finish line, but it was something! So, I trained and trained and trained, and with a busy job and a one year old this was no small feat.  And I 10.21.07 I was trained and ready.

Then, tragedy struck.  I woke up the morning of October 21, 2007 with bronchitis.  Still determined to run I sat in my steamy bathroom for an hour hoping to cough up enough stuff to feel better.  My husband, completely freaked out that I was going to try to run with a fever and a hacking up a lung, promised to go to Tiffany's immediately and buy a keychain.*  I went to bed and didn't run.

In 2008, I completely missed the random drawing deadlines because I was just so busy as work.  I felt so stupid for missing it, but you came through for me again with ANOTHER VIRTUAL MARATHON!  I trained and trained and trained!

Then, tragedy struck.  On July 20, 2008 after a 6 miles training run, I fell on the sidewalk, ironically, in front of the Austin Children's Museum, but while holding my 2 year old daughter.  While trying to protect her in the fall, I broke both my arm and foot.  I would not be able to run the virtual marathon, and I was unable to run again until November.

In 2009, I finally got my act together and registered for the random drawing!  But you didn't pick me and there was no sign of a virtual marathon.  So, I got pregnant instead!

And then you emailed me this on September 25, 2009:

Congratulations!  As a thank you and reward for training with your Nike+ system, we would like to invite you and a friend to register for this year’s SOLD OUT Nike Women’s Marathonin San Francisco on Sunday, October 18, 2009!

Five months pregnant and completely untrained for a Half Marathon, I declined your late offer.

In March of 2010, I had a baby.  And there was no way I was doing a half marathon in October.

And that brings us to now, 2011.   I have registered for your random drawing.  I wish to do your half marathon.  And all I can say is:

PLEASE PICK ME!

Love,
Cynthia


*This was apparently a lie.  He did not buy me a keychain.  I reminded him of this several years later and he bought me a Coach keychain.

Running: Capitol 10K

So I don't know if you know this, but I had a baby last year.  I've been running my booty butt off to get back in shape.  Running is the hardest thing in the world to me exercise wise.

My goal is to run a 1/2 marathon.  (We're going to talk about that later.)  But in order to run 13.1 miles, you first have to, you know, actually get out there and run somewhere.  So, in January I decided to run the Capitol 10K, which is practically 1/2 1/2 marathon.  Or a 1/4 marathon!

I ran and ran and ran around our neighborhood.  Sometimes I ran pushing both my kids in the Bob double jogging stroller  because I'm awesome like that.  I'm also a really slow runner, so this training is especially time consuming.

I was really excited when Nike came out with the Nike+ running system many years ago.  Simple concept: put a pod in (or on top of) your shoe, put a receiver on your Nano and it can give you voice feedback about your run.  Which means I no longer had to go to a track or trail where the mile markers were labeled in order to run a certain distance--I could walk out my front door and run for whatever distance I needed.  With kids and even less time in my life, this was wonderfully awesome.

In the last year, Nike has improved upon this even more by creating a GPS application for the iPhone (I always run with a phone in case of emergency or rain or just general boredom.)  No pod, no Nano -- just go!  And when my run starts, the app updates Facebook.  Anytime someone "likes" or comments on my run, the crowd goes wild in my ears!  The app updates the Nike + website, so I can tell you that I've run 273 miles since June 2007 (with hiatus for pregnancy, new baby, and two broken bones)

So, two weekends ago, I joined my new 23,000 friends also running the Cap 10 K and ran!  I ran a PR (that's personal record for you unschooled folks) for the 10K, which was awesome!

I had completely forgotten how much fun it is to run with other people in a race.  People hand you water.  Awesome.  When I run around my neighborhood, I have to run by my house to get more.

And there was a ton to look at.  The Cap 10 K is a big party with a costume contest.  I saw several princesses, Thing 1 and Thing 2, and some random group of rainbow body suited persons that stopped at mile markers to take pictures.  The course takes you around the state capitol and around to Town Lake, and is a great (but hilly) course.  In addition to my virtual fan club in my earphones, there were actual real people cheering me on throughout the course!  It was a ton of fun, and so it's no surprise that I ran faster than normal.

Technology has changed significantly since I last ran this race.  My pictures taken around the course also included a video of me crossing the finish line.  Very cool.

P.S.  If you are also on the Nike+ website, friend me!  I'm CynthiaB1