Big Island, Day 2

Half-Marathon Day!  First thing, you want to know how we did:

Amanda

2:34:32, 11:48 pace

131 out of 170 total

71 out of 93 females 

11 out of 17 20-29 year old females

This means that I got beat by a who bunch of old ladies.  I was feeling pretty good about my time until I realized that.  I also got beat badly by a PREGNANT lady who was probably like 6 months along.  My first thought is, "good for her! Staying active while pregnant!" Then my second thought is, "geez lady, you're making the rest of us look bad for sitting on the couch for 9 months."

Tyler

2:35:46, 11:54 pace

135 out of 170 total

62 out of 77 males

11 of 13 31-39 year old males

This means that I beat Tyler.  I have mixed feelings about this.  I often complain that Tyler is just in shape.  He doesn't have to work out, he doesn't have to watch what he eats- he's not skinny because he doesn't eat... trust me, we'll buy ice cream, and I'll have my one bowl a week, and then the next week, when I want to have another one, the HALF GALLON will be gone.  He plays soccer just fine when he hasn't run at all since last soccer season... last year.  He can lift heavy things, go up and over the fence in our backyard like it's nothing, and he's really tall... just to spite me.

So, I'm really glad that I beat him, but I'm really annoyed that it took me 5 months of dedicated training in order to be just barely faster than what he can do when he just rolls out of bed.

However, Tyler was really sore afterward, and kind of cranky about it.  All he wanted to do was sleep all afternoon but we'd already checked out of the B&B.  Thanks to all that training, I ate a banana and then was fine.

I tried to find us a beach to relax on for the rest of the afternoon until our flight to Oahu that evening.  We got lost for a bit and found this park with this huge banyan tree.  I was smiling and smiling for this picture, and Tyler was taking forever trying to get the whole tree in the shot.  As soon as I stopped smiling to ask what the heck he was doing, he took the picture.

We couldn't find the beach we wanted, (in fact, I'm fairly sure the big island is a little short on so-called beaches.  I didn't see a speck of sand the whole time we were there.  Maybe they're over by Kona?) so we decided to go to an ocean pool.  It said that it was heated with geothermal energy from the volcanoes, which sounded neat.  Plus, it was a pretty drive to get out there.

Turns out an ocean pool looks like this.  It had sides and a bottom that were concrete, but it opened to the ocean at the top.  I braced myself for the stinging salt water because I was all chaffed from the run, and aside from that I thought it was quite pleasant and warm.

Tyler... remember how I said he was cranky?  He didn't want to get in, I told him I felt lame swimming around by myself, so he got in and sulked.  He complained that the fish were nipping at his legs, but I think he just got spooked by this sign.  He got out, I floated around for a while, we tried to nap on the grass, but I wasn't tired and there was a birthday party with screeching children nearby.  We showered at the spigot and headed out to the airport.

May 10: First attempt at 9 miles.  1:54:11.  Only made it home because Tyler was going to be late for work.  Tired.  So tired.  Walked long stretches after I hit the 7.5-mile mark. Relied on water fountains dotting the route.

May 26: Second attempt.  2:04:09.  Brought my own water but run was slightly worse.  Wall came at 7 miles.  By the time I got home, I was limping slightly and had taken off my shoes, thinking it would make my feet hurt less.

June 7: Third attempt. 2:08:43.  So much better.  I didn't watch my calories yesterday and ate pasta for dinner last night.  I brought water, shot blocks and grapes.  Only walked up one hill, a little bit half-way through as I was fishing the shot blocks out of my backpack, and once when Tyler called to ask where I had hidden the HSA card that I told him I would give him before I left but didn't.  I had to take a bathroom break around 7 miles, but the park is right on my route.  My feet didn't hurt, my legs were fine.  I reminded myself to pick up my feet to increase my speed, but it seems it didn't work.

Why am I getting slower?

I hate my computer, but I like to run

Almost 2 years old

It wasn't until after I uploaded this picture that I realized that I'm signed in as Tyler.  I don't want to have to sign out and sign back in as me and then re-upload the picture because my computer is SO slow.  No joke, it took me a solid hour to turn on the computer, download the pictures from the camera, delete a bizarro program that must have downloaded itself the last time I updated some software, and then upload this picture.  We have an iPad, which I use for reading blogs and futzing on facebook, but it's not so great for blogging.  Our desktop is the one Tyler bought for school when he got home from his mission... like 8 years ago.  I'm fairly sure that it is no older than the computers we use at the hospital, yet somehow those are so much faster.  Maybe I need to run one of those "make my computer faster" programs that I see advertised on TV.  Or ask someone who knows more about computers than me to do it.

I need to be better at blogging because, oddly enough, my life isn't documenting itself.

Here is a list of blog posts I want to write:

1. The spider in the tub
2. Ethan playing with markers
3. The awesome summertime workbooks I made for the kids and how they make me feel like a supermom
4. Nora using the camera
5. Mountain biking
6. Trip to Utah
7. The 20 hats my friend sent us
8. Nora dresses herself, and it shows.

This post will be about running, from now on.

I swam a lot in my formative years.  I wasn't fast.  I kind of hated it.  But, I kind of loved it at the same time. Once I had Lillian, I switched to running, because you can't tow a baby behind you in the pool.  I ran with varying degrees of consistency between pregnancies until January of this year.  In December, I was watching TV and saw one thousand commercials for weight loss programs.  A common comment from the users of these products was that they are in better shape now than they were when they were in their 20's.  I'm getting ready to be done with my 20's, and I don't feel like I've been in very good shape during this decade between birthing 3 babies and eating a lot of cookies and brownies to cope with birthing 3 babies.  If everything is downhill from here, I wanted to start up a little higher on the fitness grading scale.  On a whim, I chose to train for a half-marathon.

I got a book called Marathon and Half-Marathon: A Beginners Guide from the library and started following the training schedule.

Around the end of March, I read:

and number 1- word vomited all over any one who would listen about it because I thought it was SO interesting, and number 2- changed my running gait which was slow and painful and hard on my muscles, but in a hurt-so-good kind of way.

I also started being frustrated that I wasn't getting any smaller.  It's fine that the scale wasn't budging because maybe I was building muscle, but I had been running 3 times a week for 3 solid months, and my clothes fit exactly the same.  And I gained a pound which was maddening because, as my sister said, "Look, I know lots more fun ways to gain weight that require a lot less work."  So, I started cutting calories.

About 4 weeks ago, I was scheduled to run 9 miles.  I had run 8 miles before and thought it would be the same deal, just one more mile.  No go.  Literally.  I ran about 7.5 and then my feet quit.  It was the weirdest thing to me: I wasn't exhausted, I was mentally fine, my lungs were working, my heart wasn't tired, my body didn't hurt.  My feet just had no more go in them.  I forced myself home because Tyler was going to be late for work.

I decided to repeat the last 2 weeks of my training schedule- maybe I had gone up in miles too fast, and what with changing running style half-way through...

Same deal- my legs quit at about 7.5 miles or about 1.5 hours of running.  I couldn't consult my training book because I had to take it back to the library a long time ago, so I asked people I know who run.  (Keep in mind that I used to swim for 2 hours ALL THE TIME with no problems.)

Here's a sample conversation:

Runner: OK, what do you eat before you run?  Me: Oatmeal, or a Cliff bar.  Runner: What do you eat during your run? Me: ummmm... air?

Things I didn't know about running long distances that I've learned in the past week or so:

1. You cannot eat only 1200 calories the day before a long run and expect to finish.
2. You should eat something every hour during running.
3. You should bring water with you when you run and not just drink from the water fountains dotting your route.

I haven't attempted another long run since I've gained all this new knowledge, but I'll let you know if it works.

Turkey Trot

On Thanksgiving, we participated in the 17th annual Thanksgiving 5K at Reid Park.

Tyler's game face. That kid in the elf outfit actually placed 5th or 6th out of all the men. Quick little guys, those elves.

It was promoted as a "European-style" 5K with obstacles, which is why we decided to do it. But this water feature/hay bale combo is 3 hay bales short of the sum total of all the obstacles. Tyler is behind that guy in the white shirt.

Hey Elizabeth. Sure, come visit us for Thanksgiving. While you're here, surprise! You can wake up at 6 to watch our kids while we go running. And it will probably be something like 40˚ outside, so bring a jacket.

The girls were such pansies when it came to jumping these pools. I'm in the middle looking decidedly uncool. They were all of 3 cm deep but everyone wanted to run around them, so there was a traffic jam on both laps. Come on ladies, live a little.

Tyler got 29:00 and I got 37:17. I would have been faster except I got a wicked cramp around mile 2 and had to walk it off.